Last weekend, part 2

Saturday Night:

We took a car and a taxi to Yeosu for the costume party, and struggled a bit to find a hotel room - Korea doesn't really celebrate Halloween, so when you have about 8 white folks, some of whom are in rather dramatic costumes, it makes it a little difficult. We were turned away by two places until we wised up and sent some of the more normal looking folks and left the others waiting outside.

Some pictures:

cowgirls and Indians
Originally uploaded by recklesswater.

At the party in Yeosu. Virginia as "Bend It Like Beckham," me as a cowgirl.

fan death
Originally uploaded by recklesswater.

In Korea, fan death is thought to occur if someone sleeps in a closed room with a fan on.

Nicola went as fan death. She was awesome.

umpa-lumpa
Originally uploaded by recklesswater.

costume dedication - he had a tailor make the costume, and spent all night in full-on orange make-up.


There are a few more pictures on the flickr account, and Virginia and Stu have way more pictures. Amazing what people are able to do here, what with out good secondhand stores or the other usual suspects for costume-making supplies.

It was kind of amazing to be around so many other white folks! Conversations at a normal pace!! Shocking!! I'm a little sad that I didn't stick it out for the norabang (singing room) afterwards, but i was a tired little monkey and I went back early-ish (but late for me!) because the next day I went rock climbing!!

Sunday:
After being impressed at a the amazing bounce-back of a slept-in sari, I headed over to a friends meet up with a bunch of folks and jumped on the train to Guyre, a tiny town just north of where I am. From there we went to Yeongsan Pokpo (Yoengsan Falls) which was incredibly beautiful, and which I will document when I can get the pictures from people who are smarter than I am and who remembered to take them. I was able to borrow a climbing harness and shoes, and did one and a half climbs - about 2/3 of the way up the second, I kind of got stuck and could feel myself get shaky, I couldn't find a hand or foot hold that I could really grab onto and instead of taking a second and then going up, I got a little scared and frustrated so I rappelled back down. I was annoyed with myself, but oh well. I did reasonably well on the first climb, and had a really great time. This is something I would very much like to try to do again. There are a couple of climbing gyms (or climbing walls in gyms) in cities where I have friends, and I will try to join the foreigner climbing group to go to real, outside-type places. It was such a great environment - people were really nice, the weather was beautiful, and I all-round had an amazing time.

About a year ago, I never, ever would have even CONSIDERED rock climbing or motorcycle riding or running a race. Now, I feel that if I ask my body to do something, most of the time it meets the challenge. I still get scared, but I'm starting to trust myself more and just do things. That, I think, might be the most amazing part.