Covered in MUD!

Some may have seen a pic on Facebook with us covered in mud. That was from the Daecheon Mud Festival on July 14th...

We headed out with Daniel - Yong taek, our good friend from church - who drove, us, and South African friend Tracy. Left later than we'd hoped mainly due to Daniel needing to plan for English camp (in a later post!) but we were off and ready to hit the beach. According to a source - who knows if it's reliable! - we hit the beach with 300,000 other foreigners and 1,000,000 Koreans. Yes, 1.3 MILLION people there! WHAT?!!? isn't that like the population of SASKATCHEWAN! no! I don't think Sask has passed the 1 million mark....

anyway, there were A LOT of people there! including our friends who we met up with.

First on the agenda was to get into their hotel room and change into swim suits or clothes that were promised to be covered in mud by the end of the day. and off we went down the beach. we saw this Korean group enjoying the beach - but not atop the sand! they chose to sit on a square elevated bench. hmmmm - maybe not a bad idea. perhaps sand doesn't stick with you for the next 3 days after being at the beach.

First stop was the mud painting station right beside the huge stage set up with the ocean as its background and a fine cover-tune band playing. We grabbed our paint brushes and started mud-ding up! Craig was not able to reach his back, and before i could get a paint brush to help him with that - some random Korean guy said he'd help him out.. So Craig was painted up well by some of the locals.

we headed to the other 'activities' including a Mud jail, and SUVIVAL fight - yes, even a misprint in the advertising!, a huge mud pool, and mud 'slides'. Our friend Daniel participated in the Suvival fight - mud wrestling! first one to get the other out of the green circle was the winner! he put up a brave front against a tall foreigner, but slipped on the mud and out of the circle first in the end!

After a few hours in the mud and identifying on a personal level with pigs and what we've been missing all these years, wWe headed back to the hotel area down the beach to wash off in the ocean. remembering to keep my mouth CLOSED this time to avoid salty water, we had a great time. Everyone brought some food, and Rachel fired up her bbq. We headed back up to the tourist places and got ourselves some henna tatoos that were promised to last for 2 weeks. We were disappointed when they faded within 2 DAYS, but glad we got them. maybe a 'trial' for real ones someday?! who knows...

we headed back for some food and enjoyed chatting with everyone - rachel, nicole, sarah and Korean boy, Lucas, Catherine and her friend, black belts Julie and Trevor, new friends Kiwis Arna and Hosea. So great to sit around and just chat. Just talk about life, health, mud, friends, where everyone is headed. Really great. and discovered that Korean chocolate covered graham biscuits with marshmellows from Costco make really great S'mores!! haven't had one of those since the good 'ol days at Clearview Christian Camp. great times. Some even grabbed a chopstick and roasted a few mellows over the flames. Great memories from that day.

Headed back to town and Daniel was so tired he took the wrong turn and headed to Seoul - but it was nice to relax in a car on a road trip. We are not in cars often unless we're with Rachel which is often, but not on a daily basis like back home. For me, road trips are a very relaxing, so i miss driving around somedays.

Had a great day - definitely one to remember!

OH! how could i forget! the MOST eventful part of the day! we were walking on the boardwalk, we were headed back to the car and everyone else was headed down to play some carnival games. As we were walking, here comes the truck - SPRAYING for BUGS!! once again, Korea is trying to POISON us - this time as we walk in the fresh air instead of in our apartment! we simply couldn't get out the way - there was literally nowhere to go - and THEN, it CAME BACK around again!!

If we make it out of this country alive we can say its all 'good for health' like the locals say!