"A little dirt never hurt anyone..."

Well, July finally came, bringing our much awaited (two day) summer break, and of course, Mud Fest.  Yes, I said Mud Fest.

The Boryeong Mud Festival was started in 1998 as a tourist attraction. The mud is trucked in to the beach from an area nearby. The mud is supposed to have some minerals that are good for your skin, but mostly the festival is an excuse to run around on the beach in the sun, covered in mud. We have been looking forward to it since we decided to come to Korea.

Some wonderful friends of ours who run the incredibly useful website TheYeogiyo.com, organized the trip.  We took a train and stayed in a minbak (aka a big room with sleeping mats and a bathroom) with 26 other people. It was a good group of people and we had a great time. Saturday it rained until the afternoon, but that didn't stop us from putting on our swimsuits and playing in the ocean for a while before getting muddy.

Mud Fest was definitely foreigner central. Even with the rain on Saturday there were a ton of people. We made it our duty to cover ourselves in mud and hug as many unsuspecting clean strangers as we could find. The boys wrote "FREE HUG" on their chests in the mud... and we did our best to mud-ify all those who were not brave enough to do it themselves.  :-)

Along with a zillion foreigners, we also found that there were many photographers running around taking pictures of us and all the rest of the crazies. Perhaps I should re-phrase this. By many, I mean swarms... swarms of photographers taking your picture every time you turned around. We did our best to get on next year's Mud Festival advertisements... or at least the nightly news.

 Sunday morning we woke up to a beautiful, blue sky and 80 degrees at 9am. We spent the day playing... water, mud, water mud. A few hours and one heck of a sunburn later, we went home tired, hot and happy.

One of our favorite things about Korea is seeing all of the signs and tee-shirts in English. 

Sweet foot statue.

The beach in the morning... pre massive numbers of  muddy foreigners.

This is the mud playground before they pumped in the day's mud.

The crowds increase...

The line for the mud slide.. We decided that it was more fun to play in the ocean than stand in line for hours to go down one slide. Wise choice, I think.

These girls were more than happy to pose. Don't miss the quintessencial Korean peace sign.

Mud Prison. How this pink girl managed to stay clean we will never know.

The Muddy Masses.

Because it's not Korea without a girl group dancing on stage in brightly colored outfits.

Ahh! We're covered in mud!

Our group (photo stolen from facebook).

Because what better way to get on next year's poster than to make a muddy human pyramid?

These were all the photographers taking pictures of our awesome pyramid. (again, stolen picture)

All and all, a fantastic weekend.

 Like my dad always says... a little dirt never hurt anyone. :-)

Heeeeere..... Fishy, Fishy, Fishy!

A few weeks ago, we explored an area of Seoul called Gangnam. We had heard mixed reviews about the area and decided to check it out for ourselves. During the day there wasn't a lot to do, but we did find a cafe that had Doctor Fish. Doctor Fish are a type of fish that enjoy munching on dead skin. The practice of using these little guys to treat skin ailments started in Turkey has spread to other places around the world, including, lucky us, Korea! Once we heard about this, we couldn't resist giving it a try.

 

The cafe we found was called "Rest with Book and Coffee," so we knew it had to be good. 

The doctor fish pool is available to use for 20 minutes for the small amount of 2,000 won, but you have to purchase a drink to use it. Our two green tea lattes cost us about 15 bucks, but we did not mind. We ate a snack, sucked down our drinks and headed over to the pool.

  

 

As we came up to the pool, the fish swarmed to the surface with their mouths open wide like little baby birds. Clayton moved his foot from one side to the other above the water and they followed it, mouths gaping in anticipation.

Once we put our feet into the water, at least 20 little fishies started chomping their way along the sides and bottoms of our feet. We should have been prepared for how weird this would feel... but oh my did it tickle! The worst was when they swam and nibbled in between your toes! 

Luckily for our feet, the fish never seem to get full. They just keep snacking on the dead skin on your feet until your time is up.  I am not sure that they had the miraculous effect we were expecting, but it was definitely worth the experience.

  

 After Dr. Fish, we wandered around Gangnam at night. It is definitely a buzzing place in the evening. There are many restaurants and bars around. We ate dinner at this little conveyor belt sushi place. The food was good, and the chef gave us free sushi and dessert! You can't beat that!

We also found the Korean soccer team while we were out!

They were kind enough to pose for photos with us.

All along Gangnam street, there are these Media Poles. You can use them to look things up, or take your photo and email it to yourself for free.  We decided to walk down the street and take a picture at every single one.  These are just a few of them.

Jump!

This picture freaked out a bunch of ajummas standing at the bus stop nearby.

It was worth it just for that.

If we were fish...

World Cup Fever!

A few weeks ago, one of our kindergarteners came in to school wearing a set of glowing red devil horns.  We're thinking, "Okay... interesting choice. Fitting to the child, but isn't it a while until Halloween?" Little did we know that in the next few weeks we would see thousands more people wearing the exact same horns. While in the US, the FIFA World Cup is about as important as any other sporting event, in Korea it is HUGE.  Thousands of people gather all over the place to cheer on the team.

The story starts in 2002, when Korea co-hosted the World Cup with Japan. Up until then, they had never done very well, and they weren't expected to make it very far. Long story short, Korea made it to 4th place, and the country went crazy with pride. Since then, the World Cup has been a huge deal here.

This year, the place to be was on the street outside of COEX, a big mall. They showed the game on big screens, and a zillion and a half people gathered, rain or shine, night or day; sporting their red shirts and crazy outfits. There was a stage and several bands played before the game and during half-time. It was a party and a half.

We showed up in our red shirts, got some glowing red horns, and had a great time. It was raining for two of the games, but being true Oregonians, we didn't let a few drops of water scare us. We shouted the chant "DAE HAN MIN GUK! *Clap * Clap* Clap* Clap* Clap*"  like true fans and it didn't matter that we didn't understand the rules of soccer.

Before the game at a restaurant in Bundang. (stolen picture from facebook)

The crowd at Coex.

"Dae Han Min Guk!"

"So Clayton, I'm going to need to be on your shoulders now," (while searching for a friend).

Followed by, "SCORE!!!!! WOOO HOOO!" and this picture.

A true fan. This poor kid couldn't see anything! His parents were no where in sight and he spent half the game standing on his tiptoes.

It was apparently the night to be on Clayton's shoulders. After a few offers, the boy finally stopped being polite and let Clayton put him up there so he could actually see the rest of the game.

VICTORY!

Everyone went crazy after we won. We ran around taking pictures with random strangers for probably 30 minutes after the game was over. People were shooting off fireworks and chanting. It was a riot!

This boy wanted to show off his victory pose. He was such a ham!

Us showing off our victory poses.

In the subway on the way home.

The lights from the stage at Coex.

Before the last Korea game.

Because you have to take pictures with peace signs in Korea.

Elvis lives!

Crowd in the rain at the last game. :-( We lost, but it was a hard fought game.  Go KOREA!!!!