Penguin Swim

Well up until this past weekend most of my weekends have been during the Christmas holidays and I didn't really celebrate Christmas/New Years this year. So that's partly why my blogging had ceased. However, last weekend there was finally an event worth blogging about, the Penguin Swim. So I shall now recite to you the tale of my jolly good ol' time with my friend/male escort, Mike, at the Penguin Swim.

Now first off I want to mention that last year at the penguin swim (which Mike had also attended) there had actually been some snow fall the night before. So it was a rather perfect environment for the penguin swim. However this year... well it was a perfect day for me, but hardly fitting for a penguin swim. It was a bright sunny day of about +10C when I got up at the ungodly hour of 7:30am to head down to document my friend swim.

Yes, document. Jenny Cade does not bloody swim in any body of water during the winter. Unless it is heated and indoors. Even then I tend to avoid swimming in the winter. Cus lets be honest, who shaves their legs in the winter?

So we got down to arguably the most popular beach on Jeju island, and began to watch the pre-swim entertainment. Well actually we arrived too early and had to wait about 2 hours. While we were waiting some Korean kids (probably 12 years old) saw us and began talking to us. I don't know how, but somehow that translated into Mike doing some sort of tripping competition. I've included a video of the awesome competition. Please note the local News camera man who is also filming this.

I don't know why. But for whatever reason Jeju local news stations love filming foreigners. When Mike was registering I was pushed out of the way so a woman could interview him. And at one point there was just a camera filming my co-worker and I even though we weren't really talking or doing anything at all.

The pre-swim festivities included this wrestling and leg hopping competition. Volunteers came up and stood on one leg, while holding the other leg, and hopped on over to knock each other down. Pretty amusing and random, and as if to make it even more random the final round was between 2 middle aged ladies. The wrestling was a bit more intense. There were a lot of conscription kids for the Penguin swim (in Korea you must serve 2 years in the military) and it was mostly them who volunteered, along with a few middle aged men (and one hardcore old guy). Now the wrestling was right up against a man-made rock wall. So a couple of times shirtless guys were being flung up against the rock wall and gained a few painful looking scrapes.

It's funny how in Canada (and the West in general) we spend so much time constantly worrying if things are safe enough for people (well I don't, but someone does). Well Korea is really quite the opposite. I constantly see 2 or 3 people sitting on a motorbike with no helmet. Or see 8 drunken people sitting on the back of a fruit truck (no seatbelts of course). While I think the west takes safety to a ridiculous extreme (ie. Playgrounds. Why can't parents understand that it doesn't matter how many times you try to change a playground, kids will still find a way to get hurt on it), Korea is certainly the opposite extreme.

Finally it was time for the swim. So after a 15 minute round of warm ups, they all headed to a pit of .... tangerine goo? I'm not sure what it was, but they all started slathering each other up. And then they raced into the water. Apparently the water was about the same temperature it was last year, although I'm not sure if that made the experience better or worse.

The festivities ended with free booze (only in Jeju...) pig parts, kimchi and seaweed soup. Then Mike and I slowly wandered up to the bus and went back to Jeju city. And what did I get from this experience? A cool time, a wicked towel, and some strange photos.