Those crazy Koreans......

Thought id share a few urban legends/beliefs/weird customs that ive encountered over here lately. Its been a while since ive directly made fun of Koreans on here, as ive generally just been updating with things ive been doing, but im feeling a little sadistic today, so here goes:

1. Koreans believe that if you leave a fan on during the night, with the windows closed, you will die.

Electic fans: Friend or foe??

This is 100% true. I couldnt create something so ridiculous. Korean people are generally VERY smart and logical, but are clearly insane. Its a widely held belief that the majority of people believe in, not just a few Whack-Jobs. In fact, The Korea Consumer Protection Board (KCPB), a South Korean government-funded public agency, issued a consumer safety alert in 2006 warning that "asphyxiation from electric fans and air conditioners" was among South Korea's five most common seasonal summer accidents or injuries, according to data they collected. Hence, even the Korean governement believes that "Fan Death" is true. Really?? This should be enough evidence we need to condemn S.Korea to second- or third-world status immediately. The best part of death via fan is the retarded reasoning given as to WHY fans will kill you in your sleep. For example;

- an electric fan creates a vortex, which sucks the oxygen from the enclosed and sealed room and creates a partial vacuum inside.

- an electric fan chops up all the oxygen particles in the air leaving none to breathe

- The fan uses up the oxygen in the room and creates fatal levels of carbon dioxide

- That if the fan is put directly in front of the face of the sleeping person, it will suck all the air away, preventing one from breathing
- That fans contribute to prolonged asphyxiation due to environmental oxygen displacement or carbon dioxide intoxication.
- That fans contribute to hypothermia, or abnormally low body temperature

Never mind that these theories violate the most simple and basic laws of nature, physics or common sense. Koreans take fan death very, very seriously. Search Fan Death in google if u feel like exploring this further. Its worth it.

2. Koreans believe that if you walk in the rain without an unbrella, your hair will fall out

Again, absolutely a belief that the majority of people believe. You will never see a single Korean walking in rain without an umbrella. You actually see many Koreans walking in perfect sunny weather with an unbrella as well but that for another purpose - avoiding a tan (tan is a sign of working outside, working outside = lower class). So yea theres lots of bloody umbrellas over here, and I hate em; such annoying things, but a neccessary evil at times I will admit. Anyway, Ive not taken an umbrella to school a few times and by the end of class i has been raining. Sometimes heavy, sometimes barely at all, but theres always a teacher there to lend me an umbrella. Well lending isnt the right word, more like, forcing me. Ive had teachers run through the school, down stairs, yelling and screaming with an umbrella in their hand, imploring I take it because its slightly drizzling. I think there is an entire room somewhere in each school that is dedicated to houseing umbrellas, and video cameras at all entrances and exits, monitoring if people are leaving the school without one. One day, my students made me buy one when we had a class in town. All we were doing was walking from one store to another about 30 metres away, but they wouldnt let me go outside without one. This myth may actually have a morsel of truth to it - acid rain perhaps?? - but that isnt a uniquely Korean problem.

3. Koreans dont say "goodbye" on the phone, or have a dedicated "sign off".

This one cracks me up because I hear it very often. It doesnt always happen the way I will explain it, but it does more often than not, and happens between people my age and my teachers, so its not a generational thing. They have a greating on the phone " yeoboseoyo", then they talk at a million miles an hour, then comes time to sign off. They go from intense talking, to a short silence. This is followed by a short grunt. Silence. Then a longer grunt. This longer grunt is the sign to hang up. So 2 grunts indicate that its time to hang up. So fricken weird. And its definately a grunt. No audible word is spoken, just the passing off air from deep in the chest. There is a word for goodbye in Korea, a way to say talk to you later, a way to say absolutely anything we can say in English, yet Koreans decide to grunt. It is just so strange. I would really sturggle having a phone conversation in Korean because I wouldnt know the sequence of events that lead to the grunting. Do they say something before hand that initiates the grunting? Does one person start and the next person follow? What if im not finished? So many questions that ill probably never know the answer to.

4. Koreans dont eat the skins of grapes

They peel them off and leave them in a pile next to the bunch. I think the reasoning is fertilizers and pesticides during production, but everyone ive ever know eats the entire grape and there is nothing wrong with them. Well, at least grape skin isnt the reason there is something wrong with them.

There u have it, a few little quirks about my friends and neighbours!!

Things ive eaten more of....................

In the past 5 months than i've eaten my entire life.....

Thought id make a new list of foods ive been eating copious amounts of that are weird, wacky and wonderful.

