Boryeong Mud Festival

The weekend after my birthday we went to the Boryeong Mud Festival. They have this festival every year, and the name pretty much gives away what the festival is all about... Yup.. MUD!! It lasts for 2 weeks and it basically gives you the chance to literally play in the mud!! It's held at Daecheon beach, and the mud is actually quite good for you skin (much like most things in Korea). There is even a product line of MUD products that you can purchase. They have tons of events like mud slides, mud wrestling, mud king contest, etc...

We went with a a group of about 10-11 people and we stayed at this motel (It looks a lot nicer then it is). The great thing about it was that it was right on the beach, about 10 min walk from all the mud festivities. The rooms were Ondel style, where you are provided with blankets and pillows, and you sleep on the floor. The rooms we had were pretty small and we had 6 people in our room. At first we were a little worried but then we realized there was air conditioning!!!! So it was a comfortable cozy sleep.

This is a shot taken right outside our motel. We had gorgeous weather all weekend!! Super sunny and great beach weather!!
At the mud festival, if you don't have any mud on you, or if no one has thrown or painted mud on you, you are sent to Mud Jail, where you will receive a 'mud treatment...'
We actually never had to go to jail. As we were walking towards the mud painting area(they had tables set up with buckets of mud and paintbrushes to apply it with), someone did us the honor. He got Trevor on the chest, and me and Arna right in the face.
Who needs sunscreen??? We basically covered ourselves with mud from head to toe. Because it was so hot, it felt so nice to have the wet mud all over... but of course the mud dried and hardened. But, that just gave us more of a reason to go swimming in the Ocean!!

On the second day, Sunday, Trevor and I went back to the mud to try out the big mud slide, but sadly, it wasn't up and running. So instead we just had fun by covering ourselves with mud again. As we were painting, we had about 4 different photographers taking our pictures and watching us go from white to mud. We took our time and made sure we were completely covered!!! We didn't get any pictures of Sunday, but I'm pretty sure there are tons of photo's of us somewhere. It was sooooo much fun!!! Everyone took part and no one was afraid of getting dirty!!!

My Birthday!!!!

This year, I had to work on my birthday but it was still a great one. Trevor made me a Chocolate cake, which was sooo good!!! His mom sent over the cake mix plus chocolate and purple icing!! They have cakes and cake mixes here but they aren't the same... just don't have that sweetness that Canadian cakes have.
In addition to this cake, I was also given an ice cream cake and pizza from our director. A few people also gave money in for a gift for me.

That night a bunch of people came out for drinks at WA-BAR, it has drinks from all over the world, plus really cheap beer!! haha... Trevor got them to play the Happy Birthday song and they gave us all sparklers to celebrate!!!

Overall I had a great birthday!! Trevor got me a pedicure and a super funny shirt. One of the things we love doing is looking for random English t-shirts... Some of them make sense, but a lot don't. Just as an example.. The front of this shirt says "Cool Candy Grape good smell" hahah.. it continues on to the back with random words about candy.If you can't read the bottom part it says, "Sweets with the famous character in the worid (it doesn't say world, it says worid) it is aiming at what Children are glad at!"

Got our Black belts!!!

Just wanted to let everyone know, we DID get our black belts!! We had our test on the Sunday (see below for pictures) and we got our belts on the Monday!!! Our names are on one end of the belt and 'Tae Kwon Do' is on the other end!! So crazy!!!! It has been hard work, but well worth it!!!

Kindergarten Field Trip to the Zoo

As one of our monthly field trips, all three kindergarten classes went to the Jeonju Zoo. We piled into two of the SLP buses and headed out. In the picture to the left are two of the girls in my class, and four of the boys in the other classes.

The bus ride was interesting. If you can imagine sitting in between 9-10 five, six and seven year olds, it was pretty much like that, but surprisingly, it wasn't too bad. The kids were pretty well behaved and we actually had fun. Trev and I were sitting with these kids, and we just joked around most of the time. They were all pretty excited to see the animals, and secretly, so were we!!!


The zoo itself was OK. It was pretty hot out and we had a lot of walking to do. By the end of the trip, we practically had to drag some of the kids back to the bus... their little legs just couldn't take it!!

