MUDFEST!

Hello again everyone!

It's technically Jesse's week to write the blog but he's been so busy trying to plan his summer camp that it's taking up every free second he has so I'm going to do it.

This week was a bit dramatic at my school. One of my friends, Alida - the South African opera singer - spanked a kid once on the bum and drew an 'X' in his book because he was spitting on his friends and not listening or doing his work. Anyway, the parents complained and she was fired so it was all very intense around the workplace. I'm sad she's leaving because she was really cool and because it's going to involve a lot more overtime and work for everyone else. Reg - my boss - has already asked me to take over her class of eight 3-year olds, which will be a little exhausting.

On Friday my kids went on a field trip to Carribean Bay, a huge water park about an hour away. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain (an unsurprising consequence of planning field trips in monsoon season) so the kids spent most of the trip shivering or playing in a boring indoor wading pool.

This weekend was a big one. Saturday morning we woke up at 4am and ran to the subway, took a 1.5 hour subway trip to the bus terminal, and then a 2.5 hour bus ride to a city called Boeryeong in Chungcheongnam province, on the West coast of Korea. MudFest is an annual festival and is, by far, Korea's most famous festival. Everyone we'd talked to who had been previously said it was the greatest thing they did while in Korea so we were very excited.
We all piled out of the bus in our swimsuits only to find that it was torrential rain and the first day under 25 degrees we've had in months. We were shivering and soaked within seconds and beginning to really wonder why the heck we were there.

Us in the pouring rain, soaked and freezing.

Eventually, the rain stopped and we spent the afternoon meeting up with friends, losing friends in the crowd, and playing mud games. We played in this massive mud wrestling pit, went on massive mud slides, and played this game where you had to run on slippery muddy plastic with a bungee cord tied around your waist. It was lots of fun.

One of the mud wrestling pits.

Afterwards, we washed off in the ocean, which was probably the best part of the weekend. The waves were gigantic and absolutely pounded you. It was so much fun but we were both battered and exhausted after a few hours in there.

Me playing in one of the smaller waves.

After that we went back to our hotel, showered and changed, and met up with our friends at a seafood restaurant for dinner. After dinner there were fireworks and beach parties and concerts. We saw Super Junior, one of Korea's most famous pop bands play, which was very exciting. Korea is still very in to the boy/girl groups and their Spice Girls equivalent is a 9-girl group called Girls Generation and their Backstreet Boys equivalent is Super Junior. Saturday night was lots of fun but we went to bed pretty early because it had been a long and exhausting day.

The hotel rooms slept 9-15 people - just on the hardwood floor with a blanket and pillow - but, surprisingly, we both slept fantastically. I think we were both so tired.

Sunday we woke up early and had some breakfast burritos and were thrilled to see the sun was shining and it was very hot. We headed for the ocean right away because it was so much fun the day before but the waves were much smaller so we went and got painted with mud instead. We spent the day watching concerts and chatting with our friends on the beach and, when we finally washed all the mud off, found we had sunburns that were splotchy and polka-dotted from the clay - not the most attractive look. We got on the bust home around 4pm and arrived back at our house around 9.

My friend Jennelle and I very muddy.


Jesse also very muddy.


The main beach.

We're gearing up for another week and are excited to head to Japan in 10 days!

Miss you all,
Ali

Buddha and Beaches

Hello everyone!

Hope this blog finds you all well. This week Jesse and I did different things on the weekend so we're going to write two separate entires - so try not to pick favourites:

Ali's Week:

So, this past week at school we had a field trip to this crazy sand park which was really fun. The kids all had to wear matching sun hats that looked like ducks, which was pretty much the cutest thing on earth. The sand park was really fun. The kids could look for 'dinosaur bones' in the sand, make sand art, make 'fossils' out of clay, build sandcastles and it was very cool. It was a nice break from school and our directors gave all the foreign teachers a really nice picnic lunch.

Saturday was Teacher's Day here in Korea so students gave gifts and stuff on Friday. I guess one of the benefits of working at a private school is that the students are rich so, for my teachers day, I got a $100 gift card to this huge department store, tons of soaps, body washes, scrubs, mists, etc. I got flowers, cards, weird ginsing candies and lots more. Jesse just got a few soaps and an origami flower so I really cleaned up in comparison. Anyway, I love Teachers' Day.

On the weekend I went down to Busan which is the second biggest city in Korea and is way in the South of the country, right on the coast. I met my friend Marijke (from college) in Seoul and then we took the KTX high-speed train down to Busan. The train, apparently, goes 300km an hour, and it took 3 hours to get down to Busan.

Marijke and I with our KTX tickets.

There, we met our other friend from college who is staying in a city near Busan. Her name's Jen I hadn't seen her in months so it was a great mini-reunion. We got a hotel and explored Busan and caught up Friday night. On Saturday we went to Haeundae Beach, the most famous beach in Busan. Jesse actually watched a Korean movie on the plane over here called 'Haeundae'. Unfortunately it was about a tsunami striking the beach and killing everyone but, fortunately, it was fictional. Jen had a bunch of her foreign co-teachers come down and we had a girls day on the beach, just relaxing.

Me, Marijke, and Jen on the beach.

The water was way too cold to swim but it was sunny and warm and a beautiful day to be relaxing on the beach. That night we all went out for dinner and then hit the town and I finally got to go to a noraebong (private kareoke), which I've been dying to do since I arrived. It was such a fun weekend and it was so good to see my friends. Marijke and I took the train home on Sunday and that was the whole weekend.

Koreans are funny because they HATE the sun. All the women wear massive visors and carry umbrellas in the sun and, even on the beach, everyone wears long sleeves and pants to avoid the sun. It's because, apparently, they are very afraid of cancer, which is legitimate, but it would make a lot more sense if they weren't such heavy smokers. Almost everyone here smokes and smoking is legal in every restaurant and bar and public place. I'm not sure if I'm going to understand Koreans, even after a year here, but I'm trying.

A bunch of 'ajeemas' (old Korean ladies) protecting themselves from the sun.

Here is Jesse's week:

While Ali was basking under the Busan sun, I went down Seoul on Sunday afternoon with some of the friends we've made since being here. Buddha's birthday is next Friday and for some reason that I'm not too sure of yet, they have all the celebrations the weekend before. Anyway, when I got off the subway, I saw a vast amount of white tents framing the street, all featuring events and activities varying in form and function. There were arts and crafts tents where you could paint a small wooden Buddah or create a lotus lantern; information tents with all the different forms of Buddahism; sales tents where you could buy clothes and other stuff; and performance tents where you could watch a group of women do yoga moves while holding empty plates (I would have been more impressed if their was food that stayed on the plates, but it was still okay). We walked around for a few hours taking in the sights and enjoying the food. I must say there is a lot of Korean food that I'm getting used to and will probably miss once it's gone.

The main event was at 7:00 pm, the Lotus Lantern parade, which I'd been told was quite cool to see with hundreds of people walking the streets with their cool lanterns lit up in the night. Despite the hype, I was not disappointed; not only were there many lanterns as advertised, but there was numerous floats ranging from kings and queens to fire-breathing dragons and tigers. My camera doesn't take the best pictures at night so these photos really don't do the parade justice.


Fire-breathing dragon float


Peacock that also breathes fire - just like the real ones.


Tiger

Anyway, that was both our weekends. This week has a 3-day weekend, not for Victoria's Day but for Buddha's Birthday. Friday is a holiday, which will be awesome. Jesse and I haven't made a plan yet but it's supposed to be beautiful weather so we should do something cool. We'll let you know what that is in our next blog.

All the best,
Ali and Jesse