Embarrassing.

As usual...

... I had another *embarrassing moment* in Korea today.

But, I think this one was slightly worse than normal...

This morning I went to the gym and exercised for about 40 minutes...(...I got a little bored...)

...then afterwards I walked to the 찜질방 Korean bathhouse, which is not far from my apartment complex...

(I go to the 찜질방 about once a week...)

As is the standard procedure in the 찜질방 사우나 Korean bathhouse...

... I put my clothes in the locker, I washed myself down under one of the showers...

...and then I walked towards one of the big pools of hot water...

 There are generally 3-6 mini-pools filled with water of different temperatures in a Korean sauna...

So I picked the coolest one, which was about 38 degrees...

...the others were 39 degrees and 41 degrees... which is quite hot...

So I submerged myself and sweated for around 30 minutes in this giant pool of steaming water... like I usually would...

...and then I finally got out...

...and moved towards the showers to wash off again before leaving the sauna...

However...

When I went to turn on the shower...

...my vision started to go out of focus and I started to blink quickly to try and see the shower more clearly...

...then I suddenly felt a heavy sensation and my vision went black...

...I felt my hands clutching at the side of the shower... trying to regain balance since I couldn't see...

...I slowly slided down on to the ground...

...still without any vision...

...and then I just blacked out...completely...

... the next thing that happened...

... was that I woke up naked on a bench in the locker area...

...and an 아줌마 ajumma was shoving ice into my mouth...

... and another 아줌마 ajumma was rubbing my head with a towel to bring me back to consciousness...

I opened my eyes slowly and I could hear a group of women around me saying (in korean) that..;  "foreigers cannot handle the heat in a Korean sauna..."

...It appeared as though I had seriously dehydrated myself without realizing it...

...until it was really too late, and I had already sweated out too much moisture...

...and now I was lying naked and semi-conscious on a bench like a dead fish washed up on the shore...

...my impaired vision and passing out on the floor were obviously the serious consquences resulting from this dehydration...

...I swear this has never happened before!  And I go to the Korean bathhouse quite regularly...

...since the weather has been hot this week I don't think I've really considered how much this heat might be affecting me...

... I hope that this will be the first and the last time that I black-out in a Korean bathhouse... (and the last time I am picked up and hauled away by ajummas...)

...next time I'll remember to drink more water before arriving...