Utopia

At Mud Festival 2010, all I could keep thinking is, "This is the way I was meant to live". Spending the weekend barefoot, in a bathing suit, covered in mud, swimming in the ocean, lying on the beach, and often with a drink in hand was nothing short of utopia. And when it ever became somewhat necessary to wear actual clothing (say, in a restaurant), all I felt compelled to opt for was a ridiculous short sleeved, Homer Simpson hoodie. No pants. No problem.

Let me give you a quick recap of the festivities....

Friday Evening...
-We arrive in Boryeong around 10 pm, settle into our hotel room, have a couple drinks, and head out to the beach and boardwalk.
-We walk the beach for a bit. Oh, how I love big bodies of water. The beach is very pretty and very clean. And, most importantly, I finally breathe some fresh air. Fresh air nonexistent in the Incheon/Seoul area.
-We have a delicious dinner on the boardwalk, in which we consume fresh shellfish/clams cooked right at our table. After the seafood, we decide to sample the chicken ass. At first, I was not a huge fan of chicken butt, but it shortly grew on me. Yummy(ish).
- We head back to the hotel for some rest because there is a big day in store.

Saturday...
- We awake and see that it is a little drizzly and dreary outside. I am not even slightly worried about this minute detail.
- I cook a Korean convenience store breakfast for my roommates. We feast on beef jerky and pepper jack cheese stick omelets with a side of canned fruit cocktail. As I am cooking, Linsday is preparing the Malibu Rum coffee. It is a beautiful breakfast. We play some silly games as we eat and drink and then head off to the festival.
- We reach the beach. I am buried in the sand. We slide down a water slide. Clearly, we are not close enough to the mud yet, as the slide is mudless. Still, it is fun.
- We reach the mud. There are mud pits, slides, painting booths, events, blah blah blah, stationed all around. We mainly hit the mud pits, which are actually rather dangerous. Mud covered monsters welcome you into the pit and then body slam you into the depths of the grime. There are mud fights and wrestling everywhere. It is aggressive, dangerous, primitive, and wonderful.
- Throughout the day, we go back and forth between the mud and the ocean. One of the most lovely aspects of the festival is that you can get as beautifully muddy as your heart desires but then quickly run into ocean, have a little swim, and clean up.
- We meet up with some other friends next to the big stage that is set up for musical performances. We spot a young man who has fallen asleep amidst all of the excitement. Let me note that he is absolutely passed out up against the stage and is right next to the blaring loud speakers. But this does not awaken the little angel...therefore, he absolutely deserves to be buried in the sand.
- We start to head back to the hotel for some rest. However, I am far from ready to rest and decide to use this alone time to swim my little heart out in the ocean. I swim for awhile until the Korean police/beach guards decide that the water is too dangerous for swimming. Let me note that, by American beach standards, the water was nothing to worry about. There were a few waves. That's about it. The problem is that most Koreans don't know how to swim/are terrified of the water/the elements. Therefore, I had to suffer due to their lack of aquatic skills. Not fair.
- As I sadly start to head back to the hotel, I run into John, one of my friends/roommates. He suggests that we rent an inflatable rowboat. I am, of course, on board with this notion. We row, some (me) better than others (John). Unfortunately, the beach guards approach us on their jet skis as they are SCREAMING at us to get out of the water. We are in a boat, aren't we? There's nothing to worry about...or so I thought (right before we capsize).
- We make it back to the hotel, regroup, refresh, and head back to the beach to meet other friends for dinner. We have another delicious dinner on the boardwalk, this time with sam gyup sal, fatty pork that you cook at your table. It is an extremely enjoyable meal with good meat, good drinks, and lots of laughs.
- We take a stroll down the boardwalk, having lots of silly fun along the way. Two of my girlfriends and I eventually sit down on some huge steps to the beach and watch the fireworks.
- We decide to give the rowboat another shot. As the beach guard sees us carrying the boat to the beach, he firsts asks, "Swimming". I reply, "No, boating". The Korean beach guard replies back with "Dangerous". I explain to him, "Koreans, swimming, no. USA, swimming, good" and proceed on my merry way. As Linsday and I were thrown out of our little boat by the fury of the sea, I think "Wow, for once, a Korean policeman was actually being helpful".
- Since we are unable to enjoy the boat in the ocean, we enjoy it on the sand. It almost feels the same. A couple of friends who just arrived in Boryeong meet us on the beach and we have a brief sand fight.
- We head back to the hotel. Goodnight.


