A Day at the Lake --Seongju

Last Saturday I went to a lake near Seongju, which is about an hours drive outside of Daegu. It was a welcome relief from the sweltering  hustle and bustle of the city. I signed up for an organized trip through Enjoy Korea with fellow foreigners and we went to a 'water park' on the lake. It was not a water slide and pool affair, as much as actual floating docks on the lake. I suppose it would be better described as a water sports park, as you could wake board, ride a banana boat, and take a speed boat tour around the lake. The highlight of the day for me was the inflatable obstacle course.

Due to the slippery and unstable nature of the beast, I have no photos of the shenanigans that took place for most of the day. (If only I had a GoPro...*sigh*) It was a great deal of fun in spite of the swarming Korean children just waiting to leap out in front of you at any moment and make you trip. I was already as giddy as a school girl to go play in the water, but running around on the obstacle course brought out a whole new level of child like glee. We played tag, jumped off inflatable towers, and best of all just floated and splashed around in the water. Our conversations consisted of, "Tag! You're it!" and "We'll meet you at the trampolines!".

I'm pretty sure this is why Koreans are afraid of me.

 I also engaged in inflatable gladiator style combat. I'm proud to say I won the two rounds I participated in (8 years of martial arts training, all for this one glorious moment!). Since it was just me and two other girls battling it out, by the second round we had a line of Korean spectators. It must have been a sight too, since most Korean women are pretty covered up in public (no cleavage, a few bare shoulders), and then here are these three foreign girls in bathing suits fighting. We received applause and cheers, and promptly decided that the battle was over after the 3rd round.

It was a wonderful way to spend a summer afternoon. Fast forward to the present, I finished up my last week of school, and now it's summer vacation!  I'm teaching a summer camp this week, followed by a week and a half of desk-warrming at school. Desk-warming is when I have no classes and no students to teach but I have to show up to school anyway so I can get paid.  Then it's finally vacation time!

Behold, the summer vacation dance!