This adventure fed my mind, body, and spirit. Read about my girl’s getaway that features my Lizzo concert review, the most amazing body scrub of my life and a quaint Tampa neighborhood. As the concert date neared, anticipation mounted and plans were laid for what turned out to be the most therapeutic weekend of my life!Going to See the Lizzo Concert
I learned about Lizzo on NPR, believe it or not. There is a weekly radio review on music and this guy reviews a wide variety of things! I was familiar with “Good as Hell” from its use in a movie, but after hearing what he had to say about the album, I purchased it. It has turned out to be one of the best decisions of my recent life. This album is full of liberation; declaration and motivation…all wrapped up in upbeat sounds that demand your body move!
When I learned there would be a Lizzo concert near me, I said, yes, please! I snapped them up early in May and knew that by the time this show came around she would be the hottest thing on the radio. Sure enough, by September 10th the Yuengling Stadium on USF’s beautiful campus would be the place to host Lizzo’s first sellout.
Freeing Moment #1 | Leaving the House
For the first time, I was able to plan a trip in the middle of the week.
WITH the person who usually assumes the role of “mom” when I go away.
The kids are in middle school now. They capable of doing their hair, making breakfast and getting to school on time. WITHOUT ME!
High five sista!
At this very moment, I was feeling so unappreciated at home. I left the house without grocery shopping or planning anything! This is so out of the ordinary for me that I began to have a sense that something was about to go down.
From Orlando, Tampa is a road trip you can make in less than 2 hours. That is of course if there is no I-4 drama and it isn’t Friday. On show day, BFF #1 and I drove there with no traffic in our way and Lizzo blaring on the radio.
We finally made it to the Lizzo concert
The four of us rushed in at 7:30, the time listed for the opener to begin. I hadn’t heard of this girl, Ari Lennox but BFF #2 was dying to see her. We thought we missed the opener! It was after 8 before we made it past security and through bathroom and concessions lines. But we needn’t have worried, in true diva fashion, the show was running about an hour late. We didn’t mind though, because the real show to be had was people watching!
It felt great to know I am not the only one that feels liberated by Lizzo’s lyrics! The faces of individuality and confidence were on full display throughout that stadium. From drag queens to plus-sized queens, everyone was the portrait of self-acceptance. We only noticed a few dragged along husbands with perplexed faces. Everyone else- Lizzbians for LIFE!
The Lizzo concert started late, but it was worth the wait! Just about an hour and a half of an amazing show. How she is hitting those notes, for that long, for this amount of tour dates is beyond me!! And who said big girls can’t move?! She and her dance troupe did an amazing job bringing those beats to life.
I would have liked to see more stage design.
But an altar was fitting because we went to CHURCH in there y’all!
There were several moments where we all felt connected and seen as women.
Freeing Moment #2 | I am Free ‘yaya’
The entire stadium jumping and singing to this song together will forever go down as a feminist moment for me!!
An encore signaled the end of the Lizzo concert, but it feels more like the beginning of a movement.
The Korean Day Spa
So okay, I have been waiting to tell you about this one.
One of the girls told me about this Korean Day Spa she had heard about in Tampa. We would go the day after the Lizzo concert. I looked it up and was still unclear about what it was. Honestly, it was because I stopped reading after seeing Korean restaurant on property. I have covered how much I love the spa. Combine that with Korean food and I knew I was going to heaven.
Even calling wasn’t much help. The wonderful woman who answered the phone had a deep Korean accent and limited English. By the time we hung up all I knew was that 4 girls would show up at 11 on Wednesday.
The morning after the Lizzo concert, we had a pretty slow start. We finally made it to the car about noon. After a 15-minute drive and a narrow escape of death by 18-wheeler, we pull into the parking lot of a white building with a huge sign reading DAYSPA. It had a decorative Asian woodwork façade declaring this to be the place and making it “shady looking” in some of the girls’ opinions.
There was a slight pause, but we walked in anyway.
(I was still only thinking about Korean food.)
What is happening?
The check-in area looked like to one in a spa or fitness center. And HALLELUJAH the American half of this Korean-American family-owned business was working.
Tiffany was a great hostess who gave us the low-down in terms we could understand. She gave us a full tour with personality and humor, answering our dumb questions with a straight face.
Honestly, I’m glad I didn’t get Tiffany on the phone the first time. I may not have agreed to go if I truly understood what I was about to walk into.
But I’m sooooo glad we got her in person to explain what was about to happen to us. At that point, I just couldn’t say no. It sounded heavenly.
Freeing Moment #3 | Naked & Exposed
The first of our realizations that this was about to be an “experience” was finding out the wet areas are ALL NUDE.
Like, not even a towel wrapped around you nude.
Everybody.
Naked.
These are gender-separated areas. But still…this will take some getting used to.
Most other cultures are extremely liberal with spa and bathhouse nudity. (Here is some etiquette of Korean bathhouses.)
As you can imagine, this was not customary for these 4 Americans.
Especially because we weren’t expecting this and we were a hodgepodge of girls who don’t all know each other super well. The only connection being, me!
Korean Bath House Basics
Gratefully, Tiffany was able to explain what exactly will be happening to us today at Shangri-La Korean Bath House.
I will break it down for you here because it was AMAZING. And you need to go!
First Pay and Get Naked
- Select your level of service and pay, the host will hand you a stack of bathhouse uniform and towels. These small towels are for drying off after. They give no comfort and after worrying about this in the beginning we didn’t even need them after all!
- You will get a locker key with a number on it. This is where your things will go and also the number you will give when ordering anything on the premises.
