Hweongseong...or however you spell it.

Went swimming yesterday, finally! After a night hanging out with friends and no sleep (for me, the insomniac) we all went about an hour out of town to a popular river spot. It's a mountain stream, plenty cold, refreshing, and it was really beautiful. The cold water did what the coffee did not manage to do and wake me up for a bit.

We managed to find a spot we more or less had to ourselves. There was a big group upstream, and when we went to the deeper area downstream, there were people there too, but we had our little area for cooking and chilling. It was nice to be swimming, to be out of town, and not have any expectations.

I don't care for kimbop, so I was glad that we had a bit more. The guys took a while, but managed to a get a good fire going. They don't have to same rules about fires here as back home. It was kind of a hoot to watch the guys with the fire. In the beginning, I wanted to help out (if you know me, you know I am a pyro-just like the rest of the family) but the guys were.....well, guys. So I just sat back. Eventually the sausages got cooked, and that's what matters, right? ;)

The funniest part for me was seeing all the Koreans cavorting in the water fully clothed. My friend N. started the same, in the water with her clothes over her bikini. Eventually I think she took a little pity on me, looking so white (and Caucasian) in my bikini, and swam without the extra clothes over her suit. It's quite normal for Koreans to swim with shorts and shirts on. Many of them can't swim at all. Even though I saw lots of swimmers at the pool last year, I think those Koreans may be more the exception to the rule. I haven't had the heart to return to the pool and be stared blatantly at in my one piece, even, this year. I can be just as self conscious about being in my bathing suit as the next gal, and an idoor pool is too much of a fish bowl. Between staring at me because I am white and because I do the sidestroke (poorly-I am not a good swimmer), I'm just not up for it.

Unfortunately, the pictures I managed to snap did not do the place justice, and the best shots were of J. looking the part of an adorable 3 year old, as she always does.

More Random Thoughts

Yes, I have a lot of those. Entirely too many, in fact. I have been pondering the vagaries of friendship. Perhaps it is so-called frinedship? I don't know. But something I haven't quite been able to put my finger on has been bothering me. Well, many things. One of them is the nature of friendships. I have, in a way, been morning the loss of some friendships lately. I don't do that very well. It was a long long time growing up before I realized how transitory frinedships really were.

It seems to me that a lot of people keep their friendships fairly superficial, and seem to do so quite deliberately. I prefer to let a relationship develop as fully as it naturally would on its own. A friend of mine keeps commenting on how "deep" I am. "You seem like you would listen to deep music," or just,"you seem pretty deep." It makes me wonder, do most people just live most of their lives on a superficial level? Am I really that different? Are people that aren't "deep" happier?

Maybe I should try to just stop thinking so much. Yeah, fat chance of that, right? Nevertheless, there are some friends, new and old, that I miss sometimes.