xteethx

Dr. Fish

I’m back online….my modem is back up now. (I didn’t ask how it got fixed; it’s how things are done here) I managed to snoop from someone’s wireless router here and there but it’s a weak signal.
Wow what a boring lead. I’m sure all 7 of you out there who read this would be more interested in my Dr. Fish experience!!!!!!!!! woot! (Woot was merriam-webster’s 2007 word of the year! do you know how many times i used that frikin word?http://tinyurl.com/2qqust )

anyways, I heard about these fish who nibble your calloused skin off your feet and how much of a fad it’s become in Korea. It’s waning out now though since I heard that it doesn’t really work but I went to go investigate myself.

There’s a Dr. Fish cafe near the pool hall that one of my private students own and it turned out to be really nice. It’s two floors and has a ton of books and magazines to peruse through. There’s also complimentary coffee and toast. I could probably live there every day. The little spas for your feet are upstairs, right in front of these huge windows overlooking a busy street in the Chongno intersection.
After i was instructed to wash my feet (no soap) I was able to put immerse my feet in the spa that contained the fish. For some reason it eluded me that having all these fish suck on your feet would be a gross experience albeit an interesting one. As soon as my feet hit the water, the fish swarmed to it as if by magnetic force. I became squeamish as it felt kind of gross and ticklish. But I forced my feet down as long as possible since I paid $5 to have them suck my feet for 15 minutes.

my view

my pedicurists…

My conclusion is that to get the best result you’d have to scrub your feet a little bit before going in the water; it’d be easier for the fish to eat the calloused skin that way. You’d also have to go for a few sessions to get real results. In other words, you should just keep a fish farm at home. Of course if you dont like the idea of fish sucking on your feet, you could always soak them in the fish-free spas for your feet.
Nothing new is going on…I’m still meeting up with relatives I haven’t seen yet, and I’m really touched at their hospitality and love for me even though I don’t know them that well. I’m also getting to meet new people at the NK church, Mulim and Eun-gyung. In these meetings I’m always afraid that there’d be a language barrier but I find that my Korean and their English is enough for us to find common ground. I suppose my one regret was not knowing enough Korean to understand Mulim’s ordeal when he escaped to Mongolia. He shared some wild stories about being on the run. I told him he should write a book…he said after he makes more money. He said he had an easier time making money in China than in Seoul but of course he’s safe here.
I realize that beneath all the glitter of Seoul, it is extremely hard to make enough money to fall in the middle class bracket, even if you graduated from a good school. If this is the case for South Koreans, I can’t imagine how competitive it is for the North Koreans, who have to adjust in so many ways to a new society. They’re also behind in English and education in general since they missed school for the years they spent in hiding in China. The problem for most North Koreans students is how they’re going to support themselves after graduation when the government will no longer subsidize their housing or tuition expenses. I wish I could tell my high school and elementary school students how lucky they are to afford going to private academies when they don’t want to be there. anyhow I think this post-graduation dilemma for N. Koreans will be on my plate when i get back to the US…

I also realize that the places I’ve hung out in in Seoul are the richer parts of the city which led me to believe that all of Korea’s economy is growing. Anyhow it doesn’t seem as if any economy is doing that well at the moment. Must be a heyday for shortsellers; And to think that that dow was going to break 14000