This past weekend, I experienced a bacchanal of greater proportions than I ever imagined Korea could provide. Dionysus wishes he had been there. Maybe not Dionysus. Agamemnon, at least.
I speak of the Boryeong Mud Festival. (Look! It has it's own wikipedia entry!).
My companions and I were shuttled off from Seoul at 7:30am (a time these eyes have not seen in some time, let me tell you) down to Boryeong, a beach town on the west coast of Korea, to take part in a yearly festival that is mostly based on dousing oneself in mud and running around in the ocean.
First, however, we had to partake in some "Korean military training," which involved executing approximately 20 jumping jacks, rolling around in the mud, and playing a game that was almost, but not entirely unlike rugby. Check out the camo.
The worst human pyramid ever constructed.
There was a parade! I did not see this. I stole the picture from someone else. But look! What's that yonder? The ocean! Or is it a sea? Does it matter? I have not seen saltwater in so very long!
The "Mud Prison" was just one of many mud-based activities available at the beach. Also present: mud slides, mud wrestling, mud races, and mud baths.The mud is supposed to be enriched with special minerals that are good for the skin. Only after I realized this did it make sense to me that such an event would be held in modest, staid Korea. Koreans are obsessed with health, and will talk about it to such a nauseating extent that sometimes I am tempted to whisper softly in their ears, "Someday, you too shall die." But I refrain.
I slathered that wellness mud on my body and watched as what I can only imagine is the normally sleepy town of Boryeong turned into a teeming jumble of muddied foreigners and Koreans alike. Though Koreans attend the event, it still felt a bit like the Foreign Invasion of '09. Which is actually how Korea often feels, despite the vast amount of foreigners currently living here. For all the globalization Korea has undergone in the last decades, xenophobia still runs rampant in this country.
All that mud still doesn't cover up the fact that I'm a waegook.
