Boryeong Mud Festival

This past weekend I and a bunch of the teachers went to the Boryeong Mud Festival. There were 8 of us all together: me, Marty (entertaining us with bubblegum), her boyfriend, James (who I mudwrestled), Sarah (on the beach), Tanja, Stacy, Art, and Jason. We had the time of our lives. It was the best weekend that I've had in South Korea to date. The annual festival celebrates the healthy mud that is found near Dacheon Beach, which is in Boryeong, which is on the west coast. It's a 2 1/2 hour slow train ride there. The weekend was shaping up to be a gloomy one, as pouring rain was predicted for both Saturday and Sunday, and we went down there not having accommodations. Everything worked itself out though.

The weather could not have been finer. Beautiful blue skies and a hot sun made for excellent beach weather. We also found a minbak (accommodation where you sleep on the floor) that only cost us $25 per person for both Friday and Saturday night, and was only a 3 minute walk to the beach. The weekend was spent playing in the mud and getting very dirty, rinsing it off in the ocean, then doing it again. We also had fun with the paparazzi. Yes, paparazzi.

Despite the hundreds of foreigners there, the newspaper photographers loved our group. Probably because we had a bunch of beautiful women who didn't mind playing for the camera. But still, there were plenty of other beautiful women around. And we had Art, who looks terrifying covered in mud. It was like a piranha feeding frenzy. One lonely cameraman would show up and then minutes later everyone else decided they needed a shot. They even told us how to pose for the picture. Actually, it got annoying after awhile, but we made good fun of it.

We had the best shellfish meal on Saturday night- a bucket of live clams. You dump them on the grill and they pop open when their done. So delicious! And, I tried songnakji. Yes, I ate live, squirming octopus tentacles. Don't knock it till you try it. It was amazing!

Coming home we missed our train out of town so we caught one an hour later. Consequently we lost our seats for the 2 1/2 ride, however, we did get a refund since standing tickets are cheaper. We also made the best of it. We all congregated in the no man's land between train cars and sat on the floor blasting our music, singing and dancing and drinking beer. It was hot as hell, and very uncomfortable, but we were having the time of our lives. I felt like we were the fun steerage passengers, like in Titanic when Rose visits Jack in steerage, has the time of her life, and decides that first class is really stuffy. Everyone else with a seat on the train was really missing out. Except for the 3 elderly Koreans sitting on the floor in the corner. They looked like they really regretted being cheap and not paying the extra money for a seat. We offered them our juice though, which they accepted. (They didn't want soju.)

Finally, to round out the perfect weekend, we all had dinner at the Dubu House which we paid for with our ticket refund. It was also our final meal with Sarah, who returned from 2 weeks in Bali so she could go to the Mud Festival. There were a lot of bittersweet tears, but she finally flew back home to the States the next day. Sarah's one of those personalities you run into that is so full of life that people just want to be with her. She'll be missed, but she's planning on returning come October. All in all it was determined by everyone that we could not have had a better weekend.

Busan

Two weekends ago was my trip to Busan. Of course I forgot my camera. However, Tanja was nice enough to share her photos with me. Busan is located on the southeast coast of Korea; basically on the other side of the country. Nonetheless, we took the high speed KTX train down there and it took just under 3 hours. South Korea is only about the size of Virginia. It's a pretty city, what little I saw of it. It's the second largest city after Seoul. It's got a nice setting on the ocean, which was good to see again.

The trip was organized by my recruiter, ASKNow. Which is an awesome recruiter. If anyone wants to come over and do this, I suggest going with them. About 50 people were there and we all slept on the floor in a hostel. A lot of Korean inns give you a thin mat/thick blanket that you sleep on, instead of having actual beds.

ASKNow had organized a scavenger hunt which was a lot of fun. We broke up into random teams of four with our names pulled out of a hat. I just happened to be good friends with two of my teammates- Tanja and Stacy. The fourth person, Ariana was very cool. We had to find and do a lot of odd things like find shells, get a photo with a cab driver, get a photo with a baseball bat, find and bring a Korean "friend" with you. (aka: some poor hapless soul you found on the street and coerced/kidnapped to come along with you). Our first task was to finish a bottle of soju together. Soju is the Korean national drink, being about 18% alcohol and tasting like rubbing alcohol. As you can imagine there were quite a few crazy waygooks (foreigners) running around town. We had only an hour to complete our tasks and the incentive was $200 to winning team. Not too shabby! Despite getting almost everything on the list, sadly we still lost by a wide margin. It was a lot fun though. Once I get the photos from Stacy I'll post them. She was the photographer during that crazy hour.

After the scavenger hunt they had dinner waiting at the hostel for us so we ate and then danced the night away at a club. It was a good weekend! Before all this, by the way, we spent the day on the beach. Interestingly, Koreans, and I think as a larger part, Asians in general, don't like taking off their cloths in public. Before the other waygooks got to the beach I was the only man with my shirt off and Tanja was practically naked in her bikini. Even in the hot sun and in the water they leave their clothes on. It's a very conservative society.

That Sunday was a bust because it poured rain all day long. July is the rainy season, so at least we lucked out with one good day.

That was last week. This past weekend I kept a low profile and didn't really go out. Tanja and I went to the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon and got some sun on Saturday. They have a pool party on the weekends in the summer. It costs 12 bucks to get in but they have good music and tons of beautiful people. Actually, people watching is half the fun.

Sunday I hiked my neighborhood mountain. It's finally beginning to get hot here. Not as hot as home; 86-87 degrees is probably the hottest it's gotten, but nonetheless, my shirt was soaked. Next week is the Mud Festival in Boereyong! Should provide some entertaining stories. One can only hope!

Explanation of Pics: 1) The hostel and a lot of the teachers.
2) My cool group, all with different expressions on our faces. It love that pic.
3) With our glove powers combined...
4) Me and Stacy's different ways to tell the kids to be quiet. Mine was borrowed from my elementary music school teacher, Mrs. Higgins. "Aaaaaaannnd Stooooop!" Some things you never forget. Laura and Michael I hope your remember her, because you're the only ones who'll get that inside joke. That photo took at least 4 takes by the way, and that was the most serious Stacy and I could get our faces.
5) One of the many injuries incurred during the scavenger hunt. Art claims a bicyclist ran into him. That picture was taken that night of. Believe it or not, it actally looked twice as bad the next day!
6) The beach.