Gym Bunnies

Of all the blogs I've written, this is the one where I need visual aids the most. I'll do my best to describe this, but I think the scope and humour in all of this will never really be understood until you can see it with your own eyes.

I've been going to the gym quite regularly these days, which I'm very proud of indeed. The gym I go to is your typical Korean gym, with the music pumped way too loud and with the staff on hand to correct and change every exercise you do whether it's being done correctly or not. All the treadmills have TV's as well, which is no big deal, except instead of headphones for each person, they just blast the volume up high, filling most of the gym with a nasty cacophony of noise. Things get even louder when the aerobics class starts, though when those aerobics ladies stroll into the room, the music is the last thing I'm ever thinking of.

Watching these women do their thing is like watching a choreographed train wreck. The women, who aren't necessarily in bad shape, wear the most ridiculously loud, eccentric outfits I've ever seen that makes even the most attractive of them look absurd. They wear a mix of spandex, pleather, some kind of plastic-like material, more spandex, the occasional smattering of fish-net, poofy skirts, and I think one lady even wears velvet. It usually starts with the boots, which are a hybrid of knee-high boots and leg warmers. These aren't normally too bad, and some of the younger girls manage to pull it off, but then you get these bright skirts and strange low-cut bikini bottom things that would have trouble being justified in any fashion setting. Some ladies go for the pants, which they usually wear way too tight, and are made of some plastic-like material probably to induce more sweating. One lady wore bell-bottoms so large she could have hid small children around her ankles.

When the class starts, I'm sure it's not too different from any other aerobics class, though I've never seen one until now. The music cranks up just enough to make your ears bleed, the head girl goes to the front, and they go-go-go-go for 20 or 30 minutes straight. There's no instruction, just follow along with new people at the back, and those who know the routine at the front. Every time they do their thing, I take a pause, watch until I think I'm making them uncomfortable, watch for a few seconds longer, then continue to find myself glancing over until one of us finally finishes and leaves.

Things have been quite quiet these days. Shannon and I have settled down nicely into the second year in Korea, the routine at school is in full swing, and nothing too out of the ordinary is taking place. These last two weeks have been super quiet at school, with nearly half my classes canceled, and I'm setting new personal records for time spent doing nothing. I'm actually getting pretty good at studying Korea, and I can express myself in ways like "I'm planning to..." and "I think that..." which I'm pretty proud of. I still don't understand 99% of what Korean's say to me, and my students still howl with laughter anytime I say something in Korean to them, but I'm turning more heads now when I try and speak with locals.

It's 12:40 now, and I'm done for the day. I'm leaving at 3, but that's still over two hours of just waiting. Maybe I should pick up a new hobby, like knitting or building matchstick houses. Hmmm, maybe I'll see if the news headlines have changed in the last 10 minutes.