Summer is definitely roaring here in Korea and I must say that it is more humid than I would ever have imagined. Even in the evenings when the sun has set it is still quite hot. Despite the hot humid nights, one of my favorite things to do is to take midnight walks and hit up the neighborhood playgrounds. One thing the warm weather in Korea is great for is all of the playgrounds and parks. They practically litter Seoul, I love it!
My favorite place to visit on my midnight walks is about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. It is an apartment complex composed of many tall apartment buildings formed in square areas. In the center of each square is a parking lot and a playground area. For some reason I was drawn to the most simplest of the playground areas within the center of four apartment buildings. It is a sand playground with swings, teter-tots, and a very small jungle-gym with two slides, a platform on top, and some chains to crawl up. This is where I go to think, to be by myself, to contemplate the world, my life, my future, the present... It is not the type of place that one would think to go to for peace and serenity, but for me somehow it is more perfect than I can even begin to describe.
The swings are where I go to free my mind. I swing and swing and swing to my hearts content. I pump my legs and swing as high (maybe higher) than the bar that the swing is on. On these hot humid nights the wind that I make from swinging is refreshing and wonderful. Then, when I want to think I head up to the small platform on the jungle-gym. I lay down and from that point all I can see are the four tall apartment buildings that I am surrounded by and the nighttime sky with it's grey clouds and occasional star. Here, I feel small, yet comforted and protected. The apartment buildings loom above me up into the sky. They remind me that I really am so small in this crazy big universe. They also make me feel comforted and protected though because they surround me and enclose me from the 'outside world' at least for the time being. I get the most wonderful feelings when I lay on the top of that jungle-gym and gaze upwards.
I enjoy seeing all of the windows in the apartment buildings and hearing the sounds that come from them. Some lights are on, some are off. Some are bright, some are fancy, some are dull. Sometimes there are people in the windows looking out, maybe at me, maybe not. Some of the sounds that I hear are families hanging out, tv's playing, babies crying, children laughing, the clinking of utensils against plates, the low muttering of conversations...etc. I enjoy laying there looking at all of these apartment windows and trying to think of each of their stories. Maybe they are a family, maybe a couple, maybe they just had their first child, maybe the grandparents live there too, maybe they have a dog or a pet fish. The possibilities are endless and I could entertain myself for hours just thinking up stories for these apartments. I usually get distracted thinking about life though. My life is kind of like all of the apartment windows, the possibilities are endless and there is so much to choose from. It's wonderful, yet somewhat daunting at the same time.
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