Mud Fest, etc.

So I'm guessing that regular readers of this blog know that I haven't been posting lately. I've got some 'splaining to do, definitely. Actually, I've been taking a break of sorts, which was motivated by the fact that I lost my camera a week or two ago, and haven't had any pictures to post because of it.

It all started with this thing called Mudfest. It takes place in Boryeong, which is near Daecheon Beach in Korea (this won't make sense unless you live in Korea). Anyway, its this giant festival devoted to the fact that this community has a special mud with cosmetic and healing powers. Actually I'm not sure about the healing part, but they do sell cosmetics with Boryeong mud in them. To draw attention to the mud, this community holds a festival called Mudfest in July every year. This event draws thousands of foreign English teachers, travelers, military personel, and a few Koreans, all looking to get muddy and drunk.

The festival takes place on a beach on the yellow sea, which is definitely awesome. Then there are all kinds of mud related activities. You have some mud painting (on the body), some mud wrestling, mud obstacle courses, mud slides, mud fights; basically put mud at the beginning of any activity and you have it. There is also some live music. I traveled to mudfest with some friends from my city, Seosan, and we all stayed in a hotel room right next to the beach (we packed about 12 people in this big hotel room). Some fun time was spent at the hotel room, as one of the teachers brought a beer bong.

It was also a great time at the mudfest, except for one small mishap. I had my cell phone, camera, and a friend's cell phone in my pocket in a plastic bag which I thought would keep them safe. On going through the mud obstacle course, I got mud in my eyes and kind of freaked out. I held on to a friend's hand and we all went to the ocean to rinse. After a while I was able to open my eyes again, at which point I realized that the bag with my electronics had split. So everything in there was destroyed, and my camera actually got really hot and I had to throw the batteries onto the beach. Sorry environment!

All in all it was a super fun weekend, all things considered. Losing my phone and camera forced me to go out and buy a better version of each. I got a new phone the next day after mudfest, and picked up a camera the next weekend at a giant electronics store. I kind of splurged and got this camera with 14 megapixel picture taking capabilities. Let me demonstrate:

The camera takes an image like this:

And then I can blow it up to this due to the extreme amount of pixels:

This is incredible to me, who has had a 4.1 megapixel camera for about 5 years. Anyway, everyone can look forward to reading this blog in the near future. I have a vacation the first week of August in which I am touring Korea, and then the rest of the month of August is sure to be filled with great blogs and photos. Keep reading! See ya!

Another Year

Well, some people may have noticed that I didn't come back home after my first year here was up. That's because I decided to stay here in Korea another year at my school. It really has been a great year, so many experiences, just read the blog I guess.

I'd like take this post to count down the reasons that I have decided to stay for another year in Korea. So here they are, my top 5 reasons to stay one more year:

5. Korean Kids are Cute

This is really one of the perks of the job that I get to work with these kids. I get them from kindergarten up to about 5th grade, which is great because they are still so innocent. Starting in about 5th grade or so some of the kids start to become jerks and sometimes get burned out from the overschooling they are forced into.

I think that Korean kids might be cuter than American ones

4. Korean Girls are Attractive

Nuff Said

3. It's an Easy Job with Health Insurance

Well I get paid decently for working only 30 hours a week. The health insurance is really great, the cost of living is super cheap, so I'm able to save a lot of money. The lack of vacation time gets a little old.

2. Korean food is really good

I have a theory that Korean food is just like a healthy version of mexican food. Mexican food is just various ways to combine meat, cheese, beans, vegetables, and tortilla; while Korean food is various ways to combine meat, rice, vegetables, and seaweed. The seaweed is much healthier than a tortilla and I think the rice is at least slightly healthier than beans.

They come up with some really great ways to do it, to. My favorite is triangle kim-bap (seaweed rice). Its just a triangle of rice and then a little bit of meat wrapped up in the seaweed. My favorite is where they put in a little triangular pork patty with the rice. Absolutely amazing.

1. My Little Sis'

As many readers should know, my little sister Kelsey is coming to join me at my school in Korea in September. The next year we'll be able to team up on adventures and picking on little kids. So, I'm definitely excited. I hope you are too, because there should be a lot more to come in the next year!