Stress washed away by Spa

View from my apartment window:

The rain continues to fall in Seattle but it still hasn't gotten to me. The rain is hard and seemingly not all that normal for the region based on the flooding. It has been pouring off and on throughout the week although it cleared up enough yesterday morning for a bike ride. I rode across the Fremont Bridge and ended up in East Lake, where I stopped to feed my blood sugar a bowl of Lentil soup and continued on back downtown. The rest of the afternoon was kind of stressful, with a few minor setbacks to be discussed at a later date. So today, I made good use of my Veteran's Day off from work:

Elly invited me to join her in a visit to a Korean Spa. I took the bus out to her house and off we went. As we got to the locker room, she said quietly, "I hope you're ready for lots of nudity." I had been in a locker with coworkers before, and had been kind of uncomfortable... "Hey, are you going to that meeting at 3:30?" ... "ummmm, yeah, hopefully you'll be wearing some clothes..." but this was OK. There were so many naked women in the spa room, it would have felt weird to be clothed.

All of us were given a pink and white striped cap to wear making it hard to tell one of us from the other from the shoulders up. I had mixed feelings as I soaked in the tubs. I felt lost in the anonymity, in the coven like atmosphere. The voices of many women echoing against the tile walls to an indiscernible hum. The robes they gave us made me feel like I was in the hospital, waiting for some procedure. I had this sick intangible memory of some image from the holocaust. And I mixed into it the feeling that we were old-time factory workers gossiping on the line. I also began to understand Courtnee's interest in drawing nudes. So many shapes and sizes.

Four tubs awaited us: one at 104 degrees, 97 degrees, 90 and 60 degrees. The hottest two were crowded but the groups shifted from one tub to another. Everyone seemed to have come with a friend or two. The eucalyptus steam sauna cloyed my lungs and put pressure on my chest. Elly had her scrubbing appointment first, so I explored the rest of the spa while she was occupied. I spent time in the charcoal room and the sand room (hot rooms with different materials built into the walls, each for a different cleansing purpose). And then some more soaking before my scrub.

If you have never experienced a Korean Body Scrub, you probably should, but be prepared, it's a lot of pleasure mixed with pain. You essentially lie there while a woman rubs you with sandpaper gloves. If you happen to sneak a look, you will see piles of your skin lying on the table next to you. Luckily they periodically dump hot water over your body to rinse the dead skin off the table and to keep you warm. I must admit, the end of the scrub was my favorite, they cover you in soap and do a little massage as they remove any last remnants of dead skin. You come out of it glowing, soft, and looking years younger.

By the time I had finished my scrub, Elly had ordered us lunch in the Korean restaurant attached to the spa. We sat in our robes and filled our bellies with be-bim-bop and silken tofu stew. On our way out, we warmed up in the 170 degree room and then braved the cold outside.

My picture for today is one of my brother and his girlfriend, Amalia. Oren has helped me in numerous ways recently and I can't thank him enough. Here is my tribute to him: Thank you!