My first swimming experience in Korea...

Well, going for a swim in Korea was quite a new experience. First, I had to find the pool. I started wandering the streets and alleys of Suwon Station and quickly decided I'd never figure it out that way. I'd only seen the building the pool was in once, I saw it when it was dark-- I was still new to Korea--and, let's be honest, I really have no sense of direction anyway so there was no way I was going to remember where it was. So I cheated and went to the information center to ask--and was thrilled when the lady drew me a map and told me (in English) exactly how to find it! :D

So yesterday, I went for my first swim. First, I paid my 5,000 won and then proceeded to enter the ENORMOUS 2-story locker room. I found the locker they assigned me and threw my stuff in before heading to the pool (which I got lost trying to find, I might add...I got some help from some ajummas--old married Korean women--using my mad charades skills). 

Eventually, I made it to the pool--where there was a huge group of ajummas, and a few younger women, doing intense water hip-hop style dancing (??) to insanely loud Korean techno music, led by a young Korean woman who was dancing outside of the pool. Good times. I was about to get into the lap swim side when the Korean women started laughing and yelling something and pointing to their heads...I didn't have a swim cap. So I headed back through the maze of showers, soaking tubs, lockers and naked women to the front desk to get a swim cap. They didn't have any so I ended up borrowing one from a nice ajumma and finally got into the water and started swimming...

The rest of my time at the pool was pretty uneventful, although the Korean women were smiling at me, giving me thumbs up and talking to me like I understood what they were saying, I just kept nodding and smiling and saying "nay..." (korean for "yes") Oh, and at one point an ajumma passed me while I was swimming...but then she had just started and I had been swimming for an hour and was cooling down--well, that's my excuse anyway. At any rate, it was an experience and it was fun. I will definitely be going again and again as I realized just how out of shape I was...and how good it felt to be back in the water.