SANTACON

Santacon 2009 in Seoul was a huge success. Santarchy/Santacon started in San Francisco, CA in '94 and has since become a worldwide event. The Santa 'parade' was yesterday, Saturday 12/13. We didn't hear about the Seoul extravangaza until almost too late. Thankfully, one of the teachers was on top of everything and went out and found Santa suits just in the nick of time. This year's designated route was in Hongdae and it was wonderful. The organizers did a great job of keeping everyone informed and moving the mob from bar to bar. It was essentially a pub crawl with a hundred+ Santas.

I think overall we were a pretty entertaining group to watch march down the street. Many people brought candy and goodies to pass out to random pedestrians (and cab drivers) which lightened the mood a bit for anyone who was annoyed by the red mob.

As the dancing and festivities carried on until almost 6 a.m. (noticing a pattern in Hongdae outings??), we decided to experience a jimjilbang, a traditional Korean bath house. It was quite the experience and I highly recommend it. We found one in Itaewon and a nice women showed us where to go. When we arrived we were each given a locker key, a towel, and a pair of shorts and a t-shirt (bright orange). We then embraced the moment! We tried the cold bath, the warm bath, and the hot bath. Pretty sure we both lost a few layers of skin in the hot bath- they weren't lying, it truly was crazy hot. The saunas were both really hot as well, didn't last very long in those. After shocking our bodies with the multitude of temperatures, we donned our orange 'jumpsuits' (it felt a bit like prison) and went to the upstairs, sleeping room. Small mats are provided and we chose spots on the floor to rest for a short while. The heated floors were amazing, but with the orange get ups, looking around at a bunch of women sleeping in a big room on the floor, it was a bit like a really luxurious prison. At that time of night, there were many people sleeping and not many women in the bath/sauna part of the jimjilbang. Thankfully, the experienced women showed us the ropes (you must shower before entering and whenever you switch tubs, which we goofed on that one and were quickly corrected).

Overall, Dec 12th was a night of firsts and pretty outrageous moments. Looking around at a room filled with Santas, marching from bar to bar waving at all the spectators, then sitting in a public bath house... if you would have asked me last year where I'd be spending my holiday season 2009, I never would have guessed it would be here, drinking in Seoul dressed as Santa, then finishing the night in a sauna sitting in my birthday suit between a Korean woman and an Irish woman.