but. if there is one phrase that i could use to describe seoul, it would be that it is like a possessed ping pong table strung out on acid.
the people of seoul resemble the salmon i used to watch on the discovery channel. the absence of the sun is no deterrent. every single corner is illuminated by intrusive lights. the constant movement of people of korea have no regard about you or walking etiquette; nana will just run you over with her cart full of vegetables and dead fish.
i got away for most of the week. koreans have a holiday sort of like thanksgiving called chuesok. the country pretty much closes shop and bails to the countryside for good ol' rest. that's what i did, well at least it was the plan.
took a bus down to the southeast portion of the country called gyeonggju and saw some pretty cool tombs and ancient palaces. climbed a huge mountain and found an old buddhist temple. ate some calbi and went to the local karaoke bar and sang journey and lil jon songs
spent 2 days there then hopped on another bus towards the beach city of busan. the weather was beautiful, about 85 degrees, no clouds, gorgeous beach, but i did note the lack of lifeguards, not one. normally this doesn't affect me. still...a little weird.
who knew the next hour i would be far out into the ocean swimming against invisible hands pulling me farther and farther away.
the waves were nice, water not so cold. i noticed the waves were bigger and broke better about 20 feet before they broke again on the shore. so i held my breath and swan underneath the set and emerged exactly were i wanted to be. someone else was with me trying to get the same waves. the next half hour the ocean and i were at it; little did know what was working below the surface
so deceptive the ocean is because the next thing i noticed was...nobody. the person who was catching the same waves i was was now an ant and the shore a horizon. i swam with a fury, pounding my arms and kicking the ocean in the face saying "i won't die in korea, i can't die in korea!" i made little progress at best so i started swimming at angle but it didn't seem to work. i didn't know in which direction the rip current was taking me. i kept at it, but my strength was leaving me. i felt my heart in my mouth as the kicks and punches were beginning to wain.
luckily...well it didn't seem like it at the time, a set of waves began to churn behind me. so i reached down to whatever it was i still had and swam, even harder than the first time.
in all honesty, i don't know how long it took me to reach the shore but it seriously felt like hours. over and over and the waves would come and i'd swim and kick hoping to get pushed further inland but with every wave i'd get swallowed down in the murkiness and each time it would get tougher to reach the surface. i can still taste the seawater in my mouth, i swallowed so much of it.
i had about 20 feet to go, but at the point i was done. my arms were burnt out rubber bands, my legs anvils, my belly a bloated aquarium. the waves kept coming, i knew that the next one or for sure the one after that would be the last.
...thank God i made it :)
the guys and i checked into a "love motel" a place where korean men take their mistresses out to fornicate. not the most hygienic place to stay at, but it was dirt cheap, even for koreans. a couple of stain splattered walls here, a couple of drops of blood on the mattress there and it wans't so bad. we even had our own hot tub, which was never used due to the yellowish tread marks left by the previous visitors.
on the second day it rained but it didn't matter much. ruben, peter and i made the costly mistake of drinking some pretty gnarley stuff. and whenever you end your night with rammen noodles, things usually head to disaster town.
we met some cool peeps the night before and went out. pretty much the same story as the night before but this time we had to wake up at 8am in order to catch our 5-hour bus ride home. didn't get much sleep, ate some weird meat, which i thought was orange chicken at a rest stop, drank 2 liters of water, so sleep deprived.
so now i'm back here, at my buddies place in seoul, trying not to scratch the countless insect bites on my body and thinking to myself, was it all worth it? yes! totally one hundered and five percent.
do i miss my bed? also yes
