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...
3 comments:
Great story! I like the whole concept of a Mud Festival - instead of grumping and complaining about the wet weather, they make a party out of it! You gotta like a nation like that. PS
only 3 more days till Thailand - hang in there.
I'm looking forward to hearing about Thailand!
I'm looking forward to hearing about Thailand! CAM
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