Are you scared of swimming in the ocean? We’ve been doing a lot of it recently.
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Tag: swimming
He also didn’t want to go swimming because the water was cold and he is a baby. It was nice and refreshing for me though! Nice fresh mountain water. I need swimming buddies.
(If you are wondering why he didn’t just go naked, we were with his sister and friends).
It’s still been warm enough to go swimming! It is Autumn in Australia but it’s much easier to go swimming here than in Korea. I’m getting all my swimming in now before we go back to Korea. Not sure why Mr Gwon felt the need to cover his pecs when it was just us in the backyard pool.
Mr Gwon: 안녕하세요.
오랜만에 와이프랑 동네에 있는강에 수영하러 갔어요. 물론 저는 물에 안들어 가고 와이프만 물에 들어갔고요. 비가와서 그런지 강에 물이 많이 불었더라고요. 와이프가 호주에서 와서 그런지 여름에는 항상 수영을 하러 가고 싶어했는데, 이렇게 강물에 들어가는건 처음인거 같아요. 와이프가 좋아 하는 모습을 보니 저도 기쁘네요^^ 자주 가도록 해야겠어요 ㅎㅎ 비디오 시청해주셔서 감사합니다.
As I’ve said before, I’m not really allowed to swim in the river here because of the currents but this is a different area. Usually the water is not very high here, but we’ve had a lot of rain lately so the water was higher. I took the opportunity to do a bit of swimming, not as much as I like, but at least it was some.
Some thoughts about differences between Australia and Korea:
Our friends didn’t spent very long looking for the ideal picnic place. Wherever seems to be fine most of the time. Our picnic was technically on a man made weir… so on concrete rather than up on the rocks, and right near the road. There were nice places further up but going any further didn’t seem to be an option. Australians are really spoilt for space and I think that affects our desire for finding the best picnic places. Koreans don’t seem to mind as much. Plenty of times I’ve seen Koreans just plonk down wherever to have a picnic, side of roads, gravel packing lots – places Australians would never have a picnic. The scenery doesn’t seem to be the most important thing. Many Australians have probably had the experience of going for a picnic in a national park somewhere and trying to find the ideal place, “If we just hike for 20 minutes, scale this cliff face, wade through this river, there is the PERFECT picnic place I swear!”
Koreans won’t go swimming usually! I mentioned in the video that it would be inappropriate to wear a swimming costume (cossie in Australian slang) anywhere other than the beach or a pool. For Australians, and I think most westerners, people are likely to strip down to swimming costumes pretty quickly once they reach the ideal spot (some people even going skinny dipping). The only other person who went swimming besides from my husband and I was that one older guy, and he didn’t get in for long. The biggest reason Koreans often have for not swimming is that it’s too cold. I noticed this in Korea and with the Koreans who board with my parents in Australia. As an Australian, I’m not really that worried about cold water and I know within 5 minutes I won’t feel the cold much. Koreans just don’t have the same swimming culture and experience to know that. I’m sure those in colder European countries who swim a lot know how refreshing cold water can be! I think a big part of the Australian experience is going swimming, working up an appetite and then eating.
Koreans do food really well! I know lots of Australians do food well, but we can be pretty happy with just a bunch of sandwiches. For this picnic there was a bunch of different meat and vegetables and eating is constant grazing the whole time. When one type of meat is done, another goes on, there was rice and kimchi and side dishes then it moved on to ramen, then fruit. So much is centred amount just eating food. I don’t know how much of that is because of this particular group or people or region.
No one went properly exploring. People wandered around a bit but I was the only one who went quite far up the river. I know if I was with a bunch of Aussies they would be likely to trek up the river to see what was up there. I have lots of memories of camping and picnics when I was younger and someone going off exploring and coming back saying, “There is a waterfall up there!” or “Come check out this rock pool” and then everyone goes to have a look. Koreans love the outdoors and hiking, but it’s a much more structured activity. They get all dressed in the brand hiking clothes with the equipment and everything.
It was a really nice day and I’m really glad I got to swim a bit. I wonder what the Korean side of this would be. “The Aussie girl was really weird and went swimming twice and didn’t care about eating all the food and then just disappeared completely at one point.”
When we were on our honeymoon in Vanuatu, we took the opportunity to go out on a boat and go snorkeling.
Every time we get on a boat he asks if we can wear life jackets and where the life jackets are. This time he actually wanted to wear a life jacket while we went snorkeling. Luckily for him, the tour operators give everyone a floatie once they get into the water. We call these types of floaties ‘noodles’. I realised I didn’t really need one, so my husband was happy to take mine and to bob around with 2 noodles.
He is going to kill me for making him look fat there…. but seriously that’s what he looked like. It was an amazing experience though.
Swimming is a cultural difference that pops up a lot. The majority of Australians can swim. When Koreans ask me, “Can you swim?” I feel like they are asking me something like “Can you walk?” It’s such a normal skill to have here that it shocks me that so many Koreans can’t swim. My husband can swim, he is just not confident (hence the constant asking for life jackets), but he was actually in the Korean Navy! He did his national service in the Navy and managed to have no trouble getting through with poor swimming skills.
In conclusion: go snorkeling in Vanuatu. It is amazing! Especially if you live in Australia or New Zealand- it’s only a few hours away.
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