MuD fEsTiVaL!!!!

This past weekend was yet another weekend to remember here in Korea. It seems like every couple of weeks some city in Korea is having a huge festival and this time it was Boyeoung's turn!!! At first I was not planning on heading to the festival but after looking at the website from last years event I quickly changed my mind. It took us about an hour to get to Boyeoung and because all of the buses out of Jeonju were booked, we decided to jump in a taxi and head out. It cost us about 20,000 won each (about $15). Upon arrival I started to see what I was in store for for the next day slash night slash next morning. We walked around looking for a hotel or motel or box; really anything we could put our stuff in and sleep in. We wound up finding a hotel room with no bed (which by the way is a normal here in Korea). We chose to stay there because we could cram more people in the room with no bed....as you can see below.

After throwing our stuff in the room and heading out to the festival we decided to grab a few brewskies (only a few as manageable drinking is responsible drinking). That was my disclosure for everyone! We walked down to the beach and found it completely packed with at least 10,000 people as far as you could see. We moved our way over to the "Mud Massage Yourself" area. It's an area where you can voluntarily or involuntarily, whichever way you choose, to paint yourself in mud. We noticed there was a large crowd gathering near so we ventured over to see what was happening and noticed it was a mud wrestling competition. Needless to say, I got involved. Some Korean guy pointed at me and asked me if I wanted to wrestle and I figured WHY NOT!? In a matter of 30 seconds I slammed him into the ground twice to win the match. He thanked me for playing along and bought me a beer! Throughout the day we ventured around and played some more mud games and repainted ourselves numerous times. Around 10 at night the skies opened and while the rain came pouring down there was an amazing fire works display taking place. I was exhausted and decided to just head home. In the morning we wanted to get an early start on the day but the weather was just as bad as the night before. We attempted to go out and get something to eat but after getting poured on and wind whipping around, I decided to head back home. All in all it was an amazing weekend with great friends and here are some pictures to prove it all happened :)

4th of July

I know I'm lacking in the updates but I'm certainly settling in here and don't have the time as I did before to update this all the time BUT I'll do what I can. This past weekend was the celebration of 4th of July, which in Korea, basically means it's just the 4th day of July BUT to us Americans it's a time to celebrate! For about a month prior to the 4th many of my British friends came up with the idea of having an "AmericanOff". AmericanOff you ask? Well, it consists of 5 events, that throughout the four weeks have been changed about 20 times ,to see who is in fact the most "American" out of us whom are here. They finally decided upon the events of arm wrestling, naming the 50 states in a round robin name off, 10 question US trivia, free throw competition, and hamburger eating contest. Sounds pretty American right? I thought so.

So the day began with me showing up to the hosts apartment to find him already well deep into the beer and Soju (a Korean liquor that is pretty strong). He is one of the guys in the AmericanOff and this will come into play soon. Everyone started arriving soon after I had arrived and the festivities were under way. About an hour of eating and swimming (in a kiddie pool) it was time to start the contest. The first event was arm wrestling, which I felt pretty confident in winning until I saw we would be playing on a little kiddie table that I could barely fit under. I wound up taking 2nd place in this event with 4 to go. The next event was the 50 state name off. We sat in a line and one by one we had to name a state and if you named a state that was already mentioned then you were out. I wound up winning that event because the drunk guy basically fell asleep during the name off and the other guy named Connecticut after it had already been won. I sealed the deal with a solid New Mexico reference. The 3rd even was one that I felt pretty confident in. It was the 10 US history questions. Some of the questions consisted of "What president is on the $50?", "How many stripes are on the flag?", "Who are the 4 people on Mount Rushmore?", "Who is the current VP?", "How many original colonies were there?", "When was the Civil War fought?" and so on. I could not believe the outcome of this one. I took 2nd place to the wasted guy who could barely stay awake to write his answers down!!! The 4th event was SUPPOSED to be free throw competition but because no one wanted to walk down to the court we had to shoot a ball in a little hoop one of the girls had in her apartment. I lost this event and was very upset with myself. Weatherholt's don't lose sporting competitions....Anyways, the 5th event was again SUPPOSED to be a hamburger eating contest but no one wanted to walk down to the LotteRia (like a McDonald's) to get the burgers so there was no 5th event. When everything was said and done, I came in 2nd place for the AmericanOff but it's still under dispute with the judges and the NAOF (National AmericanOff Foundation).

After the events we really wanted to give it a solid ending with fireworks so one of the guys walked down to the nearest store where yes, any time during the year, you can buy fireworks at a convenient store. I thought of having a fire in the grill we were using to cook and everyone was on board for that idea. Myself and one of my friends walked down to scrounge up some wood and a great idea popped into my head.....SMORES!!! There are no gram crackers here but we were able to substitute some really good cookies. With my experience in the bush, I was able to cut down some branches, trim them up, and we were ready to cook!

All in all it was a great 4th of July and a great weekend.

Aside from that, I'm really settling in here and meeting some really nice people. It's crazy being able to gradually learn the language. I'm nowhere near able to hold a conversation with anyone but I can give basic directions or what I'm looking for. There are MANY places and events that I plan on visiting here in Korea so many more updates to come.

On a different note, I'm not sure if anyone heard but Michael Jackson has passed away. I know, it's a crazy time. But seriously, I was shocked to hear it and as I'm sure it wasn't broadcasted here as it was in America, we still had a lot of information flowing in through media resources about his death.