Tonsillitis Day 6

Thurs, June 4, 2009 at 11:50pm

Thursday: I slept roughly 10 hours last night, from 1230-1030am. Much needed and much deserved. I awoke with a slightly sore throat that quickly went away after I spent 30 minutes or so flushing the mucus buildup out of my system. Once again, sorry to be so graphic, but the good news is I continue to feel better.

After breakfast, I headed to the Jim Jae Bang (Korean sauna) to help sweat this evilness from my system. Since today was my first Jim Jae Bang experience, I will share with you some observations. First of all, it's located in the basement below the subway station, so it's only a two block walk from my apartment. Cost of admission is 7,000 Won, which includes shoe locker (located outside Men's locker room) and large clothes locker (located inside Men's locker room). At this rate, you may stay as long as you like, and it is open 24 hours. Apparently, many people will relax and sleep here after the bars late at night when the subway stops running (12am-6am), though I was told price may increase to 9,000 Won during these hours.

Inside the Men's locker room are standard accommodations found in any upscale Men's health club; television, snack bar, barber shop, plenty of fresh towels, etc. Beyond the locker room is the actual sauna; a large tile room filled with many stand up and sit down showers to the left, massage tables and lounge chairs to the right, three steam rooms, and seven water filled pools. It is customary to shower upon entering the room and before using any of the saunas or pools. Each steam room varies in temperature from 58C - 100C (136F - 212F). I spent maybe ten minutes in the 58C room, laying flat on the stone bench, before retreating to the cooler waters of one of the pools. Since everything is written in Korean, I could not determine the difference between the many pools, other than the noticeable temperature. Two of the pools, however, had a noticeable fragrance added to them, perhaps eucalyptus or lavender water? Not sure, but I managed to sample them all. Each of the pools was warm, except one, that was chilled. This, I later learned, is for cleansing yourself after the warmer waters or sauna experience. Apparently, it's good for your skin pores to open and close repeatedly to help flush out dirt and remove toxins. There are coarse wash towels provided next to the stand up and sit down showers. This, obviously, is to help exfoliate the skin. The sit down showers have a small plastic stool and it's just like it sounds, you sit your ass down and wash yourself. Nothing glamorous.

So after two hours spent relaxing in the sauna, I emerged feeling refreshed and invigorated. Honestly, and in spite of the close proximity to twenty naked Korean men, I felt extremely clean and healthy leaving the Jim Jil Bang. A tremendous bargain for 7,000 Won, and any time of day, in my opinion.

Thursday evening I resumed teaching. My voice has returned for the most part, a little husky at times, but I am pleased to be back in action. I taught two classes this evening and got to know the two new students in my Business English class. I was curious to learn the school brought in a substitute teacher yesterday to handle my classes. Apparently, he was/is an American named Tony? I didn't know American ESL teachers worked on standby or substitute taught in Korea, but it's good to know this service is available if needed.

After overcoming my first Korean sickness, I am left with the following thoughts on what may have caused the evil tonsillitis: 1) not enough sleep last week or unhealthy sleep schedule, 2) unsanitary Korean dining practices, 3) kissing strange women in a foreign land, 4) or perhaps iron deficiency? Tiann actually mentioned the iron deficiency in serious discussion last weekend (prior to diagnosis), after I mentioned I felt I had a strong immune system because I exercised regularly and took Vitamin C tablets. He said that is not good enough without healthy iron consumption. Now I am not a dietitian, and normally, I would consider this not to be relevant to my dietary habits, except I have eaten beef only 2-3 times in 5 weeks spent in Korea, because I mostly eat pork. So, he may have a point, and I should probably eat more red meat or consider iron supplements if my diet is to remain the same. As for the other possible causes, well, there's not much I can do about this, other than try for more sleep each night..