Sunday......
-We awaken and spend the morning in the same manner as the previous. The only difference is that we prepare soju boxes after we have polished off the Malibu. A soju box is like a juice box but for adults or misguided youth.
-The weather today is BEAUTIFUL. It is sunny and hot but there is a slight breeze that keeps you cool enough. Most of the day is spent on the beach. I spend most of my time swimming.
-We return to the mud. The mud pits are more organized and less dangerous today, perhaps because there are more children and families around(though, some parents thought that it was fine to let their little girls join in on the mud pit battles yesterday...unbelievable). At one point, our mud pit is cleared of all others and Linsday, Stella, and I are asked to stay in and hounded by about 12 photographers who keep telling us what to do. "Slide in the mud!", "Now, jump!", "Now, eat the mud!". I felt like Heidi Klum. Only less stunning and more muddy. In the second mud pit, we insist that everyone stops what they are doing and play duck, duck, goose. For some ungodly reason, they listen to us.
-We end the day at the beach and then head to another wonderful Korean dinner. This time, we sit on the floor, which is always very festive and usually very uncomfortable. However, I am in such high spirits that I am completely ok with the floor. It is at this dinner where we all notice how insanely sunburned we are. Joe and Bill have it the worst. I do not look too good myself. It's hilarious. Hilarious and painful.
- We drive home and the dream is over.

Mud festival. To this little mud solider, it will forever be remembered as the most glorious of weekends.

The Fun Scale

I have been very busy these days. Luckily, I have been busy with FUN rather than WORK (though, nonstop working will return once more in September...hooray). Let's start with the Fourth of July. I was really sad to be missing the Fourth in Minocqua, even though I usually work on the Fourth anyway...usually the double shift. HOWEVER, celebrating my nation's freedom in Korea was actually absolutely delightful. Fellow teachers and I had a barbecue on the top of our apartment building. While it is rather dirty up there, the view of urban Incheon surrounded by pretty, pretty mountains compensated for the general dirt and grime. What did NOT compensate for the filth was the scorching hot sun. Fortunately, we battled the heat by running to Homeplus and purchasing a decent number of water guns. Water gun battles ensued...over and over again. I fell three times. Fell hard. Once flat on my back. Wasn't sore in the morning though because I am a beast. After we ran out of water and realized how much extra spirits we had left over, the water gun fight turned into a booze gun fight, with each gun featuring a different spirit. It was disgusting. It was fun. Bam! Beer in yo face! Bam! Soju attack! Bam! Taken down by Makali (a white rice wine)! However, one fierce warrior took it a step too far when he decided to incorporate red wine into the battle. Game over. We ended the evening by shooting some fireworks off and NOT getting arrested or even approached by the police. It was all safe fun. All in all, although I was away from my beloved USA, it was a great Fourth of July celebration. God bless America.

On the other end of the fun scale is my infected cut. One Saturday evening, as my friends and I were departing Seoul, I fell into a ditch while attempting to enter a cab. NOT SO MUCH MY FAULT. The cab driver parked next to this scary, deep, wide, dirty ditch, because Koreans can't drive or even park properly. If you read this and think, "oh goodness gracious, what a stereotype!", then you have obviously never lived in Asia...or on the U of I campus. ANYWAY, I fell into the ditch and cut my leg. I knew it wasn't good, but since Donna Tolish trained me to never seek medical attention, I figured that I would survive. A week and a half later, it was looking nasty, so I first checked with the ICEV nurse. She gave me a look of disgust and insisted that I go to the hospital that very day. I went the next day and was officially told that it was an infection and was then given an injection in the a** and some antibiotics. I just pray that it is healed by.......

MUD FESTIVAL!!!!! Mud festival is next weekend. It is exactly what it sounds like and I might pass out with excitement when I get there. And I WIL be there, infected wound or not.

Now that the fun scale is now back on track, I will let you know that THAILAND is also in my near future. September 19-26 will be a week of beautiful beaches, hopefully lots of coconut rum, swimming, delicious food, lady boys, and screaming at children not because they are talking when teacher is talking but because their sand castle got in the way of my rum soaked stumble into the sea.

Last note- Sylvester and Fluffy are somehow still alive.