- Once in the locker room you disrobe and enter the wet area. This is where the steam room and hot tubs are located. This room is also where the body scrubs occur.
Now Get Dressed and Relax
- After your soak and you are ready to enter the common areas you put on your spa uniform, branded and color-coded T-shirt and shorts. The common area opens up to the restaurant and a large relaxation area. (Yes, I did a little dance in the lobby upon learning that I will be eating Korean food in my PJs!)
- The co-ed relaxation area was essentially a large dimly lit room with floor mats for you to grab and lay on the floor. The photos and video from the website show many people lying next to each other talking and resting. There is a TV with no sound. Access to the dry saunas is here as well. The dry saunas feature a salt or clay option. You use these with your uniform on.
- Other relaxation options include dark rooms (gender separated) for sleeping, a meditation room and a brightly lit room for anyone wanting to read or work. There is also a small swimming pool you could do tiny laps in. You have to change into a bathing suit for this option. A couple of us thought about it because at one point we were so hot from the sauna!
The Scrub
The body scrubs happen in full view of whoever is in the wet area with you! There is no separate treatment room, as this American spa-goer would expect. There is a massage table and it isn’t covered with sheets or towels. Just its pleather glory threatening to have you slide off like a Slip-n-Slide in the summer!
Thankfully you have a strong Korean ddemiri right there ready to catch you. These ladies, usually older, are the scrub mistresses. She will be extremely strong and wearing underwear or tight workout gear. She gets right to work once you lay face down on her table. Your ddemiri will scrub every…EVERYYYYYY inch of your body with some sort of loofah mitt.
Chandra Says:
I was not prepared to wet my hair and asked to have the scrub minus the shampoo. Then after our first-person went and raved about that part I changed my mind. (we pet her like a cat and grilled her about what happened back there) Just plan on getting your hair wet and get the shampoo. Her fingers will do an amazing job on your scalp. And honestly, you are going to want to make sure there is no cucumber or clumps of dead skin in your hair!
After The Scrub
The feeling after this treatment is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. Days later and we all were still rubbing ourselves and audibly sighing.
I texted my husband about how soft my skin was and couldn’t wait for him to feel it. He told me later that he couldn’t imagine that I could be softer.
(I do have a religious skincare routine.)
But I was. And Everywhere. It even felt good to cross your legs in the bed. There will be very new sensations on your skin.
As Tiffany advised us, “Once that feeling is noticeably gone, it will be time to have another scrub. For everyone this timing is different.”
This Will Become a Regular Thing
I’m pretty hooked on the results! Plans are already underway to make this a quarterly trip. First of all, I found out that open 24 hours means you can sleep there! However, this does mean you will be sleeping on those thin mats in either the large room or the smaller women’s sleeping rooms.
But there is only an extra $5 charge for staying past 11 pm so this makes it easier on the wallet to come in from out of town. This will be a great option when I’m on a budget. Otherwise, I will be sure to book a hotel room with great sheets.
There are several reviews on TripAdvisor that offer some great insight on what to expect.
Here are some great tips on what to expect.
And yes, the food was heavenly!
Chandra Says:
Don’t go overboard on ordering from the menu. They don’t carry takeout containers. There’s also nowhere to store the food.
After lounging around in our baby oil for a while longer, we were ready to go.
For these four ladies, a quiet evening in the Airbnb was in store for sure!
Seminole Heights & Airbnb
I chose an Airbnb for its privacy and location to the event venue. Most of Tampa’s event venues are downtown. So usually a hotel stay would be in order. This venue was a little more in the ‘suburbs’ and I wanted to stay as far away from the I-4/I-275 split as possible.
It was a really cute farmhouse style bungalow in the Seminole Heights section of Tampa. This “currently under gentrification” neighborhood has all the signs. Such as an amazingly beautiful Starbucks location just around the corner from a walk-up convenience store that has a window through which business is conducted.
But first breakfast…
After checking out of the Airbnb, we were headed back to Orlando. Thankfully we passed by a shop that I noticed on the way in. The Seminole Heights General store was a rustic, open space.
It has a small kitchen, display of soaps and other items for sale and they seemed to only carry items made in Florida.
I fell in love with the antique farming equipment and vehicle shells on the lawn.
The inside just confirmed my suspicions.
The best thing about it this day was that the breakfast menu consisted of exactly 5 items. With the Lizzo concert still running through my head, that was all the decision my scrubbed down, too many late-nights brain could take.
In my opinion, anytime you are in Tampa and are offered a Cuban anything, the answer is yes, please! So Cuban breakfast sandwich and coffee it was.
Freeing Moment #4 | Recognizing the connections
I sat around the table with my BFF and my sister and wondered at how such a perfect weekend could exist. Then I look around and realized the entire staff of this charming store is all female. Ending our Lizzo powered, girls trip with all women in a spot that’s perfect for me felt like a little nudge from the universe.
“Hey, I see you. I love you. You needed this.”
I left on a Tuesday and returned on Thursday afternoon. Guess what y’all?
The house didn’t burn down.
The kids were still alive.
The house was NOT clean.
But I did NOT care!
I just happily sashayed into my routine in my brand new skin with Lizzo on the speakers reminding me that I’m all that I’ll ever need.
Well….will you take the naked Korean bathhouse challenge?
I’m honestly not sure if it would be easier to experience solo? What do you think?
Until next time,
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Chandra Says: Girl, Get Going!
I love this! Thanks for sharing this incredible perspective.
Yes to the Lizzo concert! Love her!