- FISH BONES: Most fish meals have bones still in them. Even the "fillets" are bound to have bones, grilled fish are not deboned at all (they are simply flavoured and cooked and you pick away at the meat with your chopsticks. Im not very good at this) and even the fish I get in my soup at school has bones all through it. The bones range from entire spines to small thin ribs. Ive come to realise that if you want to remove all the bones you need to remain at your table for at least 3 hours and you need the hands of a heart surgeon, so ive basically given up on that. If the bone is thinner than my little finger, I just swallow them. Well not that big actually, but more like ill eat everything except the spine. Havent choked badly yet so I think ill keep up with this rule. My favourite moment in fish bones has already been explained previously on the blog but I will quickly re-hash; I had one meal with 2 fish dishes. One dish was ENTIRE fish deep fried (the fish were small poddy mullet/white bait looking fish covered in batter. the deep frying managed to soften the bones in this) and another was the same fish in a casserole. The bones in this fish, however, were not softened, so i had avoid the bones and pick at the meat. In one fish I could get maybe a teaspoon of meat. Lots of work for little payoff.

- GREEN CHILLIES: I have also detailed my hijinks related to green chillies. They are a very popular side dish over here. Typically eaten by just dumping the end of it into some nice dipping sauce and chowing down. Can be eaten by adding it with other stuff, but most just take it down in3 or 4 bites. I dont mind them, as most arent hot. The long and thin ones are what u need to look out for, and are probably the hottest thing ive had over here. Ive given my teachers a good laugh by eating the hot ones a few times.



- GARLIC: Lots of garlic at a barbecue. Most incredibly, many people can eat them straight, or with a small amount of dipping sauce. I find the weird heat/strong burst of flavour too much to handle, but if you grill them on the same plate as your beef or pork and cook them a bit, they are bloody awesome. We arent talking about thin slices or finely chopped garlic either, more like the size of your thumb. Such as above

- BEANSPROUTS: One of my absolute favourite side dishes. Best eaten at a barbecue where you grill them, much like the garlic (and kimchi also), on the plate where the meat is. Bloody fantastic. Comes in 2 varieties, plain and with red pepper sauce - ill take either but with the red pepper sauce they are amazing.



- EEL: Yes thats right Eel. Many many eel resturants in town. As a meat, its fine, nothing too distinct about it, sort of fishy. This is one fish where u know you wont be getting bones. Basically the guts and the spine is removed and then the remaining meat is chopped into pieces 2 to 3 cm long. The pieces then flatten out when they are grilled so your left with pieces of meat just smaller than a credit card. Im always amazed at how much meat you can get from these guys because u can see them swimming in the tanks out the front of the store and they are very thin and small. They look more like sea snakes than morey eels. The most popular piece of the eel is the tail which is said to be good for "stamina". Two points; 1. Stamina does not refer to the type of stamina required to run a marathon. 2. I think ive heard of every food in Korea as being good for stamina. Whether its dog, kimchi, tofu, coffee or water. Everything is good for stamina. Regardless, Eel may be the animal with the highest concentration of "stamina" in its meat as far as I understand it. The picture below is accurate size of the eel, but we dont have it in the "runny" sauce and it is cooked far more. It looks for more appetizing than this



- HARDBOILED EGGS: I remember when it was Easter over here I walked into school and was greeted, not with a chocolate egg, but a hard-boiled egg, and think what the hell is wrong with these people. Not wanting to be rude I decided to eat it, and that was after the eternity it took to figure out how to peel it properly (id never done it before, give me a break). I was literally expecting to throw it back up, but it went down quite well. I had been converted. Vendors on the side of the road sell hard boiled eggs, its a common morning tea snack at school and in resturants some places have quail eggs as a side dish . Ive even taken to them so well that ive hard-boiled my OWN batch of eggs to snack on many times. Thats right i hard boil my own eggs.

- RICE: I think it safe to say that ive tripled my life entire output since ive been here, and ive always eaten rice back home. I havent had rice before 11 in the morning yet, if or when I do it ill officially be Koreanised. Ive also not made it once at home. I figure that if I ever feel like eating rice, ill just go to ANY building with a roof nearby and they will have some for me. I also dont wont to burn out on it, so if I limit myself to lunch and resturants, I shouldnt get sick of it. I still get amazed by the things that are made from rice over here. Rice wine (not pleasant but drinkable), rice deserts (the rice machine is dumped with boiling water and then the resulting goo is put in a bowl and served), rice sweet ice tea (probably the worst thing thats been in my mouth since ive been here) are just the tip of the iceberg.

