Never again will I only travel with one book. I figured, hey it's only a day and a half and most of the time I will be muddy (i.e., incompatible book companion). I brought Fitzgerald's Jazz Age short stories which, while great, it isn't something you can really lose yourself in for hours (or at least I can't). I wrote in my journal for a little bit, called my parents (eeek phone bill!) and even cajoled Salsa Boy into playing a few rounds of hang man with me. I tried to convince him that he wanted to read Fitzgerald's short stories instead of Sartre's Nausea but he wasn't having any of it. To be perfectly fair, I wouldn't have traded either. My efforts to 'pack light' must be abandoned.
And now, what we've all been waiting for...PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!! Dear Blogger, Please upload these so I don't have the wrath of my relatives upon me. Love, Alex
This shows the bottom of the mud slide. Very, very fun!
Me, in all my muddy glory!
Tents, ostensibly for people to get out of the sun. Mostly used for people to avoid the rain.
Me, obviously gleeful upon my arrival at mudfest! The people milling about me are the friends I roomed with. Yes, 20 people in one room. It was cozy.
Our first glimpse of muddy people, which was a bit shocking in a wonderful way.
Saturday night there was an absolutely superb fireworks show, I've never seen anything like it.
And, as requested, a picture of Salsa Boy! The single most unflattering picture in the world...I really think that mud is not his best color.
Me, blessedly cleaned up and mud free at dinner.
The organizers hired what seemed like a gazillion photographers to document the foreigners gone wild. Notice how there are about 20 of them swarming a group of dancing boys.Sorry that the pictures are so out of order. Blogger and I are in a rocky stage of our relationship. OO, and on that note, all of these pictures are care of Salsa Boy since I didn't want to risk my new camera around the mud.
The weirdest thing about mudfest was being completely surrounded by foreigners and no one even bothering to speak Korean in the shops. Elderly shop keepers kept calculators on hand if they didn't know how to say the numbers in English. I still attempted to use Korean but I gave up after a few hours in the face of thousands upon thousands of English speakers swarming the area. It was utterly bizarre to have people of Korean nationality be in the minority.
4 comments:
Great pictures! Thank you Salsa Boy.
Good thing you bought a black bathing suit. It's a wonder that the drains in the showers didn't clog
Your brother has not gotten the hang of a 12 hour time difference. He texted and called in the middle of the night that he had arrived in Beijing. He woke Dad up. Fortunately I slept through it.
Yes, the black was a good idea. We had to rinse off in the outside showers before being allowed to use the indoor showers. I actually rinsed in the ocean and then the outdoor showers and THEN the indoor. Mmmm cleanliness.
Silly Josh. He's supposed to be the brilliant engineer!
So, now I know what Salsa Boy looks like. Well, not really but I do know that he has a really big smile -- which is also reflected in your really big smile. Mud fest sounded like insanity.
Nice mud pics kiddo! FYI: blogspot is blocked in CN, as is FB.....
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