Sorry this is not the post about the awesome interviews I mentioned last time. In fact this post doesn't have anything in particular to do with Korea other than the fact that this event took place while I was in the dorms during my summer in Seoul.
This is a incident that happened tonight, mostly about me, and how stupidly competitive I can get, and how pathetically hopeless I am around men.
I just had to write about it so I am and that's that. Arrr, matey! Sorry, angry pirate Captain Gabby here. Going away now.
I have been recently over-inspired by Olympic athletes to work-out about 100% more often than I did before. This is why I went to the little fitness room in our dorms again tonight.
It's a pretty simple place with a handful of treadmills, bike things, weight lift things, and a mat. Pardon my use of extremely technical jargon.
As it is so small, it is very obvious when someone else is working out. This isn't some fancy gym where you can find a corner to work-out in and get in the zone away from the people swimming laps the floor below. You know when someone else is working out. Or maybe I'm just paranoid.
I tell myself I prefer empty/private places to work-out, so I was very happy to walk into the fitness room and find it empty. I started my 15-min warm-up on the treadmill. Happy Gabby.
Then some chick comes in. Angry Gabby.
She's doing something else and then toward the end of my warm-up comes over to the treadmills and starts power-walking. Pah! That's weak. Smug Gabby.
I finish my warm-up, stretch a bit. Then come back to the treadmills where the chick is now jogging. I start my main 40-min work-out. Bring it on. Fired-up Gabby.
THEN a group of four young guys come into the room. Panic Gabby.
They start doing push-ups on the mat. Lift a few weights. Do other manly man things. FYI I don't have my contacts in, so all of these observations are not particularly precise. These guys could have really just been buff girls or 70 year old men and this post will seem more pathetic... but pretend everything I say is fact and I will be happy. Thanks. Right, but then they (the guys) all come up to the treadmills where I am currently doing a system way too vigorous than I should in an original attempt to scare away the first chick. Three of them start sprinting at about my pace, and the forth guy I think was terrified of my old-work-out-clothes stench or the planned system displayed on my treadmill - so he decided not to get on the last treadmill next to me and went back to lifting weights. Nervous Gabby (who is also somehow more fired-up than before).
We all continue running on our treadmills for somewhere between 5-10 minutes. Though I am listening to music, the sound of all our pounding feet overthrows the base-line. I start feeling tired and my stomach starts turning. I shouldn't have eaten all that Tokbokki for dinner a few hours ago. I start imaging when would be the best time to give up and try to slip out of the fitness room unnoticed. About to Barf Gabby.
떡볶이 Tokbokki - for those of you who would like a visual to truly encompass my pain
Unfortunately, the guys went back to their weights and other things, but like I said, one is aware of everything anyone does in the gym. So I was very aware that the guys were aware of me, some white chick who somehow out-ran them on the treadmill. I knew (or was pretty sure, or just paranoid) that they were curious about my ambitious 40-min system that happily flashes the time remaining and graphs what I've done/have left to do. I completed one increasing speed interval thing, and with 18-ish minutes to go, the graph showed I was about to start my second interval and go even faster. No way could I do this, but the guys started casually hanging around the one weight-lift thing nearest my treadmill. They wanted a show. I was determined to do it. My treadmill's brand isn't "STUBBORN" for nothing. Fighting/Show-off Gabby.
I start the speed up. I'm at the 11 speed about to go to my system's highest 12 speed. I have around 9 minutes left. I'm getting dizzy/light-headed, so I'm not sure, but I think that only one guy was left watching me. Then suddenly I must've caught my head-phone cord with my flailing arms, because my iPhone went flying up, then speed off the treadmill belt thing behind me. I don't know what's happening but want my music, so I think I press the walking speed or pause or something, but end up stumbling off the treadmill to retrieve my iPhone, but my hands are too sweaty so it slips out of my grasp the first time. Then I try to pick up the pace again to finish my work-out/regain composure/pride but I'm pressing the wrong Korean-labeled buttons with mysterious functions... and I give up. Embarrassed Gabby.
That was way more detailed than I planned. I will now try to summarize the rest more briefly:
I wanted to stretch on the mat, but there were two guys doing some fancy-weight lift process/doing more push-ups. I would've stretched on the floor, but they other guys kept going between their various machines so I would feel in the way. I had to awkwardly wait a bit. When they (the mat-dwelling folk) went to get different weights, I sped over and claimed a corner of the mat to start stretching.
Then I discovered how awkwardly sensual the stretches I've been doing my whole life (safely among girls at my old dance studio) are when in a small space among young men who are speaking another language that you don't understand but immediately assume they are talking about you and you are sweating too much and you just want to be left alone...
After the straddle stretch and my splits, I felt like they were all watching me way to closely to do the abs/butt work-outs I normally would and could not imagine being watched as I do them. So I finally left feeling like I was too attention-grabbing for my own good.
Then when I got back to my room, I looked in the mirror (up close because I still don't have contacts in) and discovered that I had mascara rings around my eyes and my whole face was gosh-darn-it-I-spilled-spaghetti-sauce-all-over stained red. Maybe I was more of a comic sight for them than a sexual one...
Notes to self:
1) Wash off any make-up before going to the gym.
2) Try going to the gym at odder hours to avoid other people and the tragedy that will inevitably ensue due to my competitive nature.
The End.
I am about to start my two-week internship which should leave me with lots of free time = my new goal of posting here daily! Be prepared...
잘 자요!
- 성냥개비
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