I have been wanting to join a gym since I got to Korea, but there aren’t really any near where I live so I opted to workout at home. It’s been a bit of a struggle because my motivation comes and goes. A few months ago I went to Daegu and saw a flyer for Curves. I didn’t even realize there were Curves in Korea.

On Saturday morning I searched the Curves website to see if there was one near me. The website showed an address (in English) for one in Sajik, which is just one subway stop away from where I live. The problem with finding addresses in English is that it makes it somewhat difficult to locate the place on a map. I had to use my very minimal Korean skills to translate at least part of the address into something I could input into the GPS on my phone so I could figure out where the Curves was located. It took awhile, but I was able to locate what I thought was Curves with my phone. It definitely felt like quite an accomplishment.

I set out to find the Curves and was successful! The building wasn’t where I thought it was, but it was closer so that was a good thing. I didn’t remember to time it, but it was probably about a 15-20 minute walk from my apartment. I wasn’t really expecting them to be open (it was about noon), but they were. I ended up signing up. The woman that was working was really nice and she knew enough English so that there were no problems. I’m going back Monday for my first workout. I am familiar with all of the machines because I worked at Curves for several years. The only thing that they have that I’m not familiar with is the stretching machine. I’m excited to try it out.

Immediately after I signed up at Curves I headed to the subway station and went to meet up with some friends to go see a show called “Ballerina Who Loves B-boy.” It’s a non-verbal dance show where a ballerina falls in love with a b-boy and quits ballet so she can dance (really terribly) with her b-boy boyfriend. The b-boys were great, but the story wasn’t very good. There was definitely room for improvement. It was a fun show though and I stayed entertained through most of it, but there were a few odd “I don’t know what’s going on right now…” moments. We paid 50,000 won ($47.50) for our tickets and we had amazing seats. Afterwards Faith and I went to Nampodong to do some shopping and have dinner and then we both headed home.

Coming up next: Sunday

On Sunday I decided to go exploring in my neighborhood and it turned into an amazing 4 hour urban hike. Come back tomorrow to see the pics.