Cant wait to take the brothers and sister out to dinner here.... especially u macka

Ajumma Party

Just a quickish update for the moment. Had a classic weekend, although a tad bittersweet. It was the last weekend for a couple of people so we sent them out the best way possible. Definately sucks to say goodbye to people, especially good people, but I guess thats gonna happen continuously while im over here so I better get used to it. As a final send off we had a dress up party, something ive been keen for for a long time. Ironically, the theme of the party was the same as what I would have dressed up as if I could have chose anything; Ajummas (and Ajushis). I will use another website to define them;

Ajumma (아줌마) : A term used to address an adult female individual of married age and/or runs a business or restaurant. The word is used to call older women when in a restaurant or simply when getting a person's attention, but it is best to only call older women this as women of a somewhat younger age may not think of themselves as ajummas yet, especially if they are in their 30s and maybe even early 40s.

An "Ajushi" is the male equivalent.

Now your probably thinking what the hell is so special about dressing up as a middle aged woman. Thats a great question. Well, youve seen the definition, now ill tell you about the stereotype. What I know an ajumma as is a crazy and old woman. Not in their 30's, usually 50 or older, and completely nuts. They turn from complete hunchbacks capable of moving no faster than 14 cm/min, and able to make all walking traffic on the entire path screech to a standstill, to athletes capable of Usain Bolt-like speed as they run for a bus carrying an inflatable swimming pool full of cabbage and green peppers, all the while throwing elbows at anyone in a 5 metre radius. These woman seem to enjoy hurling abuse at anyone that can hear them - foreigner or otherwise - and seem to follow less than stringent hygeine practices. Did I mention they have hunchbacks. Im not joking. Parallel to the ground. They spend a large portion of the day at the market chopping the skin off garlic or shuking the stuff out of clams and oysters so they have their backs down low to the ground to help them, so I guess years of acumulation of led to a back that is no longer straight (havent these people heard of tables?? makes things much easier). It all add to the charm. But I guess the biggest stand out feature of the Ajumma is her clothers. An absolute plethora of tacky floral prints, flouro and mismatching colours. At least the pants or shirt MUST contain 14 different colours, and the fashion conscious ajumma, or the practical one, will wear long sleeves (cooling long sleeves), maybe a mask (i dont know why), and usually gloves. Also vital, and maybe the signature piece of clothing, is the visor, which has minimum dimensions of 1 metre long by 80 cms wide. These things are huge. They make sunbreros look like the little hat that jewish people wear. Again, more terrible colours the better. All in all, the Ajumma is just a standout feature of Korean society and one that gives you great unintentional entertainment everytime you see them.

So now you know why it was so vital that we dressed up as middle aged women. Actually, that whole paragraph was just a cover so that we could dress up as middle aged women and get away with it. In any case, we got about 30 or 40 people dressed to the 9's as Ajummas, most outfits costing about $20 bucks. Pretty cheap for the end result, escpecailly considering some shops were selling shirt for $80!! Im not kidding. These are in crappy little markets too, not in real shops. The $20 layout looks more attractive when u consider the fact that the pants are damn comfy so most people will be wearing them again when winter rolls around. My costume cost about $10 more for the acessories - mask, gloves, weird shoe things - and was a smash hit. Recieved multiple best dressed nominations. Bugger it, I WAS the best dressed there. Did recieve some criticism for some percieved "matching" of colours, but while it may look like there was some matching, I think it is still damn ugly which was the purpose in the first place. And really, when does pink and purple ever look good or ever meant to match?? Drunkedness was achieved via Soju Punch, and I have to say Mum, I think my mates stole your punch recipe because it tasted exactly the same as yours. Soooooo bloody good. It transported me back to home for a while...... and then after a few hours transported me to the toilet a few times. No that didnt happen I held myself together but cant say the same for everyone else - the Soju makes people go nuts and when it is in something that tastes good, allowing everyone to drink it as quickly as possible, its 100% garenteed to get at least 5 people in trouble with their boyfriends/girlfriends or to start randomly breakking things. Gotta love Soju. And Ajumma partys.

So here are some photos from the night, enjoy!!

Adventures in Korean Food

Thought id share some of the different eating experiences ive had recently. The first isnt really a single experience, but many, and is actually just a custom over here. The custom i refer to is drinking one's soup directly from the bowl. Now, there are spoons in Korea - no knives or forks - but that doesnt stop this process from happening. I was reluctant to do this for probably the first 6-8 weeks of my arrival, but since then its become a favourite thing of mine. It always brings a smile to face when i bring that bowl to my mouth - partly because im doing something that was never allowed before coming here, and partly because the whole thing seems a bit absurd. But im definately not the precious type so im very comfortable with absurd. In reality, its actually quite practical - there is a soup with nearly every meal and really, who has the time or energy to use their hand in the same repetitive motion 20 times when u can simply drink the whole thing in 3 gulps. Genius. It took some time to get some photos of me doing this; i obviously dont take my camera to every meal; but when one of my friends was showing me some photos while i was eating some dwaen-jang jig-gge (seafood and tofu soup, delicious and a great hangover food) with a lowly spoon, i connected the dots and came up with these.




