wasting away...

About a month ago, one of my group suggested that, with all this free time we seemed to have, we should all join a gym. The fitness club across the street looked good--clean was the main quality we used to pass judgement. So, we signed up for a two-month membership, payed our exorbitant Korean fitness club membership fees, and started going to the gym almost every day. There are many different aspects of the Korean gym-going experience that I want to talk about here(like the way-too-excessive nudity), but this particular entry has a specific purpose.

[there was just a LOUD explosion outside and the lights flickered off for a second]

When we signed up for two-month memberships at our immaculate fitness club, they failed to tell us that they would be closing for rennovations in three weeks. So, starting last Sunday we were gymless. But, last night, I joined a gym even closer to our living-tel and EVEN closer to Krispy Kreme where free, warm glazed doughnuts are given out all the time[I kid you not]. Korean gyms do a personal fitness report for you when you first join. I never did one at our first place. But, I did one last night.

So, what's the state of my health?

The girl explaining my results spoke only Korean, but here's what I made out. Korean vocabulary describes several different levels of "skinny." There's normal skinny for example: nal shin heh yo. Then, there's what she used to describe me: mal la yo. According to my dictionary, rough translations include: lean, scrawny, a living skeleton, a bag of bones, wasting away, emaciated. After she took my weight and measured my waist, I was told to eat more. So, apparently the two dinners(both huge and meaty) I ate right before coming--the first at work; the second, with my hal muh ni--are not enough. Also, from what the combination of her speaking and hand movements suggested, she seemed to be saying that I needed to eat more or I would start developing a beer-belly. Ugh.

It's been pretty standard for Koreans to comment on my figure. If it's relatives, they're always commenting on how skinny I've become("Hey," one Yeemo half-whispered to Hal muh ni over dinner when I first arrived, "Didn't he used to be kind of fat when he was a little." If it's people I've just met it's mal la yo like the girl at the gym or "It's a good thing you're working here. We'll fatten you up! Did you know I gained 5 kg after working here for just a month?" like the women I work with at Magdalena House.

So, to give you an idea of what my yeemos are talking about and beause of special requests for "fat" pictures, I present a before and after set:
r

I loved me some cheesecake in middle
school.

And I still do. But, thank God for growth spurts and my Dad's genes.

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Today was one of my best in Korea. Just spent about an hour recording it all my written journal--those contents will be up later in some form. It was a long day, beginning with five hours of sleep and four hours of class. Then off to work immediately for the 21st Anniversary Party for Magdalena House. And then, off immediately again, this time to Dae-hak-lo, Seoul's theater district, where I met my Soo-min for a night out. Soo-min was my unquestioned favorite of my Korean cousins when I visited as a child, and our fun tonight definitely shows her status is still well-deserved.