Let's get muddy...

A few weekends ago I finally checked off one of the first things that I had put on my "Korea Bucket List".... the Boryeong Mud Festival!

 I had been going back and forth between wanting to go and not wanting to go for 2 years. I'd heard great things and not so great things about it. Finally Adrienne decided to drag me along by force. I have to say, I'm extremely happy she did. Some of my friends had said it wasn't that fun. "There's a little mud puddle with a long line to roll in, and that's it," they said. "It's a big, drunken mess," they said. "It's all foreigners," they said.

Yes, there were lines. Yes, there was a mud "pool" place to get muddy. And "yes" it was full of drunk foreigners. But it was still a ton of fun. Luckily, the weekend we went was the last weekend and most of the groups had attended the weekend before, so that really helped with the lines and crowds. 

But the festival was more than just a mud pool. They had slides, games, staff throwing mud at you and hosing you down with cool water. But there were other festivities as well like live music and mud painting. I knew as soon as I walked up, it was definitely not the "tiny little mud puddle on the beach" I had painted it in my head to be. No, this was going to be fun. 

We ran in blow up obstacle courses. We climbed slides and enjoyed a mud "hot tub". We wrestled. We played mud soccer (well, it might have been more like we fell on our butts on the soccer field as the ball when wizzing by). We had a wonderful time. 

Oh, and the other great part.... the food.

Quick trip to Tokyo

I knew everyone always talks about Tokyo and the craziness it can bring. But I never expected the type of crazy that I encountered.

Before going, I had made a list of things to do and a general itinerary for each day since I only had a few days to see everything. Once I arrived, those itineraries promptly went out the window. Our trip centered around 3 things that were on our "must do" lists: seeing the tuna auction at the Tsukiji Market, visiting the Studio Ghibli Museum and taking a teriyaki chicken cooking class.Getting up at 2:30 am the morning after I arrived in Tokyo was difficult to say the least. I had tried to go to sleep early, but I had one of those "I know I have to get up early and should to go to sleep right now, so naturally I'm wide awake" nights that you have in college before a huge test. But I got up and drug myself out the door to meet Lolly to get a taxi half way across the city. 15 minutes later, we were running around trying to find the ticket line. Several of our friends had gotten up and tried to get tickets but failed, so Lolly and I got up extra extra early to ensure tickets. We finally found the ticket room, at at 3 am, 70 of the 120 tickets had already been given away. But we could rejoice! We were in!

 At 3:15 am, the tickets (aka vests) are nearly gone!

After waiting another 2 and a half hours, our group was guided through the parking lot full of fork lifts whizzing around to the auction rooms. The auction lasted for a short 20 minutes, but it was quite interesting. These buyers took the business seriously. Walking around with notebooks, flashlights and ice picks, they carefully inspected each slice of tuna under their flashlights and poked around the tender meat before scribbling notes then going to inspect the matching fish, chipping a piece off of the tail with their ice pick for a taste test.

 

After watching the auctioneer quickly sell off the huge, and expensive fish (the first fish of the year sold for $35,000) Lolly and I decided to follow the crowds to enjoy a sushi breakfast. An hour later, we were sitting in a tiny sushi restaurant in front of a sushi chef that spoke a little of at least 4 languages. We ate the most divine tuna, along with many other delicious types of fish.

Overall, it was an early morning, but totally worth it. I highly suggest ignoring the Lonely Planet's and all the other official online suggestions of arriving by 4 am, our friends took that advice and they woke up so early for no reason. The day we arrived, tickets were gone by 3:35.Our second (well my first) priority was going to the Studio Ghibli Museum. A few months ago, Adrienne, Marcelle and I made plans to go to the exhibit in Seoul. Having never heard of Ghibli, I had to binge watch his movies, and I instantly fell in love. The stories hold a lot of troubled issues, but also great lessons in life, along with wonderful relationships between characters. The story lines, along with the breathtaking art, had me instantly hooked. So when I got a chance to go to the studio and be able to see original works, I couldn't pass it up. Getting tickets though the Korean travel agent was a pain, but totally worth it. We had a chance to see interesting ways of making their artwork come to life, a 20 original short that was adorably cute and the intricate work that goes into making the perfect shade of each and every detailed color. Our two hour time block was a perfect amount of time to get lost in the beauty of the stories, and was a great escape from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Another travel activity that has become quite a tradition in my trips is taking a cooking class. Lolly and I had found a lovely woman that offers several different cooking classes from her home. Originally, we wanted to take a sushi class, but they were fully booked, so instead we signed up for the teriyaki chicken course, which ended up being really fun and delicious. We learned to cook Japanese traditional soup, chicken, noodles and dessert. It was amazing, and I can't wait to cook it again!

 

A pleasant surprise activity added to our trip was a night at the Robot Restaurant. Lolly suggested we go after a recommendation from a friend. At first, I wasn't on board to pay a $70 entrance fee to a restaurant (where you then have to pay more money for food and drinks) but after a little research I realized the "entrance fee" was for the show. And it was totally worth it. The show was absolutely the WEIRDEST thing I've ever seen. From Japanese girls dressed in weird clothes drumming in wigs to a gorilla hanging from a machine butterfly blowing up a warlord riding a dragon, it was an hour and a half of insane, craziness. But a craziness that I would recommend to everyone visiting Tokyo.