Had my first serious experience of raw fish last week. My plan for the night was to meet a friend who is leaving the country soon and raid his house of anything he was leaving behind, and then eat McDonalds for the first time since ive arrived. Well, ive had a medium chips and a single bite of someones burger, but this was gonna be the first proper Maccas in about 5 months. I was quite excited for how the night was going to play out, and i took only enough money for maccas coz i planned on coming home afterwards. All that changed when my mate wondered if i wanted to grab dinner beforehand. I said sure, he is leaving soon and in the mood to hang out, drink and eat so I thought why not. He said he was thinking fish, and I thought, "great, i love fish, this will be good'. As we are walking down the street, we looked at the fish resturants - some were pufferfish resturants (no joke) and the others were raw "normal" fish. So I went from Maccas to raw fish in a matter of moments. The meal was interesting - lots of side dishes, some normal, some completely whacky, but they kept on coming. The whacky ones included random large chunks of fruit and vegetables covered in mayonnaise - it looked like potato salad but had cucumber, carrot, prawn meat and the best of all, apple. Yes, apple covered in mayonnaise. Weird. We also were given a plate of small shells. They looked like the tiny pink and speckled cone shaped shells you often find on the beach back home, but where dark in colour. You put your mouth over the small opening and just suck as hard as you can, until the little thing living inside it pops into your mouth. Weird. I was told this can also be sold as barfood. Again, weird. The raw fish was OK. Average. It wasnt very tasty and required some sauces to give it some kick, and there were times when it was in your mouth that you remembered it raw fish and the texture freaks you out a little bit. But it was edible. And expensive. And not very filling. It wasnt filling enough that i had to buy some Ramyeon (2-minute noodles) a little bit later as we were drinking out the front of a corner store. Yes, drinking out the front of a corner store. Most corner/convienience stores have chairs and seat set up in front of them so u can buy some booze and drink it up out the front. Its basically a cheap outdoor bar. Bloody awesome. This was where I had the ramyeon and also where one of my mates ate a hot dog that made him sick for the next 3 days. Yes, he ate raw fish earlier that night, but the hot dog made him sick.


First day of semester today so technically my "holiday" is over, but today reminded me that every day for me is a holiday. I love my job. So bloody easy. And fun. Was in a bit of a crabby mood in the morning but had a smile plastered all over my face when I was in class.

Last but not least, couldnt pass up the oportunity to post this photo


Happy Birthday Mum!!!!!! Miss you heaps and love you lots!

Getting around

Was lucky enough to get 2 weeks holidays during the summer so I went for a bit of a travel through parts of Korea. Ended the trip a little shorter than anticipated but 3 nights camping on the ground in weather that doesnt drop below 25 will make one pine for a comfy bed and an air conditioned room. Getting out on the road reminded me how fun travelling is and how it should be done as often as possible. I was a little tepid going into it because I was by myself and still pretty unconfident in communicating with Koreans, but pretty soon those worries were forgotten. Even though I have had the greatest of fun over the past 3 months, nothing really compares to sense of freedom and excitement that travelling brings. Was lucky enough to meet a few people on the way and have places to stay and people to see when I go to Seoul and Jeju, which are basically the 2 best places to visit in the country.

So I started the trip in Geongju, which is the capital of the old Korean Dynasty. In and around Geongju is the largest concentration of temples, shrines, and all that lovely cultural stuff. Have to say that the scale and impressiveness of the Korean artifacts is not quite on the level as Angkor Wat in Cambodia or most things in Europe, but nice nonetheless. Started off in the main temple - Bulgogsa - set at the bottom of a mountain, then went to the top of the mountain to a Buddha shrine. Bulgogsa was pretty cool, the best part though was a painting in one of the small temples, but you cant take photos of it so I was a little peeved. I had a chance to take a pic while the little old lady guarding the temple went to get some water for her pot, but I figured it was bad karma and I would never be able to reach enlightenment. The Buddha shrine was a bit of a let down because you couldnt walk into the grotto where buddha was sitting, instead you had to look from behind a glass door. I went back into town, in need of a shower more than ever in my life. Got back to the hostel and ran into some Yanks and Canadians so we drank the night away on the rooftop. Really fun night with some cool people.



