a dentist's paradise

i have been putting off posting pictures of my trip to busan last weekend largely because posting pictures takes so long. however, in the interest of putting off preparing for the upper-level class i teach tomorrow, i have suddenly found the time to upload these images. its incredible how that works out, no? anyway, we went to busan over labor day weekend to celebrate the birthday of my friend liz. please note that labor day does not exist in korea. perhaps it would be better to say that i went so that i could avoid being cognisant of michigan's heartbreaking loss in a throw-away game. regardless of the reason, we went to the beach town to celebrate by swimming with the sharks in the large aquarium they have there. yes, i said it. we went to swim with sharks.

big ones.

but we didnt just hop into the tank, no, we went laden with full scuba gear, breathing with artificial lungs. when i put on my wet suit, i felt like i was transformed into a ninja. i was still trying to think of my superhero name when i discovered how complex scuba diving can seem. throughout the entire training process, i was fixated on not killing myself. breathe in, breathe out. use your mouth to breathe. dont go down too quickly. breathe. equalize early and often. breathe. dont hold your breath or your lungs might explode. breathe. it was a lot of pressure to put my own life in my hands in this manner. ok, i admit, the tank was only 15 feet deep at the deepest point. there was no real way that i was going to drown. but breathing in this unnatural way was intimidating.

i spent so much of my energy worrying about the ways could mess up and accumulate undue pressure in my sinuses that it was not until i was sitting in the bottom of the shark tank that i actually realized that there were SHARKS. IN THIS TANK. not just baby sharks, but HUGE GRANDDADDY SHARKS. and not, as i had imagined, just a few sharks. there were no less than 30 sharks swimming amongst the tuna, stingrays, eels, and me.

i have got to tell you, sharks are scary s.o.b.s that need some braces in a major way. they swim by you casually, flexing their theoretical muscles by opening and closing their jaws. they own the tank, and they know it. what the hell was i doing there?



despite all of this, the experience was exhilarating. we went on to check out our tiny sliver of busan, which was decidedly less than i would have liked because we were there when korea was still trying to make everyone miserable by raining every single day for 5 weeks. thanks for that, by the way.

anyway, it was awesome to see the ocean, even if i couldnt get in it. and i didnt get eaten by sharks. all in all, a successful weekend.