Adventures in South Korea: Scuba diving in the Busan Aquarium...with sharks!

This is a very late post and I'm sorry once again! This happened on Saturday, May 25th and was a blast! My new friend, Anita (the girl whom I met on my fateful and barely attended Seoraksan climbing trip- she saved me from the chaos that is Korea), called me up on the Tuesday prior with an extremely tantalizing offer: "Hey! Would you like to come shark diving with me this weekend in Busan?" Now, at this point I had been traveling far and wide every weekend, trying my best to see all of Korea in a month.... because I don't have another eleven or so to do anything! My plans for that weekend consisted of relaxation and self-seclusion, my weekend to finally come to terms with the reality of my situation (which is the ridiculous length of time and space between me and home.) Thus, my initial thought was to turn her down, as I was truly exhausted from work and traveling, but mostly tired of people, people, people!! (There is NO getaway. If you think you are alone, say in the middle of the woods or on a mountaintop or anywhere that would normally be nice and secluded, think again. Wait five minutes and I guarantee SOMEone will come along. No guessing who- but an ajuma or ajishi (old, married woman and old man) are most common as they are old and do whatever the hell they feel like. Including pushing you around on the subway. This is another topic..) Anyways- my goal for the weekend was to find the 'sound of silence' with just myself and my laptop (this was when I had internet). So I was pretty excited to pretend the world around me was English and logical. Anita's call did put a damper on my 'ideal' weekend, I was torn as to an answer. There were other chances to do so, but none with Anita. She was my deciding factor, I knew we'd have a blast freaking out and laughing later, saying "Holy hell! We just swam with sharks!"

Despite the expense (total for the weekend was around $400- not bad for a trip to Busan and shark diving, but a bit much for a weekend that was going to be 0$), I enjoyed every moment. Anita and I stayed at a hotel on Haeundae Beach, then went into the 'belly of the shark' so to speak. It was a bit of an odd experience, I mean the sharks themselves were surprisingly gentle! I bet I could have pet one had it not been for the instructors' warning not to stick out your hands, as your fingers could be mistaken for fish. Not a good ending you see. So I kept my hands to myself and just watched as the underwater monsters cruised by me with almost a bored expression, like "God. ANOTHER group of them. Honestly, you'd think they'd never seen a shark before." Then him and I would meet up on the other side of the tank and he'd give me the look again, just to make sure I understood how ridiculous I was to try to 'swim with the sharks', and probably how ridiculous I LOOKED, too. The equipment is extremely crazy, with tubes going all around you, some weird weights planted on your hips to keep you from floating up (and that's just what every girl wants- more weight on their hips!), then you get the beautiful mask that makes every one's eyes look Joan Rivers' with some hair waving in the water like Troll dolls. Being cute while scuba diving is not an easy task, and for those who are- more power to you!

The dive itself was nerve racking, cold and frightening, wrapped in one big ball of excitement and fascination. The fear made my heart fly like hummingbird wings, the freezing temperature of the water made my body start to shake in a drum roll rhythm, and my mind could hardly control the thoughts of panic, alarm and anxiety. I was the first to enter the tank, thus I was on the bottom for five minutes, just kneeling, freezing, and shaking in mind, body and soul. I could not help but allow the fear to overtake me in those minutes, as there was little movement to keep my mind from panic mode. But as the minutes passed, I began to regain control of my fear, and began to focus on one task (besides breathing and not sticking my hands out), and that was to find shark teeth! The instructor had mentioned it before the dive as 'an extra' thing to think about, and if we did find some we could keep them. Well hells bells, thank God (or rather the instructor) for that two cents because I swear that was all that kept me sane for that half-hour! I searched and searched for teeth, ooing and ahhing at the sharks and big fish as they'd pass, but overall kept my eyes glued to the tank floor-which is all the same color and covered with millions of shells but few shark teeth. Not to gloat, but at the end of the half-hour I had found ten teeth! Okay, that doesn't sound like much, but to put in it in comparison- only two other teeth was found by other divers. Every time I'd pull a new tooth up, Instructor Mike would shake his head with what I think was a laugh, probably thinking I have some sort of disease like Hoffman in The Rainman. He said afterwards that the only person to find so many in one dive was an army guy who does reconnaissance. I kind of awkwardly laughed, as I was a bit embarrassed for having spent all my time looking at the floor, and because I'm a freak of nature that loves doing puzzles and doing word finds (which in elementary school, I would do on the hour's bus ride to and from school everyday. And not easy ones, the hard ones with letters missing to fill in, mixed with numbers, just numbers, and so on. After awhile the puzzles got so easy that I'd compete with my own record for puzzles completed. I'd even ignore my friends to finish.... now that I think about it- I was pretty lucky to have any friends at all. I could have been the 'weird puzzle kid' had it not been for daycare's exposure.) Okay, anyways, I ended up being the weird 'shark tooth finder' for the Busan Aquarium Scuba Divers' Tour, my story told to millions, and my signed picture on the wall. The legacy forever engraved on the tank wall... hm. It's nice to dream. In reality, no one cared two hoots. Why should they? Just because I have eyes like a hawk and 'nerves of steel'- as I didn't freak out externally once, I'm nothing special am I? Just a little? No? Dang. Well, I felt pretty goddamn special after I was out of that tank, that's for sure. The teeth were just a trinket, a small trophy for having made it through the dive without a panic attack. I couldn't have cared less, and nor could my peers. We were all happy to have it over with. As cool as the sharkies were, it was a bit much to handle with the whole breathing underwater thing. Thus, I'm proud now of my teeth finding feat, but at the time was more thankful for the distraction. So, cross my heart and kiss my elbow, shark teeth saved my life!

After the dive we walked through the aquarium for a bit and I made friends with the jellyfish, then we caught dinner at a local Indian restaurant which was amazing delicious, and after that we went for a walk on Haeundae Beach. It was the perfect day of excitement mixed with relaxation. I hope you enjoy the pics, they are but a smidgen of what really was!

The first dive team that entered. We had to all enter one at a time down the tank's curved wall, curved because it's over a walkway. As you descend, people in the tunnel observe you at one of the worst angles, your butt and fat in all its glory. Once at the bottom of the tank, we had to wait. That was the point prior to my shark teeth epiphany, when I thought I was going to die.