I have blogged before about the social construction of popular feelings and emotions. I had fun yesterday, for Christmas, but I was acutely aware that "fun" is a social construct, and I could have been miserable, quite easily. This alternate interpretation lurked around the edges.
I was invited for a family fun day by my friend Curt and his family. We went to a sort of mall-slash-theme-park here in Ilsan, a few blocks from my home, called "One Mount." It has a a "water park" and a "snow park." The day being Christmas, it was logical to visit the snow park. Curt and I agreed that "snow park" is a pretty liberal interpretation. It is, mostly, a glorified ice-skating rink. Since the vast majority of Koreans had the day off, they did what Koreans do on holidays. They went shopping and out to a family-fun theme park. The place was so crowded, you sometimes couldn't see the ice.
I tried ice-skating. I've skated before, but I'm pretty rusty, and with grandmothers and small children on diverse sled-like-objects crashing into me constantly, I didn't feel very much like I was actually skating.
Curt's kids tried skating. His daughter, a teenager now (suddenly), was sullen and teenagery, and quickly took off her skates went to sit somewhere and look at her phone. His son was all legs and arms flying around, but spent a good amount of time trying, gamely. I got sore feet (I think I'd put on the wrong size). We ate Christmas ramen at a food court, and went down a strange sort of waterless water slide, on the roof of the one-buildinged theme park. Overall, I saw a lot of people having fun, but I kept asking myself, why was it fun? Simply because they'd decided that it was.
Anyway.
I took a picture looking toward my neighborhood from the roof (which is landscaped and full of rides and attractions).
I took a picture inside, looking down on the main skating area.
I took a picture of people having fun on the ice.
I finally felt tired and came back home.
[daily log: walking, for some not-well-defined distance]