Summertime, and Getting Dirty

I haven't posted in a while, I know.  Since we've been back from our Pusan trip at the beginning of the month, I just haven't had much to talk about.  Work hasn't been very much fun, but I've been doing a lot of it; my sweet husband has been in the field a lot; it's hot, and monsoon season's effects are definitely being felt--I think we had 21 rainy days in a row.  Highlights are few.  Here's one--I have been enjoying these:

"kwa-il bing su" (although this is a picture of a "buh-loo-bae-ri bing su"--they're not usually this purple or this sno-cone-ish looking).  The original treat is "pat bing su", but I prefer to have mine minus the "pat"--sweet red beans, so I usually go with the fruit (kwa-il) option.

Anyway.

I finally have something fun to share.  This past weekend, while my poor husband was in the field--again, I went to the Boryeong Mud Festival with Kyoungmin Unnie and a few of her friends.

The area is famous for it's mud flats, which appear along the beach at low tide.  The mud is supposedly good for your skin, and maybe your health in general if you believe the tourism website.  I was happy to discover that the city processes the mud before it sets up the festival, so it's "clean" mud--not chunky or mixed with rocks or sand.  There were a bunch of activities set up--you could paint yourself with mud, race a friend in mud (with the winner getting to pour a bucket of the stuff over the looser), slide around in mud, or play a group version of a game the kids at the school next to my apartment play on their fun days--the caller will yell, "5 people in a group!" and everyone tries to get in groups of five, or "two girls and one boy!" and so on; anyone who can't follow the instructions and get in an appropriate group goes in the middle after the turn, where everyone splashes mud all over them. 

Needless to say, it wasn't too long before we all looked like this:

I don't know if my skin was improved or rejuvenated, but I am happy to report that it is not sunburned--mostly because every time my mud started to dry out I made sure to reapply.

When we'd had enough of the mud, we joined a whole lot of other people in the beach area and ventured into the chilly water to wash off.

It was really a great weekend.  The festival itself was a lot of fun, we had a bunch of good food, and the weather was even pretty nice.  The best part though was spending time with Unnie.  I feel really lucky that I'm getting to hang out with her while we're in Korea, and I'm really glad she invited me along for the weekend!