2 weeks!

Sorry for the lack of updates!
I do have the time, but somehow I just always find something better to do.
And because of that, this post’s gonna get long again! Prepare!
MUAHA. 8D

Anyway, a lot has happened since the last post and I’m not gonna go through it all, just the best bits.
We went to a spa!
It was amazing! The whole thing had like 7 floors for God knows what and it only cost around 5 euros. With no time limitation what so ever.
NOT BAD!
Of course they had different types of massage services too and the prices varied from around 12 euros all the way to 70 euros, depending on the set. Everything looked so professional though, and they even had real sports massages.
One part of the spas here in Korea always consists of different types of saunas. And no, not the kinds you see in Finland. Here, when they say sauna, they mean these huge heated rooms with loads of people. Everyone gets a pair of very unflattering shorts and t-shirt as they pay for the spa, and these sauna rooms are the places where everyone wears them.
There’s usually one huge room with televisions, snack bars and some games, where everyone can socialize and spend their time as they like. Besides the main room, there are small human-oven like rooms with different temperatures, where you can test your heat tolerance as you see fit. I didn’t see any temperature signs, but the doors usually have a sign that says either “high temp.”, “mid temp.” or “low temp.”. I’d say the high temperature room was around 70 C.

When you’re done sitting around, testing the sauna parts of the spa, it’s time to return to your locker and get ready for the real spa treatment. The spa sections are naturally divided to women only and men only, ’cause here swimsuits are forbidden.
But damn, the pools are a treat!
They have so many different kinds of waters! Natural salty sea water bath, ginseng bath, somethingsomething minerals water bath, outdoor bath (which is great when it’s cold outside!), 20 Celcius temp bath, massage bath…the list goes on.
They also had two kinds of saunas in the spa section and to my pleasant surprise one of them happened to be the Finnish type of sauna that I’m starting miss so bad already. It was around 80 Celcius, just perfect for me.

I’ve also been sporty!
A few weeks back, we went hiking at a nearby mountain. The hike took about 5 hours (well…6 ’cause we got lost on the way back) and even though you might think that going up was the hardest part, it wasn’t. Sure it was energy draining and all, but coming down was all about concentration and feet placement. It was in the middle of the fall here, so the rocky paths were covered with leaves, which seriously made the ground dangerous.
We were dead tired by the end of the night, but at least we had one hell of a day!

Yesterday, we went ice skating!
YES!
It was indoors, and the ice was practically melting, but STILL!
You know, how usually when you’re ice skating your toes are supposed to be freezing, you can see your breath and you always feel like drinking hot chocolate after skating for an hour?
Well, this experience was totally different.
As it was an indoor ice rink, everyone was skating without their coats and I even wished I had a t-shirt on, ’cause it got so hot. You could see it in the ice too. Even though they cleared and smoothened the ice every hour (I think), after a few rounds on the newed ice it was already getting bumpy and hard to skate on. Never the less, it felt like a piece of home…if even just a little.

I’ve been feeling homesick lately. I don’t know if it’s the season..Christmas coming and all. Here it’s no big deal, but back home it was always such a family holiday that just remembering it makes me feel blue.
I remember little things from back home in the weirdest places and suddenly start missing home. Sometimes I feel really stressed because I can’t just call my friend and go watch a movie with her (yes Anniina, that’s you), or because I can’t just go to the supermarket with mom and buy way too much stuff that we don’t actually even need. I also can’t buy a train ticket to Vantaa and just play games with Pia for the entire weekend, eating unhealthy and staying up late.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not giving up or anything, this is normal. It wouldn’t be human if I didn’t miss home by now.
I know I’m not going back to Finland before summer and I can deal with it. Pia’s coming to visit me soon and after she’s gone, it’s only a few months until mom comes here too. Time is gonna fly by, just like it’s done ’till now.

On school news, I’ve only got 2 more weeks left before the longest winter vacation ever.
(That also means that there’s only 2 more weeks of the oh-so-annoying roommate!)
Naturally the last week is the finals week, so there’s a lot of work to be done too. I’ve got three papers to write, two of them are a piece of cake and one…well, I can manage it. As for exams, I know we’ve got an exam on the Korean language, but I’m not sure about Japanese because it might be an oral exam again (which would be more than nice!).

Anyway, I’ll write again after the exams and all…when I finally have the room to myself! No more roommate! Whee~

• Mint •

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