Beach Weekend and Recent Events

The weather has been so unbearably hot here in Seoul! Tyler and I decided to head to the beach with our friends over the weekend. We woke up Saturday morning at 4:00 to beat the traffic... I surprised myself at how well I rolled out of bed :)So we loaded up the car and headed to the East coast. 3 hours later we arrive. We set up the tent and had lunch and then went for a swim. A very, very, very cold swim. The water had to be 60 degrees. So it took me forever to get used to the water, but I finally did. Got myself a very nice shell collection too! I didn't take a camera because it was raining on and off the whole trip. The rain water was much warmer than the ocean... Crazy right? Went to sleep around 11 Saturday night and woke up at 6:30. Our friends brought lots of camping gear which included a propane cook stove, pans and plates! They also brought pancake mix. I tried many times to get the pancakes to work but, alas, they just kept sticking :( So we just decided bacon and eggs was much easier. After breakfast the boys tore down the tent and loaded the car. I took a much needed shower...
Okay let me just pause for a second to tell you about the shower. It was a huge room with shower heads lining the entire wall and 3 huge tubs of water in the center with ladles floating in them. The shower heads had NO hot water... The only way to get the hot water was to use the huge basins in the center. Mind you, there are NO curtains. So you see everyone and they see you in your birthday suit. ICKY! But a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do. So needless to say I don't know whether they were staring for good or bad reasons. Remember I am the only, "ample" white girl there.
Okay back to what I was saying... After the car was loaded we headed to a local fish/seafood market. It was smelly but interesting. Guys were coming up to us trying to sell us fish like it was a new car or something! So we decided to try some... All they do is fillet it and lay it out for you. I tried a few bites but neither Tyler or I could stomach it. It's not even remotely close to sushi if that's what your thinking. So they brought us out some soup to cook the fish in. With the fish head in it. Let's just say I ate a lot of rice. So after all that I was still a little hungry and decided to try some fried shrimp. That didn't go so well either because the shrimp was fried WHOLE. It still had eggs under it's tail. So to keep myself from upchucking I just passed on food all together. It took us about 5 hours to get home due to traffic. Korean's all vacation at the same time, and that weekend was vacation weekend... But all in all the camping trip was a success and we had lots of fun and had a good adventure.
Tomorrow is Tyler's 24th birthday! I am now heading for a much needed shower and then to go get his cake. Other than that, my swimming lessons are going so well! I am now coaching several kids and each one of them is awesome. I am very lucky they are all good little listeners. Well I'm off for a cool shower!!!!