 

Aside from my favorite memories from Tokyo, we had other great memories too. Visiting the SkyTree and enjoying the beautiful view of the city over a glass of champagne, watching the insane amount of people cross Shibuya Crossing from the window at Starbucks, eating delicious ramen and sushi, taking in the beauty of temples and enjoying great people-watching in the park.

I have to admit, Tokyo might be one of my favorite cities yet!

Pickle the Puppy

Recently several friends of mine have been posting quite a few pictures of their adorable pets and I've gotten quite home sick in the fact that I miss my dog. No she wasn't really mine, and no we didn't snuggle and cuddle like I would've liked (we had more of a jealous-sister relationship haha), but you ever really understand how much being around a pet makes a difference until they aren't around anymore (or in this case, I'm not around anymore). Being around dogs and puppies brings so much warmth and fun into you life, and I definitely missed that.

So a few of my friends and I decided to head to the animal shelter (about 45 minutes by bus from my house) to take some doggies for walks. My friends had gone before, but I had never made it out with them. When we got there, it broke my heart to see the adorable dogs in the cages, all I wanted to do was take them all home with me. After cuddling with several of the dogs (and one adorable, tiny puppy the size of my hand) we grabbed our harnesses and leashes and headed out with our dogs. Apparently they asked Adrienne to sign a little piece of paper with some of her information, but sometimes they don't even do that. You just walk in, grab a dog, and go play.

So we took our puppies on a quick 10 minute walk to Duryu Park, along the way giving our dogs names. Mine was Pickle, I have no idea why, it just seemed to fit. Adrienne's was Heisenberg because he was old, and Lolly's was Arrow because she had a 'v' shape on her head that looked like an arrow. We walked up the (extremely muddy and messy) path to the main area of the park where we were greeted with a huge field full of people and their dogs. It struck me as crazy that they would let their dogs run free (without leashes attached) but I guess that is just the sign of a well-trained dog. We plopped down in the middle of one grassy area (well, would-be grassy, but it is currently dead grass) and held on to our doggies tightly (we didn't know how well-trained they were). We were instantly swarmed by not only dogs wanting to play but also kids. It was adorable.

It was a ton of fun playing with the dogs, I definitely needed a little puppy love in my life. It was hard to take them back to the shelter, but I can't wait to go back and see them again!

Becoming a Snow Bunny

One of the things I heard about Korea long before I ever got here was the wonderful ski resorts they have. Now, being from Florida (and yes Kentucky as well) I've never been much of a snow person. I love it. I really do. It's beautiful and I love to play in it, for one day. Then it gets old because, well, it can be a pain. It starts to melt and gets all slushy and muddy. Not my cup of tea. But when I was in high school, I was lucky enough to go skiing over a vacation with family. There were no broken bones, no complete mishaps (that I remember) but that was also about 8 years ago. So when I forked out a large amount of money for a weekend of skiing, I didn't know if it was a good, or bad, idea.

Day 1: Before heading to the slopes (and before the weather turned ugly)

There were about 200 of us headed to the ski resort, the best ski resort in Korea. The condos we stayed in also had an awesome hot spring pool area, which was a definite plus. When we got there, we grabbed the clothes we rented, got skis and boots, and then had no idea what we were doing. Some of the gondolas were shut down, and this resort was a lot bigger than I had anticipated. The runs were FOREVER long, so as a beginner you definitely got tired.

Made it down my first run!

Notice the horrible weather

For our first run, my group decided to hop on a quick beginner slope. HA. Said beginner slope was up at the top, and there was no way down since the gondolas were shut down. And a "quick" ski lift trip later took us to the very top of the mountain. Not what we were expecting. I began freaking out about 2 minutes in. What if I don't know how to get off this thing? What if I break my leg right here, right now!? All the while Sarah (a girl from my EPIK intake) is sitting next to me cheering me on. You can do it! It's easy, you'll be fine! So we found a quick little slope and practiced for a bit, Sarah giving me a few instructions here and there. But it actually came back pretty easily. I remembered how to turn pretty well, though I would get really scared when I would get going fast. Please God, don't let me get hurt. After practicing for a bit, we decided to try to find a way down the mountain because we had to get our room keys. And the weather had gotten pretty ugly, so we were all pretty tired, and hungry. I ended up having to ski down an advanced slope that was said to be an intermediate slope. But I made it down without crashing or breaking anything. That night, I decided to forgo the night skiing and head to the hot tub, which was shut down about 15 minutes after we got there (2 hours early) because we were foreigners. Great. Later that night, we headed to the party with a live band and DJs. The night was fun and we all had a blast.

The next day was so much prettier. The sun was out! There was no snow coming down! And we happened to find the beginner side of the mountain. Good to know. We skied down a beginner slope to the other ski house, where we could grab breakfast, then headed up the ski lifts to the real beginner slopes. It was a really great day. I found a slope that I really enjoyed (probably because I actually made it down, but I could also take my time and actually enjoy it, rather than feeling like I could die at any given moment). Again, I didn't fall, but I didn't really push myself that much. Note to self, try harder slopes next time and don't be afraid to get a little snow on your butt.

I had a great time and can't wait to go again... hopefully I can make it back twice, but we will see!