With a "Can do Korea" Attitude...

My word, it happened. Gadzuks, golly gee, and who'd a thunk it. For anyone in the dark this is the first time I've left the coterminous United States (and while I've visited most of those, something I recommend, this trip outside of them was long over due). I departed from Logan around 8:40 AM, the only major confusion being my misunderstanding about what constitutes a boarding pass for an e-ticket and how to get the smears from my danish off of that boarding pass. Clearly I prevailed. Six hours later came San Fran for about an hour and a half, an airport I considered to be sizeable up until I reached Incheon Airport another 13 hours or so later. The 777 from Frisco to Incheon was much more comfortable and luxurious than the 757 outta Logan, but the majority of the time on both flights was passed with Nabokov's "Lolita". Between leaving my country for the first time and finally reading a book I'd always said I'd get to, I felt a rather pleasing sense of accomplishment. This man had pep in his step. That and I was wearing a suit jacket (easier than packing it), so I was the cat's pajamas the whole way.

First impressions upon leaving the 777: the boarding ramp was immaculate and panneled with windows, beating the pants off of the felt and steel tunnels I'd passed through at Logan and Frisco. A few feet out of the boarding ramp I met what I considered the official ambassador of South Korea: airport officials driving somewhere in a golf cart like buggy that had a cartoon puppy over a rainbow with the slogan "We love you!". I believed them immediately.

It took only forty minutes to process through immigration and the baggage claim and another second to spot my brother. It's true, here, in a crowd, we're one of the easiest "Where's Waldo"'s you could ever imagine. He came accompanied by his girlfriend SunHee and after exchanging my currency at about a 914 won to 1 dollar ratio we got on a bus heading for Ansan, where they both live. I kid you not, at a straight shot it took at least fifteen to twenty minutes to actually move from international flights to domestic flights at Incheon. In California, a four minute shuttle ride sufficed. The bus ride was another two hours, seemingly light speed at this point, and on top of lots of joking, "I can't believe it"'s, and introductory discussion, I was privy to some great views of what has become one of my favorite features of South Korea: the cloud banks of neon. Main drags in cities here are coated in the most striking and inviting displays of neon signs and imagery. These neon riots declare a bevy of establishments and services, my favorite thus far being the Ginjaban (gin-juh-bahn).

Now, I'm not sure that I got that word correct, but it means "bathhouse". I have quickly learned to spot the pictographic symbol for this (a crescent turned to be a bowl with three wavy steam lines coming out) and how to read "sauna" phonetically in Korean. I can assure you that after my first visit in Junon (unsure of this cities correct name, but that is the sound I recall) to a Ginjaban I am attempting to make up for the lack of bathhouses in my upbringing. I stand like a parrot mimicking away for its cracker, saying "Gin-juh-bahn" and extending out won. You go naked in water areas, these are gender separate, and then mix with everyone else when you don your Ginjaban's official t-shirt and shorts and go away from the water. Often 24hrs, these bathhouses have hot and cold pools/tubs, saunas, showers, refreshments, water spigots, massage areas, barbers, hot and cold communal rooms, sleeping chambers (communal and non), salt rooms, gyms, open spaces, and so forth. The one today, located locally in Ansan, also had a tea tub. This was a hot tub containing a large bag of tea, creating a nearly grass green water that smelled wonderful. There were also bags of some plum smelling matter hanging about the entire Ginjaban. I do like plums. This particular bathhouse was not as impressive or stylish as the one in Junon, but as part of a hotel it had many more guests present at it for the midday hour at which my brother and I went. One guest, a young boy, tried to wash my tattoos off while I was in the cold tub. He made a face of shock and then one of glee when he found that they couldn't be washed off. As a rather bold fellow he followed us around and would splash us or dribble water from a towel onto us, but mainly he just wanted to be near. I've been told tattoos can denote gang membership here, but if this child thought this I cannot say. Either he loves gangs and their members equally or he finds gigantic, ambling, tattooed Westerners to be an absolute hoot. The only upsetting thing about the experience was that my brother and I had both just finished reading "Lolita" and Humbert Humbert does not leave the mind of a reader easily. So, Nabokov helped to aggitate us a little, but with love for the book and steam surrounding me at 90 degrees I managed to let go and accomplish the objective: relaxation. Junon's Ginjaban is still top on my list, it was very stylish and well laid out. Though they all tend to have the same basic services with similar layouts so far. Each has been roughly 7 bucks and refreshments are extra.

Okay, this has become the post about Ginjabans. I imagine we were all expecting something in some semblance of chronological order. Maybe not, I know I had all the good intentions of doing so. After all, there was a "Day 1" and there remains a "Day 2" through "Day 4". In fact, "Day 5" is beginning as I sit in this PC Bang (a 24hr computer cafe where 1 hour costs about a dollar). Yet this post is pretty large and the original version of it was deleted, so I think I'll finish up and write more soon. Detail more events, magic, and old ladies shoving me out of the ticket line at the train station; judge her not, I had received my ticket and had yet to learn how to instantly trigger my feet when my fingers grasp the ticket's paper. Why, we'll all sit in rapture as I tell of the two wine merchants found a top a mountain and their ensuing feasts. And what of eating out in Seoul? Will our protagonist ever stop loving Kimchi? Is Juk good for breakfast? Tune in again to find out just what this new world traveler is up to when maybe he could have gone to Vegas or New York instead but after seeing "Sex in the City" determined that the "Annie Hall" sensibility of things might just be another "dead shark".

Oh, with my love and joy,

-Nick