Boryeong Mud Festival

I've never felt more like a kid than the time I had this past weekend in Boryeong, South Korea. It was the venue for the Boryeong Mud Festival which is held every July just a couple hours south of me. On the Daecheon Beaches lies this towns greatest export... Mud. Boryeong mud is rich in minerals and good for one’s skin. The high quality sea mud is famous enough to make mud cosmetic products such as mud packs, mud soaps, etc. It's rich in Germanium and other minerals known for their skin revitalizing properties. The festival was originally started with intentions to promote cosmetics manufactured from local mud but the popularity of the festival skyrocketed because of the fun that all the mud activities involve.The festival is one of the most popular events for the expatriate (foreign teachers) community in Korea. It attracts over 30,000 visitors from all over the world each year, lasts for 9 days and is basically one huge mud flinging party.

Our first stop was to the Military Training grounds where various exercises and games took place. We got into army gear and headed out to the mud field. Instantly we were being shouted at by this Korean dude to get down, crawl, squat and roll around in the mud. This was our first taste of the skin revitalizing substance and automatically turned a bunch of mature, respectable young men and women into five year olds. It was great! We also divded into teams, played some mud rugby and had a big battle royal to cap off the event.

After a quick stop off at the hotel to drop our stuff off, we made our way to downtown Boryeong where the main festivities took place. The main entertainment included mud pits, mud painting, mud climbing, a mud jail and the “Mud Super Slider”, a massive bouncy inflatable slide that stretches 25 meters on the beach. Needless to say there was a lot of mud. In the night they had fireworks, good food and a big concert on the main stage.

The Boryeong Mud Festival was definitely one of the best times I've had so far in Korea. 100% recommened to anyone who gets the opportunity to go. Only if you don't mind finding bits of mud in mysterious places for the next few days after that is...

The Korean Language

Learning Korean isn’t what I thought it would be. I figured, you know, just live in a country for a while and you will somehow absorb it. I mean, it’s being spoken all around me constantly every day, how could I not eventually just one day start speaking it? Well, it’s been difficult so far. They language is so far from English or French in terms of phonetics and the structure of sentences. Not to mention one of the oddest parts of Korean language and culture is that there are many differently levels of respect and thus politeness in their speech. No less than five different levels (three or four commonly used) in they way you would talk to someone.

A lot of the culture is based upon Confucianism where it is very hierarchal. Knowing your place and respecting social status plays a large role from what I have understood. Someone talking to the their boss or teacher or father is very different from talking to their friend or co-worker. It makes learning the language slighty confusing and will be a while until I can hold a decent conversation. I have met both ends of the spectrum in terms of foreigners speaking korean. Some have made an honest attempt at learning the language and know quite a bit after a year here and I've met others who've been here for 3 or 4 years and can hardly order at a restaurant. I guess its all in how you value learning it.

I am proud to say that I have now learnt Hangul which is the Korean alphabet. It's actually rather easy to learn and only takes a few hours of practise and memorization. It consists of 14 consonants and 10 vowels which represent the way your mouth, tongue or teeth look when saying the letters. I can now spell or read any Korean words or signs I see. The only problem... understanding any of it. Oh well, got 8 months to go.

Sports in Korea

One thing that my time here has certainly not lacked is physical activity. There is an amazing range of sports and activities to fill your time in South Korea. I've been very fortunate to come to a place where I can make some good money, see a ton of cool places and do what I love to do which is playing sports. From as long as I can remember sports have been a major part of my life. Not only have they kept me in shape but also and probably more importantly have been a great way to meet new people who have similar interests.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge soccer buff, and obviously one of the first missions for myself when I got here was to find out where I could play. Luckily I had two teachers at my school from England and soccer was a sure bet. They had been playing for a team on Saturdays that travels all around Seoul for games. I got myself a spot on the team and things were looking up already one week in. Not only was it good quality soccer but also a good bunch of guys that has made life outside of teaching pretty awesome. There is now also pickup games I play during the week at a really nice field turf facility and on sundays with a bunch of Koreans. Needless to say, I have been playing my fair share of soccer over the last four months.

I have also found out that there are quite a few hockey fans out here. I have joined a really well organized Ball Hockey League. I play just next to the Olympic Stadium in Seoul. Pretty quality hockey as well (lots of Canadian here obviously). I think with the Olympic games held in Seoul in 1988, sports have come a long way and branched out to more than just the typical sport stereotypes of asian culture like Badminton and Ping-pong (which of course are very big here).

I see the wide variety of sporting activities being done here. The most popular ones would have to be baseball, soccer, tennis, badminton, golf, biking, and hiking. As I have previously mentioned, image and the appearance of things is very important in the Korean culture. The average Korean may not be great at these sports but you can bet your ass they will be dressed to the T with the most expensive equipment and clothing for it. But, as long as they look professional...