Warm Floor, Warm Heart

Warm Floor, Warm Heart

Summer is gone. The extremely cold wind which blows between buildings is coming. Last year, I spent my first winter in Chicago. I had a cold very often, and the cold winter made me miss my home and my family. People instinctively want to stay at home with family when they are sick. When I was young, I tended to have colds. At that time, I preferred to lie down on the warm floor, eating the baked sweet potatoes that my mother made for me. It made me feel very comfortable, and it was helpful to get rid of my severe cold. You might get curious how I can lie down on the warm floor. Unlike in America, there is different heating system in Korea. In-floor-heating called ‘Ondol’ makes me miss Korea, my home a lot. Ondol in Korea represents Korean culture which cannot be experienced in the United States. It shows that traditional history, relaxed atmosphere, and helps community and relationships.

First of all, Ondol is a traditional heating system in Korea. Koreans always install Ondol in their house, public places such as schools, offices, restaurants and bars. Besides, there are public saunas which have a lot of various sauna rooms and warm floors in Korea. Without distinction of sex or age, many Korean really enjoy hot saunas. People prefer to sweat it out in the sauna and lie down on warm floors. We don’t need to wear thick socks or shoes when we come back home from outside in the winter. On the other hand, in America there is just heated air. That’s why people have to wear socks or shoes in the winter time to keep their feet warm. Most apartments offer carpet on the floor, but carpet makes people get allergies or breathe dirty air.

Secondly, Ondol makes people relaxed, stretch out and it promotes good health. People might get stress from their school or work, so they want to relax and forget about work or homework when they have free time. In Korea, my friends and I used to go out to nice restaurants or bars after work. When we went there, we could choose the rooms between sitting on chairs and sitting on the floor. We always chose in-floor-heating rooms because we wanted to relax and stretch out our tired legs. Eating and drinking on the warm floor also helps promote the circulation of the blood well.  There is just one bad thing about Ondol. People have to control the speed of their drinking because the warm floor makes people get drunk easily. Even though you are drunk, you don’t need to worry about that. You can lie down on the warm floor and then take a nap. In contrast in United States, there aren’t in-floor-heating systems, so people have to sit on chairs. It isn’t comfortable at all to me. Sitting on the warm floor as close to each other makes people feel closer than sitting on chairs.

These days, I am missing Ondol a lot. As the weather is getting colder, I would like to lie down on the warm floor and take a rest with my family and friends. There are electric blankets in Korean market. One day, I bought an electric blanket and spread it out on the floor and lay down on the blanket. I felt warm temperature, but it wasn’t same as Ondol in Korea. Maybe, what I truly miss is my family and friends, not just the warm temperature.

In conclusion, the warm floor is not just a warm floor. It is my home and memories with my family and friends. Americans may not understand about Koreans’ sentiments which are very deep and strong. Sometimes, people say that Americans have a cold heart. Of course, many American are very nice, but sometimes they don’t want people to show their true mind. If they install in-floor-heating in their houses, they would understand Koreans’ sentiments.