Happenings In Korea

Okay, so overall I am really enjoying myself here.  The girls are great and the team chemistry is really fun. The coach is quiet but I think I like her....so far.  

Korea is gorgeous but the food is a little iffy and it's a lot more humid than I would have anticipated.

My eating habits are a tad bit off.  For breakfast this morning I had apples and peanut butter, toast smothered in cheesecake (yes, cheesecake), granola with soy milk, Korean beef, and a piece of cheesecake.
Sounds normal enough.
Everyone here is so disciplined (this might be a problem) and barely anyone speaks english.
I feel like I'm sitting in the nail salon at home and all the manicurists are speaking their dialect to each other while constantly staring at you and throwing in the one liners.
"Oh you tall"
"You play sport?"
"You have boyfrien?"
The only problem is I feel like I am doing something wrong when I am on the receiving end of the staring in Korea because I can't seem to do anything right.
  Getting used to the culture has been interesting and slightly humiliating.  

i.e. walking into a room with my shoes on or crossing my chop sticks.  How about not bowing at the right people or completely forgetting to bow.  Not crossing my arm when shaking an important person's hand.  I think my face is in perma-blush mode because I constantly keep doing everything wrong.  But I'm learning....slowly.

We train a lot but I don't mind that too much.  It will keep me occupied.  The days are seriously long and when we have a 3 hour break between practices we stay at the gym and have a team nap time.

NO JOKE!

When we get back from lunch there are little beds made for us in our locker room.

FYI not a single person owns a bed in Korea.  They all make their beds on the floor with comforters and sleep on the hard tile or wood.  In the morning they pick up their bedding and fold it perfectly and place it in a cabinet so all the rooms are completely empty.

Crazy right?

I love my soft, warm bed too much.

But I really hope we have nap time tomorrow so I can take a picture of our beds set up perfectly.  It's actually pretty cute but also kind of creepy because of how perfect everything is laid out and folded.

It's as if everything they own and everything they do is laid out on a grid.

Semi neurotic/obsessive compulsive.

Today we had a nice surprise.  Practice was cancelled this afternoon so the coaches took the team to this coed spa.  Those pizza ovens in the back are actually saunas that range in temperature.  There was an ice room as well as heated back pads built into the ground.  We sat in the saunas most of the time and ate hard boiled eggs and drank iced coffee and rice tea.

Sounds appetizing doesn't it?

Then the girls (in pink) and the boys (in blue) parted ways and went to the spas.

I have never seen so many naked women in one spot at the same time.
Eeeek!

I'm not going to lie, I was pretty uncomfortable.

Everyone, butt naked, sitting in 30 different spas, chatting away, having water fights, sitting under water massagers, walking to and from the steam room; I mean what would you do in this situation other than fix your eyes on some Korean letters on the wall pretending you know how to read Korean or play with that freckle on your leg looking for some hair to pick at.

Quite an interesting experience and something I highly discourage unless you like a room full of naked women.

Anyways, other than my eventful day, everything is going well.

I am beyond sore but I am coming into the final day of my trip.

I can't wait to go home and see my Matthew!