Mud Flingin Hoedown

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Korea just had it's annual Mudfest party, which is just what it sounds like: a giant mud slingin, booze guzzling, foreigner driven party in the town of Boryeong. I made up the hoedown part. Though that would have been interesting...

The bus ride began at 7am. Master Yoon organized the trip of 3 buses. Somehow I ended up on the party bus, and even I was hard pressed not to yell at people and tell them to sit down! Come on, now, some of us were hoping to catch some sleep! But no; instead, there was a beer bong and crowd surfing. If you don't know what that means...good for you. I won't be telling...

Somehow we made it in one piece to our minbak (Korean style hotel where you sleep on the floor) and I managed to wrap up my new tattoo in an assortment of plastic and tape. See the pic. I was ready for action!! Then everyone headed to the beach. TONS of people milled about, some swimming, others playing with inner tubes or in the giant mud pits. Vats of mud were everywhere, and you were quickly covered if you tried to walk by with a clean patch of skin. There were rings for mud wrestling and slides, too. It was mayhem!

Then it started to rain, which was fun until you wanted to get dry. Not so fun. Especially when you finally learn to pack light, and then realize you really just under-packed. Will I never get it right?! Caroused around town that night with everyone else in Korea, got lost a few times, found old friends in front of a giant dance stage and generally had a brilliant time.

The next morning, I wiped out on the steps in front of Master Yoon, who quickly proceeded to go all hapkido master on me. If you're going to injure yourself, do it in front of M.Y. He ushered me to a chair and proceeded to push on the sore spot. "This hurt?" "OWW! YESS!!" More pushing. "Now?" "OWWWwww. Hmm...less?" And so forth. Then he sprayed cold water all over it. Then he made me go inside and put hot water all over it. Then he told me that I will go get acupuncture when I return. I meekly said, "Yes Master Yoon" and did all that he said, minus the acupuncture. I felt better a few days later...maybe I should have followed all the directions?

The rain was so bad by then that we decided to leave early. I wasn't disappointed. Of course, one girl didn't get the memo, and showed up 1 hour late. Boy did she get some nasty looks. The others were a little nicer than I was. ;-) Then home sweet home, a dry bed, and sleeeep.

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