The 2 pogodas (mentioned in a moment) are on either side of this photo. Main temple.



Actual proof I was there - even asked the guy in Korean to take the photo; sa-jin jjik-eo ju-se-yo? All the temples and pagodas are inside here.



These 2 things are called "pagodas"

Next day was a bit of a later wake up than anticipated due to the late night. Got up to rain but decided to soldier on check out the stuff in the downtown area. First was this area where the Ancient Kings and Queens were buried. The coffins were laid and then covered with tonnes and tonnes of soil until they formed hills. This is basically what the Pyramids are, instead the pyramids arent made of dirt. The next thing was an ancient observatory built in 700 AD called Cheomsongdae. Its only about 12 metres high, but is a major artefact in Korean history. Basically it was built to study the stars, but I personally reckon you could "study the stars" much better from the tops of one of the many mountains nearby.



Later that day went to the inland city of Daejeon. Ended up staying for 2 nights, not because there was so much to do, but because it fit in better with getting to the music festival on the weekend. While here I did do some cool things though; firstly, I went to a baseball game. The Hanwha Eagles are the worst team in the league and played like it, but it was still a good game. Saw a Home Run which was cool, and got a real appreciation for what baseballers do, because I havent seen a live game since the days Newcastle had a team. The Korean league is really strong as well - they won the most recent World Baseball challenge - so it was quality baseball. Couldnt believe how fast the pitcher throws that ball and I think the Catcher has by far the most difficult job in the sport - maybe even in any sport. Wasnt bored at all as the game dragged on either which is a little suprising considering I cant watch a baseball game on TV for more than 10 minutes. Was hanging on every pitch, and the thought of either missing a cool play, or catching a foul ball or a home run ensured my eyes were always fixed on the game. The other interesting thing I did was go to a public spa - jim-jil-bang - and it was maybe the most bizarre experience of my life. Actually, I would say it was the most homosexual thing ive ever done without it being homosexual. This made having a group shower after a football or hockey game seem straight. First thing you need to know is that everyone is naked - from 8 to 80 years old. Even then people at the front desk are naked. This jimjilbang was fed by hot springs and there was various pools of varying temperature, outdoor pools and saunas, and you basically just walked from pool to pool starkers. There was no shame from anyone - no one trying to cover themselves or be inconspicuous when inspecting another person. It was downright weird. At times hard to really enjoy yourself. But I soldiered on and had a good time. The worst part though was anything that involded sitting on something - bench or chair - and realising what had been resting on it before hand and how many times that had occurred.


Downtown Daejeon


On the Friday I got myself to Jisan Valley Ski Reosrt for a 3 night music festival. The set up of the festival was really cool - literally in the Valley - so you had the mountains rising up all around you. At the bottom of the main runs, where the chairlifts and the ticketing and food buildings are, there was a massive, massive pool where you could hang out by all day. First time ive seen this at a concert and I must say it was one of the coolest things ive ever seen. The weather was so insanely hot, and the shower lines so increadibly hot, that sitting by the pool and cooling off was a gift from God. The stages were spread between the chairlift area and further up the valley and just provided such a unique and cool setting. The only problem was the festival orientation was narrow and long, not central and condensed, so we had to walk maybe 15 minutes from our camp to the stages, which doesnt seem like much but when you forget something, is a bloody long way to go for it. The organisation of the food, drinks and playing times was great, choice of music excellent, and the general set up and atmosphere really fun. No dickheads causing trouble or generally jacking off, everyone just having fun and enjoying themselves. I feel sorry though for anyone leaving on the Sunday night as the lineup for buses was probably 1,000 people long - and this was for pre-organised buses too! Lucky I had nowhere to be the next day so I could stay the night and leave the next morning. Walking up and down that line all I could hear from stressed and worried people on their phones was "I have summer camp at 9 in the morning!!". There was a problem with camping another night and that was actually camping. The weather never got below 25 even in the middle of the night, so that meant the tent never got below 45. I slept in my underpants with nothing on top of me (on the ground to by the way) and couldnt make it further than 8am on any morning, even though I would have slept for less than 4 hours. Basically, every moment of the festival was great, except for the times I was in the tent.




The Gift from God






Dance stage - notice the ski runs behind it

Camping; so bloody organised these Koreans!!


Main stage

Cant wait to head out again soon!!

