Happy New Year everybody-I hope this year brings everybody's hopes and dreams to reality. This has been the most fun and most interesting new years eve and new years day that I have ever had! It started yesterday when my boss and her family took me to a spa. Spa's in Korea are different than spa's in america. You dont go for facials or massages or bady wraps, but rather it is a system of large swimming pools that have different temperature water and different stations with massage jets to massage different parts of your body. I did all the stations inside, then decided to swim in the lazy river which flowed outside. The water was really hot-but dont stand up or you might freeze! Then I met up with my boss and her husband and we went to the outdoor hot spring spa. It is similar to the indoor spa. After that I decided to try the egg spa. This is a room outside shaped like an egg with small tubs of hot spring water in varying degrees. I opted to stay in the warmest one which was a toasty 129.3 degrees. Unfortunately I stayed in there too long and got dizzy from the smell of the water, no food all day, and the heat. I went back outside and my swim cap started to get ice crystals on it. The handrail to go into the outdoor spa was alreadu frozen solid with icesickles hanging from it! I decided it was time to call it quits and went to get dressed and get a drink to cool my body and raise my sugar. An hour later my boss and her family called it quits. After we left the spa, they took me too a really nice buffet dinner at one of the five star resorts near by. Then we did my favorite korean pasttime-we went to the singing room and sang until midnight. I had no idea that after a few beers my boss's husband could be so entertaining!! Then we went home for a few hours. At four we got up and went to the beach to watch the sunrise. It is a 45 minute drive to the beach but there was so much traffic that it took us 4 hrs! It was so cold that as soon as the sun began to appear-we got back into the car and drove to a local 7/11 to get some rameon for breakfast! Because I was so cold and it was so hot-that was the best rameon I have ever had! Then we went to Dorothy's (my boss) parents house for lunch to celebrate the new year and her older brothers birthday. As soon as the whole family was there-the elders of the family (dorothy's parents) sat down on the floor. The rest of us-their children, in-laws, grandchildren and me-got down on our hands and knees and bowed before them to show our respect. We then sat down and her father called us one by one according to age and gave us each 5$ for showing our respects to them! I heard that this is a big money maker for kids because every adult they bow too is supposed to give them $5. I am glad they didnt bow to me because the only money I had was the $5 the elder Mr. Kim gave me! After the bowing, it was time for lunch! The children sat around one table on the floor, the women at another table in the kitchen, and the men at a table on the floor next to the children. Dorothy's father invited me to sit with him and the men. We had crab legs, dried shark, rice, kimchi, spicy cucumbers, seaweed soup, champagne, soju, and rice punch. Soju is korean whiskey. Rice punch is the water from boiled rice mixed with ALOT of sugar! The elder Mr. Kim put a newspaper over my legs so that I wouldnt get my clothes dirty and then each of the men took turns opening crab legs for me and serving my food and drinks. We then went seperate ways. The younger grandchildren( ages 10-15) went to play on the computer while the older grandchildren (ages 16-21) and I went for a walk downtown. The oldest granddaughter (her name is YouYoung) -who speaks the best english of all the grandkids came up to me and said "Katrina unnie we eye shopping go come you with?"-translation: "Older sister Katrina, we are going window shopping, would you like to come with us?" I went with them but was so tired because i had gone 30 hrs without sleep! So YouYoung took me back to the apartment and I went in Dorothy's parents room and slept for 4 hrs! I didnt feel so bad when I found out that all of the other adults did also! Then we woke up and came home!
