March 1st is Independence Movement Day in Korea, so we had a three-day weekend. On Friday I went with my friend, her husband, and their daughter to Saemangeum, the longest seawall in the world. They have a car, so we actually drove the length of it and ended up visiting a really picturesque area on the southern coast that we found out was Gyeokpo. It was so beautiful. We stopped several times on the seawall to stop and look at the waves crashing in from the Yellow Sea, but the wind was insane and the water - which did splash us quite a bit - was very cold. Of course, my phone's battery was low, so I couldn't take any pictures! What a shame! We saw some marvelous views from the cliffs of Gyeokpo and just in general the sea has always been amazing for me personally.
I always wanted to live by the sea, and now I did. Even when I studied abroad in Senegal, I loved Saint-Louis more than Dakar because the time we spent in Saint-Louis was so much closer to the water than where I lived in Dakar. The sea always has a strange effect on me - it's both beautiful and terrible, mortifying and yet mesmerizing. I'm notorious for just stopping and staring at the waves for long periods of time whenever I get too close to the pull of the sea - like it has some sort of invisible force that draws me in and compels me to be fascinated by it.
I tend to think that one of the things I love about the sea is that it's such a good (albeit small in comparison) parallel to God: so beautiful you can't look away, but so powerful you can't help but feel fragile and small.
Anyway. My friend said she'd e-mail me the pictures that she took, since her phone was fully charged, but she hasn't yet. Maybe at some point I can post them here. It was an awesome time.