Mudfest

Well ive had a couple of days to sober up, rest my vocal chords and reflect on one awesome bloody weekend. The weekend was "Mudfest", which is pretty much exactly as it sounds - ie, a Festival of Mud. It was held in Boryeong, about a 3.5 hour drive from Jinju on, which is on the coast. Location here;


View Larger Map

It is a holiday town situated on the beach and a whole bunch of activities and events are held along the beach and just off the sand. The beach ends up looking a little bit like Full Moon Festival in Thailand - a massive strip of sand covered in garbage, thousands of drunken lunatics and leading to an ocean that cannot possibly have clean water. I would have to guess that around 5 to 6 thousand people were in attendance; most being expat teachers, a few young families enjoying the beach (why oh why would you bring your children anywhere near this drunken and debaucherous mass of humanity), and quite a few US army guys. Theres no bigger meatheads on Earth than these dudes. Everyone will be having fun until these guys come within a 20 metre radius and immediately kill everyones buzz. Don't even think about talking to a girl if these guys can see you, their unnatural amounts of testosterone will have have a massive issue with it. In fact, don't even bother looking at them, because thats means you are challenging their alpha dog status and something will need to be done. Other than this unpleasentness it was an amazing weekend that went as follows;

- Met at 9 pm in Jinju to catch the bus in Monsoonal conditions. We didnt have to actually go to mudfest at this point because we were already at a mudfest. Absolutely soaked to the bone before I got on the bus. Things heated up rather quickly though as I was revealed we were on a "Noraebus" - literally "Singing Bus" - and after a few beverages to loosen everyone up, we had that thing rocking. I went 3rd with Bon Jovi's "Livin on a Prayer". I sing, especially the verses, in a very very Aussie accent, which even I can hear through the speakers. So my first 30 seconds drew rapturous laughter from everyone as I was waiting for the chorus. Once I could breakout and actually sing things got better, and my dancing and acting provides a good distraction to my voice as well. Once I was done I got a few "Peter Garrett" jokes. Good stuff. After a few more songs me and the Aussie girl gave our rendition of "Land Down Under" which was accompanied by my faux flute playing (or whatever instrument is used in that song). After this I was established as the star of the Noraebus. At one of the many breaks we took on the way, someone foolishly suggested a foot race while we waited for everyone. Bad choice by them. Kicked their ARSE! The rest of the trip was punctuated by more singing, drinking and increased dancing in the aisles. There is no way in hell this would be allowed in Australia - it was loud, dangerous, drunken and crazy in that bus. Heck, in Australia you are supposed to weat seatbelts in the bus! By the time we had arrived I was already satisfied with my weekend, as I had just had the most enjoyable bus trip of my life, and I didnt think it could really get any better. The only downside about the bus ride was none of the stops along the way served alcohol. I actually think it would have been safer if the bus driver drove when pissed and on drugs then drive with us hooting and holering in the aisles.

-The flute section of "Land Down Under"

- And the crowd is loving it!!

- Once we got the Boryeong - at 1.00 - we dropped our stuff into our "Pension" - our hotel. We had about 40 people staying in 5 rooms. Floorspace only. Made for sore necks in the morning. Apparently 80 people have stayed in that pension before - they must have fit 20 in the bathrooms for that too work. After dropping our stuff off we went down to the beach. I wasnt prepared was swimming when everyone started running into the water, but I was drunk and wanted to swim, so off with the jean shorts and into the water in my undies it was. Believe me, after seeing what some people still wear to the beach these days, wearing underpants (and the long boxer brief style ones) was more then acceptable. I thought only 50 year old men wear budgie smugglers anymore. Obviously not. Anyway I frolicked around my undies for an hour on the beach at 2 in the morning. There will be no photos of this. Wait, why am I telling you this???

- The next day we went to the actual mudfest which was actually quite fun. It was basically a collection of "rides" or "games" that were played in/on blow up things. Like a jumping castle. But instead of a jumping castle there was the bungy - where you strapped yourself into your bungy across from someone, then you both ran to the centre until you bungy became too tight and flings you back to where u came - the climb - where you "rock climbed" (but not as steep) to the top of a mountain and then threw your self down the slide at the end - the race - which was an obstacle course where you raced 4 friends at a time - and the pits - where you basically just wrestled people in the mud. This was the tailor made for the army wanks to flex their muscles (literally), beat up on unsuspecting "weaklings" and show how much they love themselves. If you managed to be in there when they werent, it was actually alot of fun. There was also artistic mud which came in cool colours that would stick on you and you could make cool designs, a stage area where there was a bit of live music, and an impromptu mud fight. This was actually quite funny because this was not a designated area for mudfighting. It was supposed to be a "mud sculptor" area, but no one who went there could actually remember seeing any mud sculptures. This is because they were being used as shields and ammunition and no one had time to look around and admire them. There was two teams about 10/15 metres from each other just hurling balls of mud at each other. One team was using the sculptures as protection and the other was using cars as protection. This was definately not supposed to be happening. It was a fair way away from most of the action - near the car park in fact - and this is the reason why cars were being absolutely bombed. It would have sucked being the owner of one of the cars because they were completely brown by the time it was broken up. I dont know how long it lasted for but if was fun while it lasted and made better by the fact that it was completley organic. I think someone must have just shouted out "MUDFIGHT!!!!" and everyone followed through.

