A Day at the Beach
Current mood: working

On Friday night, after hapkido class, I went for a beer on the beach with a few fellow martial artists. Although I've never lived so close to a beach before, it felt like home. We just sat on the deck at a bar and talked for hours.

Saturday morning came too fast and I was running out the door to meet some of the women from the women's group I attend. We had another informational meeting at the main office for a battered women's shelter where we are starting to establish a working relationship. We are hoping to get foreign women involved in volunteering with this organization, but it is proving to be a long process.

I went out to a foreigner bar that night. My general stance on foreigner bars is that I try to avoid them. Robin and I got dressed up and planned to go dancing in the Kyungsung University area, but then when we were calling friends to get them to join us, we were told that it was the last night that a foreigner funk band that I enjoy was ever going to play. The band members are moving to different countries and whatnot. So, change of plans, foreigner bar it is. It was a fun night for dancing, and I will miss this band. It's rare to see live music in Korea, and even rarer for the music to be in English.

When I woke the next day, Robin and Amy were headed to the beach, so I joined them. They were already headed out the door when I got up, so I had to hurry and neglected to put on enough sunscreen. My bright red shoulders are screaming at me today as a result. But the day was fun. We just laid on the beach, watched some volleyball, read, talked, listened to music...Amy and Robin were adventurous enough to jump into the ocean. I was not. It's hot, but not quite hot enough for me. Give it another week or so and I'll be playing in the waves with them. We went to TGI Fridays for dinner, which is somewhere we have never gone all together, someplace I avoid generally because it's so much more expensive than any other restaurant. However, because of some world cup craziness, their entire menu was 40% off. So, we lounged on the beach and ate western food.

I watched TV and read last night after coming home from the beach. This entire weekend made me forget that I was in Korea. It's odd, but sometimes I have to look around at all the signs and all the Korean people to remember where I actually am. I think that's why I try to avoid foreigner bars and hangouts, because I don't want to forget. But sometimes it's just so hard to avoid. And then suddenly here I am, in little America.