gone to the beach

I've made it out of the beach. traveling to the beauteous beaches of South Korea. With a group, we went to Boryeong Mud Festival, the weekend of July 17-18. While there, i participated actively in the events organized on the beach.
we arrived in the morning, around 11. Purchased some snacks, some ramien, some beers, some soju, some chips, veggies, all the necessary party favors. the rain was coming down in a light mist, just enough to keep you cool, wet, and had it not been in the middle of the summer, and we were going to a place that required excessive amounts of water to keep the mud, well, muddy (instead of just dirt), then the weather would have been the pits. I thought it was alright. i made the mistake of rocking my t shirt for the beginning of the weekend. we walked the five minutes to the beach from our pension.
a pension is a little hut hotel, no beds, just mats, and pillows and a floor. you sleep there. on the floor. its surprisingly cheap, and after a long day on the beach, and walking about either dodging the mud, or seeking it out, its a welcome sight.
the place was packed with people, all wearing bathing suits, or if Korean, wearing, most likely, a t-shirt and jorts, but short jorts. i have a feeling the Koreans suffer from a serious case of never nude. almost to the level of arrested development, but i can't be certain. all i know for sure is that they don't like to wear just bathing suits, and have to wear some kind of clothes, usually, on top of it.
once we got to the mud, people bumping into people slowly spread the mud, but we were searching for the source. the little taps of mud, covering only a patch of skin here and there was not enough for me. i had to find this fountain of mud that was so thoroughly coating people as to make them look like little mud monsters, coming out of a bog to eat your eyes and feed the rest of your body to the leather head. i kept walking with purpose, only to turn around after a few minutes to find i had lost my entire posse. slowly meandering through the crowd, without cell phones (for fear that the mud would ruin them - a tale two of my fellow ex-pats experienced first hand) it was slow moving trying to keep tabs on all the members of the group. i turned back, played a quite game of where's Courtney, Dana, Naz, Naz, Alysia, Missy, Meghan. in real life, its almost as fun as the book, except there are no wizards, gnomes, trolls, little critters of evil and malicious intent, and other mythical and mystical creatures. i still hold that these creatures were all present and accounted for. some of them just look more like people these days than they used to. its only logical.
the mud slinging was located another three minutes meander down the beach. we could here it a hundred yards away. could see the pandemonium much closer. i leaped into the fray, had mud chunks hurled into me at astonishing speed. one managed to slam into the side of my face. it was awesome. a few hit my body, as i turned around and began to lob the huge chunks of mud i was pulling up from the ground into the group of girls i was with. they wanted to come to the beach for mud fest. so i was giving them mud. i got a few of em pretty good, so i turned my efforts on the kid standing across the divide, on the other side of the tents covering the mud source. he was hurling mud with vicious intent at all passer-bys. i threw a few big chunks at him, hitting him once or twice in the body, never the face. we held a duel, each standing stationary, offering a free shot to hit where you would. I covered my parts, soccer style. i then grabbed a huge gob of the blue smooth clay, the sediments in it where tiny, so small that the mud was perfect. it clung together solidly, could form perfectly into a slinging ball, and when it impacted, it would flatten out into a pancake of muddy mess. i covered Courtney with the mud, started tossing it at the other girls around me, and when i killed a beverage, i decided that my jovial intents were being lost, as annoyance was building out of the remnants of the dead beverage. the spirit of soju never takes kindly to mud apparently. i thought they would be close, being of the same nationality. guess i was wrong.
we went to the beach, stashed our stuff in a free locker, and raced into the water. it was filled with people, far more than i had ever seen at a beach or in the water, excepting maybe for Miami, but even in Miami there was plenty of space in the water for people to space out and have private conversations. not so here. there was people everywhere. the water was spectacular. cool, refreshing, and super salty. they say the yellow sea is dirty, it very well could be. but there is so much salt in it, that i don't think much of anything bad will live long in it, unless they are those crazy extremophile bacteria strains that thrive in harsh growing conditions.
OK maybe not that extreme of an ecosystem, but it was super salty.
the mud washed off, the rest of the weekend went on repeat. mud, water, beach, mud water, beach. food, mud water beach. the sun came out in force on Sunday. scorching the beach with heat i had not known it was capable of. i bought some sun screen, but alas it was too late. my body was parched, my skin beef jerky.