- Part of our crew; the flag is the Jinju flag

- Our impromptu "Soju Bucket". Yes, its a rice machine.

- I was completely worn out by about 5 or 6 in the arvo thanks to little sleep and a massive day so I passed out when i got back to the hotel. I was back up a few hours later and we enjoyed the night life, however by this point i was running on fumes and pretty happy with my weekend already. There was a concert held during the early part of the night which featured typical Korean entertainment - 60 year old guys singing karaoke style, teeny bopping young Korean girl singing, and a DJ. All in all, totally cheezey and hard to listen to or enjoy, but 100% authentic Korean. After this most went to a club but I decided I didnt want to be death stared by a bunch of army kooks and just drank on the beach. Ended up being an earlyish night.

- Received some sun on the last day as we sat on the beach waiting for our bus to leave. As it turns out, it was good that it wasnt sunny on the saturday otherwise id still be burnt. The clouds turned out to be a blessing. I mean, we were wet in mud all day, getting rained on isnt really an issue is it? I took my first photos of the weekend, the noraebus notwithstanding (where I took 200), but didnt really capture what mudfest was about. But I did get some damn fine shots of everyone singing. On the bus home there was more singing too top off probably the biggest weekend since ive been here.


Looking up and down the beach; doesnt really give a good idea how big the event was and how many people were there. It was sunday morning so im sure many were still sleeping. Most of the action was in the direction of the second photo, but it is just out of view.

SKWOZZI SKWOZZI SKWOZZI, OI OI OI!!!!

Another awesome week in Jinju:

- Yesterday went on a drive to Namhae Island with Mr. Lee, one of my Co-teachers. The students had exams so finished the day early and so we had an early day as well. Since the staff were having a welcoming party for a new member at 5:30, Mr Lee wanted to take me for a drive somewhere and then meet the staff for dinner. The original plan was to go to a massive temple in the mountains about 1.5 hours away. Mr. Lee is Buddhist so he visits big temples often and has talked to me about going to visit some for quite some time. Unfortunately we didnt get out early enough to go their so we went to Namhae instead, which is quite closer. I didnt have my camera on me so I cant show u any photos from the trip. Mr. Lee did bring the school camera with him and took photos but insisted I be in everyone. This might have been ok if he didnt zoom in on me every photo. Each one is me engulfing the image with my squinted and schrunched face. No backgrounds. Just me. So that was a bummer. It was a nice little drive, but we didnt go too far on the Island, basically just reached it, drove over the nice and shiny new bridge and came back.

The highlight of the day was going to the dinner afterwards. We went to a pork BBQ place which is just about the best news possible. We ate "Samgyeopsal" which is basically thick, thick bacon. You chuck it on the grill, then cut it into bit sized pieces with scissors, and eat it by placing it onto a lettuce leave and adding whatever else you want on top, for example, special sauce, kimchi, beansprouts, onions, garlic, rice. I think I can eat up to half my entire body weight in Samgyeopsal. I literally wont stop eating it until its all gone. I basically finished off all what the ladies didnt eat as well as the scraps from the other mens grill. I was an absolute machine. It took about 90 minutes to get through the bacon - people were enjoying drinking, and you need time to cook the new batch of bacon (but it is continuously being updated, theres always some fresh stuff to eat and another leg being prepared) - and I was absolutely stuffed. So I was quite amused when Mr. Lee asked me, "Jacob, what would you like for Dinner?". My reply was, "ahhh, I though we just ate dinner". But no, dinner, technically, has to include rice or noodles. So after an hour and a half of non-stop eating I tucked into my proper dinner, rice with a crab soup. So the food was excellent and I ended up putting more of it into my mouth than ever before. We also drank like crazy - Mr. Lee asked me not to drink my Soju in "one-shot", to go half at once. Now I dont drink it in "one-shot" to try to impress people or to get drunk. I do it because I dont want to sip on it and taste its flavour. So I reluctantly obeyed his request. I decided id drink some beer as well so some of the male teachers decided it was time for "so-baek" - basically a beer with a shot of soju in it. These were actually really nice and continued with these until we left the resturant, 2 hours after we entered.

