its things like this...

...that remind me why i love to travel:
so after waking up on the hard floor of a jjingil bang (korea's 24 hour spas/ it cost 8 dollars to get in and you can stay as long as you want. there are hot baths, cold baths, pools, sit and stand up showers. men and women are seperated so everyone is just walking around naked. when you arent in the baths you can put on the shirt and shorts they give you and hang in the common room and watch tv. they are cheaper to stay in then hostels probably bc we have to lay in a room w a hundred other ppl w only a leather square pillow and a towel as a blanket like its a middle school lock-in and everyone is wearing matching pajamas. good thing the floors are heated.) we decided to hike inwangsan mountain. it was around 1030a by the time we caught the metro, grabbing a grilled egg,cabbage,ham,ketchup,and cheese sandwich from a street vendor on the way, to the mountain and as we made our way up we got a bit sidetracked. we didnt really believe it but we saw a bunch of 70 y/o koreans playing on 3 badminton courts. one couple specifically called us over to watch. a few minutes later we were serenaded by a man on his harmonica, as another man proceeded to teach me a korean dance. when the song ended we were soon interupted by their wives calling us inside the little clubhouse for coffee. they all followed us in pulling chairs out for us and ended up hookin up the wok and cooking us some fish and kimchi. the men topped our coffee off with soju (sweet potato liquor) and poured us another cup of yogurt beer, which i actually liked. this whole situation was pretty amazing bc they were precious in their attempts to speak to us in english. they were the nicest ppl and extended the invitation to play with them every sunday. turns out they are on a badminton team. i have felt nothing but welcomed in this country.