the next weekend, my appetite whetted with the desire of the beach. the taste of an authentic summer, visits to the beach, i had to have more.
Took a short bus (3.5 hours) to Seokcho. East coast. East Sea / Sea of Japan depending on where you're at, its east sea (Korea) or Sea of Japan (rest of the world). there, we stayed in a love motel. continuous porn on the TV. that was an interesting experience. they involve alcohol in the plot a lot. really shows how deep alcoholism runs in culture here. sex is directly connected with alcohol. bizarre.

arrived at the city around 3. confused our starting location, and walked for upwards of two hours to get to the beach that we thought was right next door to us. it was not. it was far. far. far. away. we walked around the entire city. the interior of a harbor. to get to the side where the beach was. good lord. my flippy floppies tore a hole in my flesh between the big toe and the next one. it was gnarly.
the beach was interesting. far more crowded than Boryeong, the water cleaner, colder, less waves, and the beach much smaller. there are sales people walking about the portable shelters assembled in efficient rows up to the water line slinging fried chicken and soda.





Koreans wearing button up shirts and ties, inflating boats for the water, making blatant and hilarious references to the stamina and work used in sex. "Oh man.. Oh man... its so hard..... oh shit..... god i can't stop...... oh shit.... i'm done."
that went on for a solid ten minutes. it was ridiculous. i got a picture of the cat. ill post it up sometime soon.
we went out and got some 물고기 (mul goki - fish) had to cook it ourselves. that was tough work. it was tough to keep up with the cooking of the fish and then the eating of the fish. getting all the bones out of the stuff was the hardest part.
went to a bar that night for a night cap. ran into some other foreigners. shared a drink with them, we were propositioned to come out with them to the beach again, go skinny dipping, live it up. I wasn't feeling it too much, but it could have been an interesting time.
we crashed, went back to the beach the next morning, relaxed until about 4. the bus back turned out to be a bust. 4.5 hours. traffic. vicious. but two grilled cheese sangwishes rounded out that rough day into something special.
until next time.

summer.

summer has hit here, potent in its humidity. you cant even step out the door before it jumps on your back, the burden of it makes you sweat profusely. the koreans here eat a hot spicy diet during the summer to make up for the heat. the food makes you sweat even more, but the evaporative cooling more than makes up for the momentary discomfort.
my air conditioner has been m.i.a. up until this lovely evening, i have endured. now finally, i can close up the windows, lock my door tight, turn off the fan and crank up the cool, controlled climate of my tiny studio. a miniature terrarium, a capsule, of the arctic circle brought south, and placed in the gut of korea. they won't even know i am here. ill be the silent, cool, one on the tenth floor of bobostel.

work has been on and off. teaching it seems, has moments where the work load is enormous and seemingly impossible to finish all of it. other times, the past two weeks for example, i sit at my desk and struggle to fill the 8 hours i spend in my chair. the new york times are a thorough read. several blogs are good reads as well. there would be a great deal more digital ink on my blog as well, were it not for the censoring power of the gyeonggi-do school system. several web-pages have limited access if any: facebook, myspace, bbc, and blog postings (reading posts is a different story) - all in the negatory.
I received a package today in the mail from my parents. it carried with it reminders of the southern united states: taffy, texas pete, and the black spot.

"I think i smeeellll somesin burnin."

it was a pleasant surprise in the middle of the work day, to be interrupted from the complete isolation of my english office and notified of the arrival of a package from the united states for me. my weeks of waiting at an end, i could not wait the whole day to open it back at my humble house. in the middle of the teachers office i broke out the box cutter and opened up that monster to reveal its innards. they spilt out onto my lap and i gleefully stuffed my face with its contents. i offered my co-teacher Min Kyeung some of the taffy. she took it, but did not give any indication as to whether she enjoyed it or not. it might have just been out of politeness that she took it from me.

I have been living for 17 days on a paltry sum of 60,000 won, or about 50 bucks. some unexpected bills came up at the end of july, namely the bill for my housing service fee. it does not pay automatically as i had initially assumed. the number was substantial. im working with 40 for this weekend and the next week. it should be more than enough, but the food from the box sent from home was a welcome addition to my ramian in the pantry.

Mud-fest is coming up next weekend. Its a large festival in Korea, its purpose: unknown, but perhaps it has something to do with the coming of the rains, the monsoon season, and the excesses of mud it brings with it. but for any reason, they have massive amounts of mud in a beach town, with music, and festivities and food, and many people come to join, celebrating for a saturday in the middle of july. the summer is here, and its keeping it real.

over and out.