Well, I finally have some pictures to update the old picture site with. Lately pictures have been hard to come by for a number of reasons. The major issue being that work has become a little bigger hassle lately, with classes adjusting, schedules changing for other teachers, and my general workload changing to include stuff that I just wish it didn't have... The second reason being mainly that I haven't been anywhere lately that's worth taking a picture. Until this past weekend. Me and some of the other teachers from my school went to the Boryung Mud Festival. Now, leave it up to foreigners to make an unrealistic idea of what to expect, but me and my roommates were thinking of a massive mud-pit of ankle-deep mudd, where you would just go crazy. Someone forgot to remind us however that we're living in Korea.
now, I should let you know something about Koreans and going to the beach. Going to the beach in Korea is like stepping back in time...to somewhere near (now, apologies if I offend anyone here...) but somewhere between the sixties and seventies. You have men everywhere walking around in speedo's of all shapes and forms. (why you might ask? They're pretty much the only swimsuit that you can buy here that's cheap. A Florida style flower swimsuit will put you out around 30US, where a speedo comes in at a sweet Dutch-like six/seven dollars....Hence why they buy them....) so you have men in speedos, and the women are dressed all modestly, going swimming wearing jeans and shirts....getting wet, and them coming back out, and going to sit under a tent somewhere on the beach. And everyone is smoking...Everyone say for the kids under the age of twenty (and there aren't that many of them at the beach.....)
overall, the mud festival was quite fun. What we thought would be a massive mud pit was actually something much less tame... You painted on the mud with paintbrushes, and then sat in the open (there was maybe five minutes of sun all weekend) waited for the mud to dry, and then painted on another layer. The weekend overall was quite fun; they had all sorts of festivities and activities to do, all of which involved mud, or doing something with the mud. All in all, it was nice to get away from the city. The downside being that the percentage of foreigners to Koreans was about three to one - foreigners to Koreans. As is usually the case, whenever there is a party somewhere in Korea, Koreans stay at home, or in the case of Sunday, go to the beach at 8:30 in the morning, and then around noon, when the foreigners start dragging themselves out of bed, the beaches are clear of all Koreans (and the foreigners think to themselves..."Where are all the Koreans....?")
I'm slowly starting to really disappears hanging around foreigners, as in Canadians and Americans. I'm starting to enjoy just hanging out in my small community of some Koreans and some foreigners... Call me naive, but I like not being around ignorant Canadians and Americans. Strange how this is slowly coming to my realization after four and a half months in Korea.....
well, I need to get going - I hope that things are going well with all of you, and that you're enjoying the nice heat-wave that's going through North America.
God Bless,

Bryan