Long shot, but can you help me find this story from a few years ago?

November 12, 2014 11:59 AM

I think this is from a podcast, but it's possible I read it somewhere. A woman relates a story about traveling abroad with her friends. They were guided to a local bath house and had to confront the foreign norms and customs.

The author was more invested than her friends and went through more of the bath house experience, and described the non-gentle treatments she experienced and the awkwardness of interacting with strangers that she didn't share a language with.

At the end of the piece she talks about having an epiphany about the kind of community the locals had in the bath house: groups of women would go together and wash each other as a normal thing. The author expresses a desire for friends to share that with.

I can hear some of the lines in my head, which is why I think it might've been on the Moth or This American Life, but maybe I'm just remembering the emphasis/inflection I read the words in.

posted by itesser to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

I remember this too. I think it was a woman visiting Morocco, and I do think it was from the Moth. I'm trying to do some more digging.
posted by montag2k at 12:07 PM on November 12, 2014

Best answer: And here it is: The 25 Cent Spa.
posted by montag2k at 12:08 PM on November 12, 2014 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Thank you so much!

Metafilter is the best.
posted by itesser at 12:17 PM on November 12, 2014 [1 favorite]