Days Winding Down

Ugh. So sad.

Especially since this Sunday was one of the most amazing normal Sundays of my life.

After resting all day Saturday (watched-5-movies resting, so like super legit did nothing except relaxed and caught up on popular culture), I arrived at the Yacht Club with a warm welcome from a magnificent day. We did an easy cycling warm up for about 30 minutes, and then did a team ocean-swim, which was fantastic. This was the first team ocean swim (like everyone together - we had done OWS (open water swim) with a few of the kids before, but usually only the ones who were going to be racing soon. So this was nice to be able to do it with everyone.

After that, we did a cool down on the bike (everything was at the Yacht Club), and set out for an amazing afternoon. Coach and fam and I went to Igidae (the natural love of my life) for the best open water swimming I have ever experienced, thanks partially to the amazing weather, partially to the big waves, and partially to the genius of Total Immersion (if you are a swimming or swimmer-aspirant I highly highly recommend checking out Terry Laughlin's books / DVDs - it is the best money I have spent in the sports market). I'm not even going to try and go into how amazing this swim was because I have studying to do and I don't have time to be sucked into a profession of my naked soul, which could turn into a mini epic (that right there should tell you that it was an experience I will never forget).

After swimming, we hung out at Igidae for a bit, and then went back to the house. I was exhausted, likely from a mixture of sun and elation, so I nearly laid down for a snooze. But as I've been progressively learning, older siblings don't have nearly as much quiet time as younger siblings or only childs (I'm not complaining about this at all though - because I love Coach's son as if he were truly my brother - just stating an observation :) ). While I could have gone into another room to rest, I decided to muster up my remaining energy to attempt to play Jacks - which didn't work out too well as my body was mostly horizontal in my attempt. We next decided to write some stories. He went on to write a story about a king - I think the title of his story was "King's Poker" (very creative I thought), and I went on to write a story about "사람은 파랑색 구두가 있습니다 (a man has blue shoes)". I got to 1/2 way into the first sentence and figured out that my desired expressions were too complicated in my soon-to-be second language, so I started writing random sentences. They actually were somewhat reminiscent of some of my previous blogs in the sense that they are completely stream-of-consciousness (although I'm not sure if people with ADD, or similar symptoms, should be allowed to write in stream-of-consciousness...). But anyway - in my tired state, little bro got a kick out of my 'story.'

After that debacle, we watched some Simpsons, which was fun! I haven't watched much of that show. One of the episodes was mediocre, but the second was actually really entertaining - we had fun watching them. A bit after that, we left to eat at one of my favorite restaurants for 오리불고기 (duck) and 시래기 (dried radish leaves soup-ish thing - soooo good).

This particular dinner was a very interesting cultural experience. For the first time since I have been in Korea, there was a very loud group of people at a table in the restaurant. Surprisingly, I didn't notive it at first, probably because I was drained from the awesome day. But I did hear the waitress tell them to be quieter, which I had never heard a waitress say to a customer before. But a few seconds after, I could tell something was off by the looks on Coach and Coach's wife's expressions. Apparently the men were not only being loud but using bad language too, and I saw a few of the other customers get up from their tables to come around the corner to stare at the men making all of the noise. Apparently that is very rude in this country, which makes sense, because overall this country seems to be quite representative of it's English nickname "The Land of the Morning Calm". When the men left, I was able to greater appreciate the calm atmosphere that the general Korean ambiance is generally comprised of, and I have to say, it was a wonderful reminder. As a tangent thought, in homely restaurants like that one (particularly when most of the tables are low to the ground with no chairs), it almost feels like you are eating a meal with your extended family (assuming the unorthodox behavior is absent).

Anyway. Before getting back to my Korean studies, I want to briefly comment on a few movies that I saw this weekend while resting.
Phantom of the Opera - awesome movie. If you haven't already seen it and don't loathe musicals (and if you haven't seen a movie musical other than Mamma Mia your opinion doesn't count because it is by-no-fault-of-your-own tainted (not to say Mamma Mia was horrible but it's certainly not a classic)) I would highly suggest renting it - very very good movie-musical.
Mystic River - now one of my favorite movies. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Sean Penn is an amazing actor. As is Tim Robbins.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - I saw this a few weeks ago actually but it was so good that it stuck in my mind. If you don't like thrillers, then forget it. But, Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer make a fantastic pair, and are both quite funny. (Yup, you heard me right - Val Kilmer and funny was used in the same sentence. Actually more accurate is hilarious. My favorite Val Kilmer performance, and Top Gun is one of my favorite movies.)

Oh man, no time. Alright - well, I hope I was able to enrich some of your theatrical educations. :D Off to study!