Mud Festival

This weekend a group of about ten of went to the Boryeong Mud Festival. It's a festival where everyone covers themselves from head-to-toe with mud, mud wrestle, mud slide, drink a lot, etc. It's pretty ridiculous. There are thousands of people there- 1.5 million people go to this festival over its 10 days. Boryeong is on the west coast of Korea about halfway between Seoul and Gwangju. Many foreigners go to this festival- mostly english teachers and military folk. I don't think there are many other kinds of foreigners in Korea. It took place on a large beach and we got to a little swimming. We realized we really missed swimming and vowed to come the beach more often this summer. There was also a sweet fireworks display, which kind of made up for the lack of fireworks on the 4th. 

 It's so nuts. If you can imagine mud-covered people, drinking, and dancing as far as you can see- that's what its like.  It may even be what Caitlin Matanle might even consider heaven (if only there was a way to prevent frat-like boys from getting in). It was strange to see so many English speakers in one spot.  The floors of convenience stores and restaurants were covered in mud. Everything was muddy, muddy, muddy. I'm honestly surprised that town didn't run out of beer. Matt and I and the rest of our party consumed a lot of it. Our hijinks  included Matt helping military guys throw their commanding officer into the Yellow Sea, I ended my non-smoking streak with half a cigarette before Matt flicked it out of my hand, wandering the streets of Daecheon Beach with 1.5 liter bottles of beer. One of our friends couldn't find our minbak (a cheap place to stay that is a room with a closet of blankets, you sleep on the floor) until about 7am. Well, that was because we had to change minbaks mid-day because we originally checked into the wrong one, we had already paid one about a block over. Many people got a streaky sunburn due to uneven application of mud, but Matt and I foresaw that problem and  always had a thick, even coating of mud.  

The above picture is not mine nor do I know these people, I pulled this from the Internet. I took a disposable camera so I wouldn't ruin my camera with mud. Hopefully, I can find a place to develop it and maybe put in on a picture CD. I'll post our pictures later.