MUD FEST 2007

So every summer in mid July a smallish town on Korea's west coast hosts Mud Fest--essentially a festival dedicated to the local mud that supposedly has some magical mineral qualities. In other words, it's a great excuse to play in the mud, hang out on the beach, and have some drinks with friends. Courtney, Mike, Kris, Neal (Les's co-workers), Les, Sarah, Scott, Julie, Hannah and I all hopped a train and jumped into the mud. I think the best part of the trip was when I went kayaking for the first time. I loved it! The worst part was the sunburns we were all sporting (see the pic of the two pink people usually known as Nicole and Les). It was a high energy weekend and left everyone exhausted in the best way!

Climbing and Rafting

Climbing has taken a bit of a back seat to other activities this summer, rafting being one of them. A few weekends ago, Les and I went to visit our climbing pals, Kris and Jess. They live in Danyang, which is a little town (40,000 people or so) on the East side of the country. I shot some video while Les, Kris and Jess navigated the rapids. Not too bad for my first video attempt (although all editing and compilation credits go to Les and all the spare time he has on his hands...). Not too bad in terms of rafting skills, either.

The pics are just a couple Les snagged on our last trip to one of our favorite crags, Ganyeon. It's in Gangwon-do, which is the province just to the east of Seoul.

Lotus Lantern Festival 2007

This is a video I recorded of one of those traditional multi-person dragon puppet things. For me, this was quitessential Asia.

More Lotus Lantern Photos

Lotus Lantern Festival 2007

In celebration of Buddha's birthday, Seoul hosts a lantern festival. This means that pretty much every street in Seoul is lined with colorful, glowing lanterns. I have to say, it certainly made the city more aesthetically pleasing...it was also a ginormous reminder that I am in fact in ASIA! The last picture is the underside of a temple roof--all that decorative scrollwork and painting is done by hand! Koreans are also really into illuminated parade floats. It was beautiful to watch them come down the street.

Horray!!

This is just a quickie to say that my biopsy came back benign....I DON'T have cancer! woot! They said it was basically a derma something fibroid. A fatty tumor. Gross, but as long as I don't have cancer, I'm a happy, happy girl!! Thanks to everyone for their well wishes!

First Low-Key Weekend in Two Months

For the past nine weeks or so, I've been travelling out of town or had signifcant events that consumed my two days off each week. This weekend, though, I was very happy that I didn't have ANYTHING to do! Well, I didn't have any plans or things I had to do. Saturday I was downtown and came across some ajummas and adjoshis (older women and men) drumming and dancing in the park. Les and I went to check it out, and I was suckered into dancing with them. It was fun until they gave me a bite of food and a shot of soju and THEN asked me for money. All I had was man won (10,000won; about $10) notes, so I gave one of them expecting change. The change I got was a "Oooh! Very good!" from the ajumma and a big smile. Sigh. Oh well. I like to think that my man won is going to support the ajumma and adjoshi merry-making association of downtown Seoul. We'll see if I'm offered an honorary membership....

Sunday Les and I spent some time at his local playground trying our balance out on the slackline. A slackline is a long piece of nylong webbing stretched tight through a system of carabiner pulleys. It's friggin' hard! But, after a few hours I finally managed to stand up on the darn thing--major accomplishment for me! Throughout the afternoon, we attracted several groups of small children who were amazed at our ability to walk across a "tightrope" like people in the circus. And when I say "our ability" I really mean Les's ability--like I said, I spent a few hours just trying to stand up on it. But thankfully, Les was quick with the camera and snapped photographic evidence before I fell off.