Back to the gym

Last week, Micah and I found joined a gym right by our house.  This was no easy task.  We had scoped it out earlier and quickly found out that – no one spoke English, we didn’t know how much it cost, what the hours were, and if we needed special “gym clothes” (as nearly everyone was wearing the same outfit/uniform at the gym). 

With the help of some friends, we found out how much the gym cost and we didn’t need special gym clothes.  It’s just that you can pay extra if you want them.  Hmm…no thanks. 

Although we get plenty of exercise with our daily walking commute to school, we also wanted the option of having a place to go and run, lift weights, etc. (especially when it turns winter here).

It’s not easy to just go running outside.  There are scooters whizzing by you (on the sidewalks), bicyclists honking their horns for you to move to the side, lots of people walking everywhere, and the traffic lights are seriously like 5 minutes long (i.e. if you miss the light to cross the street…it takes FOREVER until it is okay again). 

Anyways, this gym seems like it will be adequate. It’s nothing fancy.  When we signed up, the guy at the counter had to call his friend on the phone who spoke a little English.  His friend then helped us through the process.  We paid for 3 months all at once, so it’s like 40,000 won a month each.  (About $35 or so).

And when we started to work out, the gym employee must have thought we didn’t know anything about gyms.  He pointed out the treadmills and pretty much told us we HAD to start with the “running machine.” And not just run…but we had to WALK first before we could run.  When we went immediately into a slow jog, he came over and slowed us back down to a walk.  Funny.  Somehow we managed to communicate to him (in really bad charades) that I’m a runner and Micah plays football.  He then let us on our merry way. 

Sorry, no picture to go with this post.

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