"This year I'm going to get properly muddied up."--British boy on the bus with a mermaid girlfriend

I clearly suck at updating about Mud Festival. I apologize. But, in my defense, I've had tons of work to do because of vacation, plus I have to get ready for the vacation itself. ANYway, the Mud Festival was, just as all things in Korea, quite the adventure.

It ended up being Adam, Seeta, James, and I. Christa (Adam's g/f) was sick all week, so she took Lancelot and stayed home, which worked out awesomely for me. Anyway, so we leave bright and early Saturday morning and board a bus to take us three hours to the sea. Saturday, while overcast, was warm and ended up not being that rainy. So we get to the place (cabins in the woods like, 30 minutes from the beach) and stash our crap and take off to the beach. Adam couldn't WAIT to jump into the ocean, so we obtained a locker and did a mad dash to the sea. It was super, super nice.

Adam and I lost the other two for a bit after our mad dash, but it ended up okay because we got muddied up, and then met back with SeetaandJames for a nice romp in the ocean waves. Here's a pic of me and Adam, all muddied up. Good times.


And here's James and I, and the ocean. Ahh, the ocean.



After swimming for, like, three hours, we all realized that we hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning back in Seoul. So we decided to rustle up some grub, and since we were near the ocean and all, we ate Adam's favorite meal... a great big pile of shellfish on an open grill. Observe...


Jin, the Korean guy who war running the tour, HOOKED us up with piles and piles and piles of food. And we threw it on the grill and ate it with hot pepper sauce (the red stuff in the pic). And I must say, it was quite enjoyable. There were some scallops that were SO GOOD I couldn't even deal with it. Mmmm. The only thing the meal lacked was carbs... but oh well. Still super good.

Here's another one of me eating, cooked tiny clam, chopsticks, glove, and all.


A new experience that turned out to be yummy.

After that we just hung around, drank on the street (like ya do in Korea) and generally made mischief. Then we headed back to the cabins in the woods for a BBQ and to sleep.

Let's just say here's where it all went awry. So apparently some of the meat for the BBQ was lost in transit, so there wasn't much food. AND still no carbs but some measly, burnt potatoes. Thank GOD I brought granola bars or I would have wasted away to nothing. So then we're chatting with some people, and James totally met his Korean BFF, Oscar, whose girlfriend was kinda ugly and he was SUPER hot. Whatever. Anyway, I totally brought them together with by commenting on my hatred for Lance Armstrong. The rest is history. lol

So after a day of bus and mud and beach and beer, SeetaandJames and I decide to go to bed. We mosey to our room and lay down with a random Korean girl that we picked up on the way, only to be kicked out of our room about 30 minutes later. Um... Neat. We'd been there since 3 and we got kicked out as we were trying to sleep. Eeeexcellent. So we find a new place to sleep (Korean girl in tow), and attempt to do so. Drama ensues. One dude's bed got stolen and then a drunk girl was being condescending to a guy who was a jerk so he got all mad and then her boyfriend got mad at the jerk for being mad, and then this HUGE guy Joel came in to pass out in our room but he snored like a jet engine and it was hot and we were sleeping on the floor and... balls. Let's just say very little sleeping acutally occured for me. Observe the situation...

I slept on the left... and Joel's naked butt is hanging out on the right. Seriously... Dude LOVES showin' his bum.

So after drinking and not sleeping, I just give up the fight and wake up early. I was up by 9. Eventually JamesandSeeta (Adam ended up back at the beach, where only 20 people were allowed to stay... Um... lame.) got up too, and we found other people that were up and we took matters into our own hands and went to the beach on our own. Seeta and I had a mission, we wanted a corn dog and we were not willing to give up our dream. Finally, FINALLY... we got to the beach and walked all the way to the end of the boardwalk, where The Corn Dog Stand of Joy awaited us. Let me just tell you, dreams come true.

Dreams. Come. True. And MAN that corndog was SUPER good. Let me tell you. And directly after that, we ate pizza.

No carbs for a day made me want to gorge myself and it was awesome.

So long story short, the rest of that day was spend avoiding the rain. And then the news that Seoul was flooded came through, and it was "we're leaving at 7" then "we're leaving at 8" then, when we're outside ready to go, "We are stupid @$$holes who want to stay here and get drunk because we are lame so we'll tell you lies that it'll take 5 hours to get home because of traffic jams so you'll stay with us and we'll get our way." Let's just say, those of us who wanted to got on the bus and got home. There was NO traffic jam, jelly, marmelade OR preserves and we got home in three hours. I hope the jerks who thought we were lame for wanting to go home and take a shower and sleep had a fun time getting home Monday, when there actually WAS a traffic jam. I LOVE it when I get what I want and other people act like jerks and get screwed. I CLEARLY win at life.

The weekend was pretty fun, but when I sign up for something that's planned, and it turns out that it's not planned well, then I'm not a happy camper. I can roll with the punches as much as the next person, but I just couldn't take it that weekend. I don't feel like I got what I paid for, ESPECIALLY since I was supposed to get three meals (WITH carbs) and I got... one. UGH. Anyway, I learned that I shouldn't sign up for those trips anymore, so I had fun AND learned something.

Then Monday was a day off, which was awesome because I needed it. I got up early to talk to the fam because my cousin and her husband/kids/mom are at home (yay!!!). Leandra=the joy of my life because she is SO CUTE. Anyway, after that I did some work and rewarded myself with a trip to Dongdaemun and some mandu gratin with Meriam (new girl at work from Georgia). I bought the coolest dress/shirt and it's awesome. It's kind of "I live in a society where everyone wears the same uniform" but it's awesome.

Anyway... I'll leave it at that for now. I'll try to update one more time before Hawaii, which, FYI, is...3 days away.

I can't WAIT!

Much love.