Phone cards, Filipinos and Hand Shakes

So Emily and I have taken to going to a Korean sauna every Sunday after church. (See previous blog posts for more detailed information.) Long story short, it's a good place to relax and just feel like you're "getting away from it all" in the middle of the city.

This past Sunday we went there after church and before supper with a friend. We sat on the heated floor (so nice!) and did our Korean homework. We're both in Korean lessons right now and it's really doing us a world of good - we're learning a great deal, though it is a challenging language.

While we were doing our homework, a man came up to us and started talking to us. (As an aside, Koreans have far more phyiscal contact with their average fellow human being than Canadians do. When you shake hands, you will likely end up holding the handshake, or holding hands, for a large part of the conversation.) Though strangers approacing us is not unusual, this man was not talking like any stranger. We knew him from somewhere, and he knew us. We figured out that he was the man that sells us our phone cards ($16 for about 6 hours to Canada - good deal) and he bought us a traditional Korean drink (sweet rice water) and gave us some discount coupons for the sauna. A very nice gesture for a near stranger.

Anyway, we thanked him and went our seperate ways. Emily and I finished our homework and went up to shower and meet our friend for suppper. (The showers are the naked part, as a reminder.)

I was sitting in the hot pool, just enjoying myself and ignoring everyone else when, lo and behold, the phone card guy comes and sits beside me and starts talking to me! Now, this is pushing my comfort barrier, though I feel as though I at least owe him the common courtesy of talking to him, which I did.

Then it gets worse. Another foreigner (this time from the Philippines) came and joined our conversation. I had not yet met this fellow, so he introduced himself and we shook hands. The downside, though, is that the Korean fellow asked the Filipino fellow a question as the Filipino and I began our handshake.

And so it happened - the longest handshake in the history of mankind. As we are holding our handshake (naked), the conversation happens. I'm about to be late, I'm not comfortable and I need to finish showering. Really, what better time is there to talk?

Eventually, the handshake ended and the evening went on. The rest of the evening was thankfully clothed and handshake free.