Some of the animals were out walking around, but again, it was pretty hot, so most of them were just laying around trying to beat the heat.

Overall, it was similar to the Zoo's at home. The animals seemed a little depressed, but it was probably the heat. The sheep were really lively though. They seemed really interested in us. Either that or they just really wanted out....
At the zoo there was also a small amusement park. So the kids that wanted too (which was most of them) plus some of us teachers, went a small roller coaster. I was surprised at how well behaved they all were when we lined up. I know as a child I was super excited about going on any ride, these kids seemed rather calm.

Once we were on the ride, the kids started to show their excitement. Everyone was laughing and screaming the way you're suppose to on a roller coaster. Not that it was a crazy big huge, double loops kinda roller coaster, it was more like a small-budget Spring Fair roller coaster, but for the kids, it was pretty big...
But regardless, we made the best of the ride, and treated it like a big, huge, fun roller coaster!!

Black Belt Test for Taekwondo...

"Happy Canada Day!!!"

It's Sunday July 1st and today was the day we had our Black belt test!!! We took a before shot, with our Red belts before we left for the test.
The whole thing was pretty quick. We arrived around 9-9:30ish (I think) and basically practiced on our own until it was time to test, which I think was around 11:-11:15ish. When we first got there, we kinda got that feeling that everyone was staring at us... which was true; I'm pretty sure we were the only two white people there... and there were A LOT of people there.

'We're here!!!'

For the black belt test, you are expected to do two Poomsae's (Patterns of movemnt); #8 and 1 of 4, ,5, 6, 7. So we have been practicing all 5 of the Poomsae's. While we were waiting, Sunbaenim (our instructor) and Kwanjangnim(instructor and owner of the dojang) came outside with us and informed us of what Poomsae we would have to do. We had to do #8 (as expected) and #6. I was happy about this because I like 6. So we practiced the two poomsea's out in the parking lot, until Kwanjangnim came and told us it was time.

I think we were at a University, not sure exactly, but we went in to the big auditorium with bleachers all around, full of other taekwondo students and spectators. We had to sit in a group of about 10 people, and waited as the group before us went. We were told to get up and stretch so we did.. and then it was our turn!!!!

'Choombee' (Ready stance)

'Yuk jung' (#6 Poomsae)

'Pal jung' (#8 Poomsae)

After we did the two Poomsae's we moved over to the next mat for sparring. Originally, Trev and I were told that we would be fighting each other, but when we got up there, the judges switched us and we were fighting other people. At first I was a little nervous... Trev and I spar all the time, so we know each others strengths and weaknesses, but once we started fighting, I didn't want to stop!! It was a lot of fun!! Sunbaenim took pictures for us, so you can see a bit of the fighting... Although as you can see, most of the pics are showing the other guys kicking, but he tried. Trev's camera takes a few seconds to take the picture, so he must have just missed our amazing moves!! But seriously, I really did make some good kicks!!

'Fighting!!!!'

'Bowing to the judges' (That's me on the left)

'Good Fight!!'

The whole process, was sooooo much fun!! When they blew the whistle to stop sparring, I was really dissapointed; I wanted to keep going!!! I didn't get the chance to show all the kicks I know, but I feel like I did good. Everyone told us we did good, so hopefully we get our Black belts. I'm not sure when we will find out, but when I do, I will definitely let everyone know!!!

After we got back, Kwanjangnim took Sunbaenim, Trev, myself, and one of the other students in our taekwondo class, who speaks a little English, out for lunch. This was by far THE spiciest food we have had in our entire time here in Korea. There was a lot of raw seafood, which even I ate, and vegetables, the usual. I even ate Starfish!! Crazy eh? No one was as surprised as I was about this though.. This was a usual meal to everyone else.
AND THEN... they brought out this HUGE dish of octopus, crab, rice noodles, bean sprouts, and other stuff I'm not really sure of... all mixed together with some type of spicy SPICY SPICY sauce!!! The first bite I took I must have breathed in to deeply because I almost choked on the spiciness alone!! The spice aside, it was still tasty. Every once and a while my tongue would regain some feeling in it and I could taste the food itself!! hahah... It was really nice of Kwanjangnim to take us out, it really helped to add to our day of Korean cultural experiences!!