After hearing about a very nice workout pool, visiting the pool with pastor, and finding out that it is just across the street from my apartment, I was thrilled to go! I greatly wanted to take the opportunity that I had, the God-given blessing, to experience something from home.
My friend and roommate Heidi and I decided to go for a swim. We walked into the building, struggled to communicate our request, paid the 3,00won (about $2.80), and tried to find our way to the pool. We knew we needed to go down a floor or two; Heidi managed to read the Hangul and we chose the right floor. You see when Pastor took us we looked through a large window with the pool down below so we had to figure out the rest of the directions. We came out of the elevator, found the women’s locker room, thanks to the sign written in English, and walked inside.
We needed to take off our shoes upon entering the locker room. The thoughts running through my head and out of my mouth included “I’ve never done this before in a locker room,” “We usually wear sandals at all times,” “I could get foot fungus,” and “Now I have to take off my shoes?” I managed to move on and just roll with the cultural difference. As I walked in I realized that the floors were heated and they were very clean.
Next, we questioned if we should take our stuff out on the pool deck to just keep on the benches or if we should use lockers. In the states, I have grown up putting stuff out by the pool, hardly ever using a locker. So we decided to try walking out on the pool deck with all our stuff in hand. As we made our way toward what we thought was the pool door, we received numerous looks like “What are you doing?” We disregarded the looks and walked by them out onto the pool deck. As I stood there in my sweats, very quickly I felt like I was on stage with tons of people looking at me. The pool area was so big and I can’t count on 2 hands the number of stares I received.
We instantly knew we should put our stuff in lockers. We saw interesting locker keys around everyone’s ankle or wrist. Going back into the locker room we laughed and discussed how ridiculous we felt. I put my things in a locker, put the key around my ankle, and was ready to go. Oh not so fast. I was being talked to in Korean. I was trying to figure out what the lady was saying to me and I eventually figured out that she was telling me to shower. Soon after, another lady came and just said one word, “Shower.” I was laughing inside and we went to take a shower. It was time to head back out onto the pool deck, this time in swimsuits and caps.
One thing I noticed right away was something I had been told. Everyone wears a swim cap. It is required for men women. Hygiene is very important here. I liked the idea; it keeps the pool cleaner. On the pool deck, it was interesting being in an environment so familiar to me, yet so different. There were Koreans everywhere and the pool length was measured in meters, just to name a couple examples.
In the main pool all the lanes were filled with people so we decided to swim in the thigh deep lap pool. This pool is often used for children but we saw adults swimming laps. It was interesting working out in shallow water; no flip turns at that time. As I swam I felt like I was at home, in a completely comfortable environment. It was possible to forget that I am in Korea, that is, until I went above water. The water was very relaxing to me while at the same time I was so excited to be swimming laps.
Part of the reason that we ended up in the shallow pool was because there was swim team practice going on. This was not just any swim team. This was cute little kids swimming laps, practicing their strokes, listening to a coach. Wow, I missed coaching! I loved seeing the interactions. I wanted to be coaching!! I talked to some of the swimmers as a few jumped into my lane. One girl was talking fluent English; I was so impressed. Then she said, “I bet you wonder why I can speak such good English.” I said to her, “Yes I do; how?” She told me that she has grown up in Texas and is just visiting her home country for 6 months. I met her mom as well. I was so excited to be there!
It was so fun to speak English in this environment, and practice Korean, and I enjoyed meeting new people. Eventually I was able to move into the main pool to finish my work out. It was interesting to feel the length difference. After years of swimming I knew where the end of the pool was “supposed to be” but it wasn’t where it usually was. I had to swim further. I could feel the difference. I guess I just got a better workout!! Overall, the experience was challenging, humorous, exciting, and confusing! I truly enjoyed the differences between here and home. It was one of the craziest cultural experience yet! I will go back soon. :)
