Mr. Volle has returned to Korea!

Being in Korea with Adam is like walking around with a celebrity. The Koreans are unfailingly amazed and impressed with him: he speaks polite phrases in Korean (they smile, laugh and clap him on the back), he loves Korean food (they think he's being polite, but are pleased that he is polite), his favorite dish here is kimchi, the strong-smelling, fermented cabbage flavored with red, mouth-burning spices (their jaws drop, and their eyes pop as wide as Asian-ly possible), and he was in Korea for a whole year once before, and decided to return. It's usually at this point that they say, "Ha ha, ADAM - you ARE Korean!"

He even liked the jimjilbang (Korean sauna), and gamely submitted to scrubbing the back of one of his former bosses after going from hot tub to hot tub.

The teasing he received about this event has been rather merciless. :)

My affection for the Korean saunas runs much deeper than my husband's. I go every weekend. (This isn't really saying much, since I've only had one weekend so far to practice this habit). Here's why I love it:

• It's the only bathtub I have here
• and I love bathtubs because you can be totally completely WARM, and in wintertime, I find this luxury practically necessary
• nudity can be healthy! once I got past the initial awkwardness/embarrassment of being in a room full of Korean ladies with no clothes on (the men and women have separate sides), I began to reflect on why this was a good thing: mothers and daughters go to the sauna together, beginning at infant-hood, and so Korean girls grow up having a truthful concept of what the female body actually looks like. They know that all bodies are different, and that no one actually looks like the airbrushed models or actresses they see in the media. And the same goes for the boys accompanying their fathers, too.
  
• it's cheap - you can stay as long as you like for about $5-8. Massages, meals, snacks and other extras will cost a little more, but even going without all that, I can spend a good 2 hours lounging around in saunas and hot tubs and be very very happy.
• they provide you with little shirts and shorts to wear in the common area (men and women). Both Adam and I agree that the shorts (capri-length) in particular are pretty comfy.
• You could spend all day there and have e v e r ything you need. Yes, please!