MudFestivities Pt. 2

Day 2: Right after being painted.

Classic jumping pose.

Right after, Gretchen and I went down the slide.

Best hats ever. They were actually really heavy. I stole them off of some guys who were passing out flyers.

Boryeong beach had the best places for photo ops. Love it.

MudFestivities Pt. 1

Please take note of the photo bomber in the background.

Oh ya know, just a man covered in blue mud.

Sarah and some of her muddy co-workers.

M-U-D

So muddy.

MUDFEST

Boryeong Mud Festival is something I've been looking forward to since before I got to Korea. I finally went to the long awaited festival last weekend and it was everything I hoped it was going to be.

There was a big group of us going so we all met at the bus station bright and early Saturday morning. On the way there it was pouring rain, but luckily after the 2.5 hour bus ride the weather cleared up. MudFest is exactly what you'd think it would be. Tons of therapeutic mud is brought to Boryeong and there are blow up slides, obstacle courses, wrestling rings, and even stations to get painted in colored mud. There were so many foreigners and I even ran into a bunch of people I knew.

Thankfully, one of my Korean friends booked a pension (like a hotel, but you sleep on the floor) for everyone so we had a place to stay the night. We had a huge cook out and slept great after a long day of running around covered in mud.

The second day of MudFest, the weather was perfect! I went to the beach and laid out for the first time all summer (paid for it later). We had to take advantage of MUDFEST so we got painted in mud by some guys from the military. One was from Huntsville, Alabama and the other one was from Iowa and was a huge Tom Izzo fan. It's always fun meeting new people, especially Izzo fans!

After the mud dried and some photo shoots (there were tons of paparazzi, literally) we washed off in the Yellow Sea and headed to the train station. We got there just in time because tickets were selling out fast. I ended up on a non-direct train back to Daejeon. The first train was 7 minutes delayed which worried me because I only had 11 minutes in between that train and catching the KTX back to Daejeon. I had another 'Amazing Race' experience running from the first train to the KTX. Thankfully I made it just in time.

It wasn't until later that night after being on the beach all day that I realized exactly how much sun I had gotten. I bought some aloe and some other lotion from the pharmacy and since then, it has turned into a nice base tan for Thailand. When I left MudFest I said that I'd stay in Korea another year, just so I could go again next summer.

Best.Week.Ever.

Who's having the Best Week Ever, VH1 style?! ME!

1.) My Tuesday/Thursday intensive class got cancelled so instead of starting work at 9 a.m., I don't start until 11 a.m.

2.) I just got tickets to the "Summer Week & T" music festival on Naksan Beach, headlining Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco! (I'll have to put the TSwift incident aside.)

3.) I also just booked 3rd row center "Phantom of the Opera" tickets in Seoul.

4.) I leave for Thailand in t-minus 2 days.

5.) I like lists in 5's.

So Close

Thailand Countdown: 4 days!

As I'm anxiously awaiting my one and only vacation this year, many students are already on theirs. Today I had two out of five classes cancelled because no students showed up! Intensives start tomorrow, but they aren't as intense as they may sound. Basically, my late classes get switched to the morning and I have to teach an additional class every day, so for the next month I'll be working a regular 9-5 job. I'm definitely not looking forward to waking up early, but it will be nice to go to bed at a decent hour and eat dinner before 9 p.m. Level up tests are on Thursday and Friday which will be an easy last two days before my week off and we have a work dinner on Friday to kick off summer vacation! Eeek. I'm so excited for Thailand!

Buggie Boo

In my infamous Seed 1 class with Lion and Hedgehog, there's a new student named Eddy. He's missing his two front teeth and suffers from ADHD. Today I noticed him following something around on his book with his pencil. As I walked over to his desk I realized that it was a little bug. I mean it was probably about the size of a gnat and it looked like it had wings (too small to tell), but it wasn't going anywhere. I grabbed a tissue off my desk and was about to smush it and throw it away, but then little Eddy told me not to kill it. Before I could say anything, he picked up the little bug and gently placed it inside his pencil case. I just about died from holding in my laughter.

I let it go and continued on with class. About 30 minutes later, I saw Eddy open up his pencil case and whisper, "Where are you, bug? Bug, where are you?". He looked a little upset when he couldn't find it amongst the broken pencils and eraser shavings in his pouch, but then his toothless smile spread across his face and sure enough, the bug was still there. I just hope the bug survived the bus ride home.

Blinded by the Light

For those of you who have been losing sleep over the fact that the overhead lights in my apartment might still broken, well sleep tight tonight because they finally work! I waited until the next day hoping they'd magically turn on in the morning, but unfortunately they didn't. I noticed there was a restart button so I pressed it, but that did nothing. Then I found and checked my circuit box. All of the switches were flipped to on, so that wasn't the problem either. Luckily, Mr. Zin (our go-to guy at work) can do anything and so he replaced the fuse and wah-la... there was light.

I was only in the dark for less than 48 hours, but then... my hot water went out. Every so often, the PA in my apartment goes off and a man speaks super fast in Korean. Not that the speed of his voice matters since I can't understand him anyways, but I feel like sometimes what he has to say is important. Past announcements have been about broken elevators and other various maintenance issues, but what if he says something about the Itel being on fire or a deadly monsoon outside?! I'd have no idea. Anyways, (I guess) his past announcement was about the hot water being turned off for A FEW DAYS. I think they check it and clean the pipes or something, but because of it I had to take cold showers. Luckily, by the time I got back from MudFest, it was turned back on.