I met up with Jaime – ‘barbie’ from my flight over. I was so excited to see her again. I was excited to spend some time with her. Another hard-core American woman with a man in the front lines of the action. Someone else in Korea who did and didn’t want to be here.

There was something terrifying about the train ride to meet her. It took an hour and a half. I didn’t have a map and I wasn’t confident that I was going in the right direction. That was the problem with still learning the language – I was always never sure. I get off and the train pulls away. I’m standing on the platform hoping another train comes and it’s obvious that it’s the one I’m supposed to get on. Things are in Korean and English, but it’s not as self-explanatory as one would think. A train pulls up, but it’s still twenty minutes until when my train is supposed to leave. The same guy comes up to me and says “yes, this train’. I trusted him because well… nobody else was there to tell me otherwise. I just wish I had some sort of map of the stops.

My guide book had some high level stops, about half an hour into the trip I saw a second stop that was on the map. At least this confirmed I was going in the right direction.

I met with Jaime and we went into the spa. This was the type of spa where you are nude. I think we knew that but it’s still awkward since we barely knew each other with nothing but a hand towel to take with us.

There were people aged from 10 – 100 in the spa. It was so nice inside the baths. They were inside and outside. As weird as it felt for me to be there nude, it was kind of amazing to see the culture of comfort. It was all women and being inside and outside was interesting. My skin felt amazing afterwards – different – softer. It’s pretty common to go to a bath house like this.

Some of the old ladies would come up and touch us. The two white girls in the bath house – a blonde and a redhead too! These are the most famous hot springs in all of Korea.