Back to the Land of Smiles!

Yep, tomorrow I'm heading back to paradise and I can't wait. And these pictures are actually from one of the resorts I'm staying at! Aaah so happy to be going on vacation!! I love sightseeing & being a tourist but there's a lot to be said for just relaxing on the beach for a week!! Thailand here I come!

Studying Hard...

Mudfest Pictures

Off to Boryeong with my awesome backpacker bag that my parents got me for Christmas!

Tabi had a big bag too!

On the train headed down south...

All the girls pre-muddy in the pension room. A pension is a typical Korean motel. Basically it's just a room with mats and pillows (which you can see in the background) and you can have as many people as you want sleep there...since everyone sleeps on the floor, Korean-style. It's not exactly the definition of luxury but it's inexpensive. It was only 10USD per person. The train there and back (3 hours each way) was about 20USD per person round trip. Gotta love how cheap things are here...

Lots of muddy people

Behind me is the "mud jail" where you go if you're caught with no mud on your body... you go in the mud jail and people throw mud at you. So it's worth it to get muddy right off the bat...

...which we did! My skin didn't feel especially soft or anything afterward but it was fun to get covered in mud... for a short while anyway. It started pouring soon after this photo was taken and suddenly we were all standing around, freezing cold, and covered in mud. After that it was back to the motel for hot showers and fresh clothes. We went out for delicious soup and seafood and spent the rest of the night dancing on the beach to Korean pop music. Definitely a memorable experience...

The Great Flood

Ok that might be a bit of an exaggeration! Well, last week was quite the unpleasant week... it's monsoon season in Korea which really meant nothing to me before last week since the the supposed "rainy season" last year consisted of a few thunderstorms - not much more than we get in the summer months back home in NJ. But this season has been much more characteristically rainy and over the past several days this rain has come in the form of several monsoons where it comes down in relentless sheets and there is no hope for you if you're out in it, even if you have an umbrella. My street turned into a river and I'm sure there must have been flooding since the first floor apartments in villas like mine are partially below ground. I'm lucky to be on the 2nd floor so I thought I was out of reach of the water damage but sadly I was mistaken. I came home from work last Tuesday night at 9:15 to find a 1/2 inch of water covering my living room floor and coffee table. I had no idea the water was on the floor so this was discovered when I walked into my pitch-black living room to turn on the light and slipped in the rainy water. I got up and turned the light switch on - there was a huge POP and the light went out. I moved to a lamp and when the light came on I quickly realized with horror what had happened to my living room. Looking up I discovered the reason for the behavior of my overhead light - there was a huge water damage spot on the ceiling all around the light fixture and the water was dripping from the opening they made when the light was installed! Not exactly electrical safety considering at this point the wires up there for the light were sitting in water... I quickly turned off the electricity to that light and proceeded to clean up the mess and place an old pot under the place where the ceiling was leaking.

The next morning I talked to my boss about it as she is my liaison with the landlord. There wasn't really anything they could do because the rain, at this point, had not stopped so there was no way to do any work on the roof or ceiling until it did.. Sadly when I got home that night the ceiling was leaking in two more places! Now it's a week later and the rain has stopped and the ceiling is no longer dripping but there are still 3 large brown wet spots on my ceiling. The aesthetics don't really bother me but I'm nervous about what will happen next time it rains, particularly if it does do while I'm away on vacation next week...

Anyway this is what it looked like last week, it wasn't pretty!




how nasty is that rain water? I guess that's the color it turns after it seeps through the roof and ceiling... gross...

Time to Get Muddy!

This coming weekend I am off to the Boryeong Mud Festival! This is a very famous event that takes place annually in the coastal city of Boryeong, Korea which is about 2 hours (by train) south of Seoul. Near Boryeong they dig up special mud which is considered rich in minerals and thus great for your skin. Apparently the health and cosmetic effects of the mud have been proven by studies at several different universities and health research centers in Korea. The town’s mud products (which you can buy at the festival of course) have passed the rigorous standards of international health agencies such as the United States’ FDA. Anyway, they bring the mud to the beach area in Boryeong and create a 'Mud Experience Land' right on the beach. About 1 1/2 million people go to the mud festival each year!

What can one do at the mud festival you ask? Well I'll be able to better answer that once I return from the trip but I know it involves lots of mud-themed activities such as mud showers, mud baths, mud pool slides, mud massages, mud wrestling, mud races, and even mud skiing! There are even fireworks on the first and last night of the festival which lasts from 7/11 - 7/19. So I'll be going with a group of friends from Saturday to Sunday and look forward to reporting back about my weekend of playing in the mud!

ps Here's an article by TIME magazine on the Boryeong Mud Festival!