The Jones' Korean Adventure

So, I've signed up at the gym again. After a month of laziness, I decided that I should pull out my dusty gym clothes, and give working out another chance.

My first day back was this past Saturday. It was great...treadmill, cross-trainer, weights, stretching, ab exercises...Fantastic. I arrived at the gym feeling exhausted, and finished my workout feeling energized.

As I headed into the back locker room to pick up my jacket and lock up my gym shoes, I noticed that the air was slightly foggy. There was also a faint "smoke" smell in the room. Being the nosy person that I am, I of course wanted to know what was going on.

Sidenote: The gym manager and his wife actually live in the back room of the gym. I figured this out one day when I saw their laundry drying through the door that connects to the locker room, and smelled their lunch cooking in their kitchen.

Back to the present: having been trained in the fine art of fire safety from a young age (ie. get below the smoke level, stop-drop-and roll, etc.), I wanted to see if I could lend a hand. I went to the manager's apartment door and yelled out "Anyeong Haseyo" (hello)...then I yelled it a couple more times for good measure. No answer. I pushed open the door a bit and smoke poured out into the locker room. I did not panic...I kept my cool. Well, not really...the first thing I did was run away in search of someone else. Here was the problem: I couldn't find the manager anywhere, I couldn't find the manager's wife anywhere, and I had no idea how to say "Fire" in Korean to the one other man who chose to work out on a Saturday.

Running away was obviously not the best course of action, so I returned to the scene of the smoke. I pushed the door open a little more, and looked in. The smoke was pretty thick, starting at the ceiling, and coming down about 3 feet into the room. I looked over at the stove and saw that the gas was indeed on, and the pot on the burner was spouting out tons of smoke...the source. I ran over, turned off the gas, opened the nearest window, and searched the apartment for dead bodies. Fortunately, I found none.

With that, my work was done. Seeing as there was noone to discuss the fire with at the gym, I headed home. When I got home, I told Sam about my adventure. He congratulated my quick thinking, but then mentioned one little thing: in Korea, when companies are going bankrupt, they will often "accidentally" burn down the buildings in order to collect the insurance and bow-out gracefully.

I guess I'll never know if I'm a hero to the gym, or a hero to the insurance company. Either way...I'll just focus on the "hero" part :0)