A Dirty Blog Entry

I spent this last weekend covered in mud... at the Boryeong Mud Festival. It's basically an excuse for hundreds of people to jump around in the allegedly healthy mud and act primeval; all in all a fantastic time.

I grabbed the slow train from Yongsan to Daechon on Saturday morning, and three hours later we were on the East China Sea and ready to be mudded, as it were. The "we" for this trip consisted of many of my friends, Americans, Brits, Canucks, Koreans, South Africans, even an Ethiopian; everyone loves the mud.

First stop was our minibak; essentially a big room where you dump your stuff and pass out in many hours later. Ours held at least 20, including Gareth's South African cousin who chose to sleep in the closet... when the room was empty. Next Stop was the beach, we did the big walk to take in the scene, beers were next on the agenda. I hung around for a while, caught up with some people I hadn't seen for a bit, then me and my dirty friends jumped in the mud pit and joined in the wrestling; very primeval. We all battled each other for a while and then decided to play in the ocean. There were some fairly decent waves and the water was warm, a lot of fun again.

We all eventually wandered back to the minibak, got changed, lit some fireworks, and slowly made our way down the beach for dinner. It took us a while (and a horrible batting cage with no lefthanded booths) but we finally sat down for what ended up as a delicious dinner of shellfish and soju.

After that we split off into various groups to enjoy the night as we saw fit. I eventually met up with some friends on the beach and got into the meat of things; a spirited soccer game of foreigners versus Koreans. We had size, heart, and the best goalie in East Asia, and the Koreans had skill. We played one team and disposed of them 2 - 0.

The next game was epic, we played the full 90 minutes... I think. We controlled the wings with our speed, but the Korean's skill clogged up the middle (my yelling out "put the body on him" from my central defender and de-facto captain spot definitely helped clog things up). We played out hearts out but lost 2 -1 on a pinball goal, but I've never played better in my life, so I was happy at least; I was able to make plays with both my left and right feet... don't laugh, it's big for me.

My next stop was bed, followed by a relatively early morning. After waking up, Peter and I, a new character recently added to the ECC cast here from St. John's, went to the train station and we grabbed a couple standing room tickets for the trip back to Seoul. The three people we sat in between actual cars with were mildly psychotic, but nothing I haven't seen before. It rained the whole way and the flooding is quite bad in Seoul now, but not to worry dear readers, I live on the fifth floor.

Back in Seoul I spent the next day at an English bookstore purchasing JPod by Douglas Coupland and at Costco purchasing food by the lowest bidder and Chinese beer. For the record, Canadian Costco cards work in Korea.

Next week will be insane, I'll be teaching 50 classes instead of my normal 36 while covering for a teacher on vacation in India. After that week I'll need a vacation... good thing I'm headed to Thailand on the 29th; bliss on the beach for a few days I hope. Don't expect anything until I return from Siam; if I did write something it'd only be about how much I really need a vacation, and nobody wants to read that...

Through the Looking-Glass: A Weekend in North Korea

I spent this last weekend in possibly the most isolated country on Earth, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (a.k.a. North Korea). I left Seoul at 11:50pm Saturday night. The bus trip was a rather giddy one; beer, anticipation, and world cup quarter-finals on satellite t.v. were the order of the day. We stopped at 4:30am for a very, very early breakfast (mine consisted of pastry and beef jerky). The next stop was the South Korean side of the DMZ, a very modern building in which everyone was processed in a relatively fast and orderly manner. Following that we boarded a different bus for the trip through the DMZ to Geumgangsan, DPRK.

I''ve never been more intimidated entering a country as I was entering North Korea. After seeing NK soldiers and rocket launcher jeeps from the road we reached the NK immingration "office", which was in reality a big white tent. We had to line up in for different lines, in a set order. Some people were asked multiple questions (mostly Americans I think) but I was allowed entry without a single question. I guess I either look trustworthy or scared out of my mind. After making it through the border we proceeded to board the bus again, we were instructed to never, NEVER take pictures from the bus. There were soldiers about every 50m along the road, if they saw a camera they would raise their red flag... and all hell would presumably break loose.

The hotel we stayed in was a five-star joint (built by Kim Il-Sung's wife), complete with listening devices, as an Irish member of our tour found in his room. Directly after arriving we went for a hike to a waterfall, it was beautiful in a rainy way. That night many people went for a tour-sponsored dinner; but when the guides declined so did I, and from everything I heard the dinner was awful; pork with hair on it. Me and my friends stayed in the hotel bar and drank fantastic NK beer. After that we celebrated Canada Day in a North Korean Karaoke bar with Americans, Canadians, Englishmen, Dutchwomen, South Africans, and Irishmen. Post singing we were able to watch England lose to Portugal.

After a very short night we headed out on another fog/rain filled hike. Post hike we went for lunch and did a little bit of shopping. The bus back to relative (but that's another entry) freedom left at 3:30 and following a severe interagation of one of my idiotic American tour-mates who decided to take a picture of a soldier we were back in the south, and 6hrs from Seoul.

All in all it was quite the trip. The little things will be the things I remember most. I had a very brief, and quite illegal, conversation with two NK mountain guides who wanted to know all about Canada and Seoul... before their boss arrive. I saw potential for the best photo I ever would have taken, but would be in jail now, of two uniformed NK soliders on the side of the road playing guitar and playing with a dog; Pullitzer stuff if I've ever seen it. The level of control there made me glad to see the M-16 carrying SK soldier for the first time ever when we crossed back into the south. However I don't feel that I saw the real DPRK, I saw a sanitized, controlled tourism experiment. While that's true, at the same time I'll never forget this trip, I went to a place where few go, and as much as Hyundai tried to make it seem like we were still in the south, it was clear to be that this country is as tightly controlled as any on the planet.