I had a day off yesterday, and with my new ride of a beat up used bike, I decided to explore town a little better and check out a swimming pool about a mile and a half from my place. I’d found it online a few weeks ago but hadn’t had the chance to get over there, but more recently I’ve been itching to get back into the water, so I figured, “Heckity heck, why the heckity not?!”

The bike ride took me about ten minutes, and then it took about another five to actually find where the swimming pool was (I only knew it was in a general vicinity, right next to the local basketball arena and ice hockey rink. Yes, that’s right- Koreans do play ice hockey). I went inside and spent a good fifteen minutes trying to figure out what the deal was at the pool—hours, price, stuff like that—with the woman behind the counter, who spoke just about no English. After a while, I realized that she was showing me the schedule for classes, so when I explained that I just wanted open-lap swim, she flipped the page and showed me the hours for that. This kind of experience has been pretty common for me, thus far; there aren’t very many people here who speak any English, so I’ve had to practice my speaking-with-my-hand skills.

I went into the locker room, changed, and went out to the pool. The pool was Olympic-sized, with half of the water set up with lane-lines going across the pool’s width, and the other half being used by a huge water aerobics class, being led by a woman on the deck who was screaming into a microphone as music played in the background. As I was making my way to get into the pool, I noticed that everyone swimming was wearing a bathing cap, and sure enough, before I could even stick my feet in one of the lifeguards came over and pointed to my head, as if to say, “What, you were planning on jumping in with nothing on your head?” When I explained to her (once again, with my hands) that I didn’t have a cap of my own, she led me to the pool office, where this young swim instructor who spoke fluent English and looked really excited to see a white guy around gave me a bathing cap to use. Which was bright, neon green. Needless to say I looked ridiculous; even they were laughing in my face, but I figured I was going to stand out so much already in a pool of all Koreans that the neon green cap wasn’t going to make too much of a difference.

I got in to swim, but found quickly that things were going to be a little difficult. The lanes of the pool were jam-packed, with about five or six people in each, so it was pretty hard to get up and down the length of the pool. I’m no Marc Spitz, but I also happened to faster than everyone else in my lane, but trying to pass people was nearly impossible with the congestion. After about 30 minutes of swimming, I got out, feeling like I’d gotten at least somewhat of a workout, but more frustrated than anything. The next time I go, I’m going to make a point to do it in the middle of the day when more people are at work, so hopefully that will make things a little better.

I got out of the pool, took a quick shower, and then went to my locker to change. I wasn’t sure whether or not the pool would have towels, and honestly I didn’t really have an extra one at home, so I basically just had to air-dry. Apparently I didn’t do such a good job of it, and as I was putting on my clothes a janitor came by, saw the puddle of water at my feet, and began lecturing me in Korean. It was pretty easy to tell why he was upset, but of course I didn’t actually understand anything he was saying. In any case, he seemed a little too angry for something that wasn’t a big deal (especially for a guy whose job it is to mop up the bathroom), so I just hurriedly put on the rest of my clothes and ran out of the locker room. As luck would have it, in my hurry I forgot to put back the locker key, so as I made my way out the door an alarm went off, and seconds later out came the janitor again, this time yelling at full volume. I realized my mistake, handed him the key, and scampered out of the building, a bit shaken but at least happy that I’d finally found a pool. I guess next time I’ll have to remember to bring a towel.