Bonding through Exercise

This past Saturday I moved in with a new host family in Chuncheon. I will be living them for the month of February and will be helping their son learn some English, while enjoying life in a slightly bigger city. The family has been absolutely wonderful so far and I've really loved getting to know them. One of the ways that we have been bonding is through exercise. Although, the parents speak English fairly well it is still always easier to establish strong relationships by doing things together. Since they are an active family I was able to simply join right in!

On Sunday, after a massive lunch with the father's family, the four of us headed to the gym together. The mom and I hit the pool while the son and father went to the actual gym. Unlike at pools in America where showering beforehand is a rule that no one follows, here in Korea you must shower beforehand. And you must do so completely nude in a communal shower. Therefore, I had to shower naked with my unni after having known her for less than 24 hours. I, of course, felt a little awkward but Koreans tend to be much more comfortable with nudity and she thought nothing of it. I guess it can only make us closer.

Today, my unni invited me to go to spin class with her. I have always enjoyed spin classes in America so I decided to check it out. I figured it would be interesting to see how it compared to spin in America because Koreans tend to exercise very differently than Americans. My unni goes every morning at 9:30 so at 9:10 she called me over and told me I could watch a video of the class before we left to decide if I really wanted to go. This is what she showed me. I obviously was even more eager to go.

When I arrived at the spin class I was welcomed warmly, albeit with lots of giggling, whispering and pointing. Despite the number of foreigners living in Korea, Koreans still always seem surprised to see foreigners doing normal, everyday things like them. The class was so much fun! Today, we learned a new dance so it was a little bit slow at times as we practiced the choreography but fun nonetheless. At the end of the class I decided to sign up for a ten-day pass and will go every morning with my unni. She was extremely pleased that I liked the class as were the instructors.

The class was very different than spin classes in America though. Like I initially expected, the class was less physically demanding than the spin classes I took during college. We took more breaks and surprisingly you couldn't add resistance to the bike. This meant the entire time you're peddling and dancing your legs are almost in free spin. It actually scared me quite a bit when you had to let go of the handlebars because it was hard to balance with no resistance pushing against your legs. Also, this spin class involved way more cutesy peace signs in typical Korean fashion. Humorously, the song we danced to was all about couples falling in love. I was not surprised at all given that you are almost a social pariah if you are over 18 and don't have a boyfriend. Korea is a couple-oriented country in every sense of the world. There are many couple holidays and many businesses cater to couples. For example, movie theaters have special couple seats. LotteWorld, an amusement park, has special couple discounts and free gifts. Even more shockingly, the bike rental place near my house only rents bikes that are built for two people! It's really interesting to see since many Americans take pride in being single and independent.

Anyways, I'm glad I have had such great opportunities to get close to my new family and I'm looking forward to cycling with my unni every morning. Hopefully next time we can both star in the 재키스피닝 (Jackie Spinning) promotional video!