Mud festival!! . . . but no.

Sunday morning I was awoken up at 7:30 by a Korean young man I met a few weeks ago telling me I needed to meet him an hour earlier than expected. Which meant I should have been up a half an hour earlier in order to get there in time. We had made plans with a group of people to go to a mud festival. An event that foreigners flocked to and many people have said is one of the highlights of their time in Korea. Another girl who was meeting us did not make it the hour earlier, the whether forecasted rain and I and this girl discovered that it was six hours away, not three which meant we wouldn’t even get there ‘till 4pm.

And so, with Leona who I had met once for about 2 minutes, Won, who I’d met two or three times and JonSu who I’d never before seen – we were off on a misguided adventure. We all decided not to go to the festival after all and explore the east coast (in the rain). It was an interesting day with LOT’S of miscommunication and culture clashes. We ended up in a coastal city about two hours from Daegu and when we got on the beach the guys were shocked and appalled at mine and Leona’s decision to go barefoot. Our feet would get muddy, what if we got hurt, etc. But we went anyway of course. It was a beautiful beach, heightened by the clouds and rain and the unusual sight of people walking along the shore with umbrellas. Fully clothed children ran in and out of the rain as their parents or friends huddled together trying to stay dry.

There were beautiful rocks not too far in the distance and Leona and I waere heading to them when Won stopped us with a shout saying we were about to enter Military practice ground. With sadness we heeded his warning. Hmm, I could go into a number of other interesting details such as the curious instance of JonSu asking us if we wanted to join with Won and him to drink alcohol that night . . . but I’ll try to make this as succinct as possible (well, as possible for me). We decided to head to another beach and made a stop at a Marine park on the way. It brought us to my first experience of walking on reflexology stones (rather painful) and a lovely temple on the hill.

We then had a kimbop picnic in the car (probably the Korean version of our sandwich lunches – rice, and various vegetables wrapped in seaweed) and were off to what Won said was another beautiful beach (with the rain drops pelting the car window). The beach was beautiful, and there were actually a surprising number of people there. I already had my bathing suit on and the guys said they were going to change into theirs but when I asked if it would be alright for us to get back in the jeep wet Won decided that no, it wouldn’t be. And so Leona and I left the vehicle and Won and JonSu stayed in it to change . . . another cultural confusion perhaps? We headed out onto the sand with our umbrellas in tow – I caught a frog which appalled the guys because they thought that was very ‘dirty’ of me (but I did get JonSu to hold it after some convincing – it was a very cute little frog!). Nearing the shore, I walked in to about my knees – still leaving plenty of room for my shorts to stay dry (though the wind and rain was pelting them anyways) to hear Won’s concern ‘Salrene, please, please. No. Be careful, don’t go in. Please.’ I came out – I was intending to actually go in the water because he’d already said no – but still I was confused. They changed into their bathing suits. They drove to the beach (which I later found out was about 45 minutes out of our way back home) but I couldn’t even step in the water.

Anywho, we decided to head back to Daegu shortly after that and Won took us on the coastal drive instead of the highway. It was the thinnest, windiest, rolling drive I’ve ever been on and both Leona and I got car sick – to which Won commented – ‘oh, that was my intention’ but then took us back to the highway shortly after. But it was also an incredibly beautiful drive. Even with the rain and the fog. In a way I think that made it more beautiful, the mist, and the fog on the mountains gave the area an aspect of the sublime. I found myself thinking of Wordsworth and other Romantic writers as I soaked in the sights before me.

Shortly after returning to the highway, Leona thanked Won for it, saying she appreciated it and he made some comment about her giving him lipservice. Leona had never heard the phrase before and though I had, I couldn’t quite remember what it meant. He mentioned something about flattering and then I remembered, then he said to butter, she’s buttering me up. And I agreed, yes that’s pretty much what it meant. JonSu had also never heard this before. Won, pleased that he used the phrase correctly continued. Yes, she butters me. Leona, butter me. I made some comment about toast which Leona got a kick out of but just confused the guys further. JonSu I could see, was working through this madly in his mind. About three minutes later he burst out ‘b-u-t-t-e-r?’ Which resulted in Leona and I heading into a fit of laughter and our two Korean friends wondering at these odd foreign girls who had been confusing them and mildly stressing them out with their odd ways and lack of fear of dirt and bugs and slippery rocks all day.