(not my photos below, but this is Samgyeopsal)



The men continued on to a bar after the resturant were more drinking ensued. Just beer from this point but after an hour I honestly felt like I was gonna explode. I had eaten so much, and drank so much I didnt think I was able to contain it. And not by puking, but by my stomach literally splitting open. The fruit trays and beers just didnt seem to end. Everytime i thought, 'OK, this will be the last one surely', another 4 beers would come out. I certainly wasnt going to say no, but I was amazed by how much these guys drank. The only thing I didnt like to see come out was the dried and pressed squid which is a popular bar food in Korea. It is exactly how I described it - a whole squid, dried and pressed - and unfortunately, tastes as good as it sounds. It was really good to socialise with the teachers outside of class - it loosened them up and they started speaking english to me which I had barely heard from them before. I also think they were fairly impressed with my drinking ability so it endeared me to them as well. We talked about all the regular stuff guys do - sometimes with the help of Mr. Lee and it was just a great, fun night. The old Korean female owner was hitting on me bigtime as well, with no shame whatsoever, so that was good for a laugh as well. At 11.30 we left, so, when it was all said and done, I had 6 straight hours of boozing and eating, and didnt pay a cent. Felt great in the morning too.

- My school in Daegok has a vegetable garden and are continuously growing about4 or 5 veges at the same time. The staff really enjoy taking care of it and making use of it - they are always sorting through freshly picked stuff in the staffroom. They often has more than enough to go around so sometimes I get to enjoy in the benefits as well. Last week I got a nice big bag of potatoes the other day, which was very nice and they are excellent quality. So I was quite happy with that. However, on the Friday, Ms. Nam realised that she forgot to tell me not to come in to school that day (because of student exams). So to give me something to do, and not make me just walk straight back out the door and go home, so made me pick vegetables from the garden. I went out there with a couple of teachers and picked some cucumbers and green peppers. Now, they look like chillies but are large and arent hot. They are very common in resturants and quite tasty, but you typically have them with a special sauce. There was millions of green peppers around, so we all picked until our hearts content. I was thinking that I was just helping the harvest. But no, these we for me, I came to realise. So, there I stood, with a plastic bag full of green peppers. "What the hell am I going to do with these?" was all I could think of, and ive repeated this question on a nearly hourly basis since they came into my possession. Trading them for some more potatoes would be ideal. Or maybe I can join the old ladies that sell produce in the street markets. Either way, Im still wondering what to do with them - they are currently in the fridge and untouched since last friday. Any suggestions?



- Last but certainly not least; the 2 greatest words known to Man - BEER OLYMPICS!!!!

Ive never competed in a beer olympics before but I knew that im an Aussie, and if theres one race on Earth that should be good at drinking beer and playing sports at the same time, its us. My anticipation for it was off the charts. For weeks I couldnt wait for it to start. Finally the day came. We started by making our costumes. Unfortunaltely, due to lack of numbers the Aussies had to join with the Kiwis, but we made our costumes unique to each country. There wasnt going to be any wearing of kiwis on my part and they certainly werent going to wear a southern cross that didnt have a red outline or 5 stars so we kept things seperate, but united to take down the rest of the world. It was necessary the we join because there is only 4 kiwis, but more importantly, there is only 2 Aussies, and Lee doesnt drink beer. So basically, the Aussies were a one man team. Realistically I think I could have won the entire thing by myself, but there were some games that required more than one person, so I couldnt get around that. My costume was the product of spray paint, and face paint, and the hat was certousy of Lee. I certainly wouldnt have been able to pull it off. We definately had the best costumes of anyone and nicknamed ourselves the "KWOZZIES".




Events that were held;

-Flippy cup
-Hoola Hoop relay
-3 Legged race
-dizzy race
-carry race
-Egg toss
-100 sprint
-200m relay
-chug

Teams competeing;

-Kwozzies (which later turned to "Skwozzies" or tri-nations when the South Africans joined our team)
- UK
- US
- Korea (Even though nearly no one was actually korean - mostly Yanks as they had the most people)

Shouldnt be too hard to figure out who lost - yep the Koreans. Unfortunately the real Koreans that competed were mostly girls or unathletic, so they couldnt drink and couldnt compete at anything. The yanks that were chucked on their team were pretty retarded too. They would fall over twice in the 3 legged race or break the hoola hoop, basically they couldnt do anything right. Next were the UK. They have a few solid drinkers on the team but for some reason couldnt get it done. Well, they were just beaten by better teams. 2nd was the Sqwazzies. Led, I might add, by One Jacob Roberts, WINNER of the 100M dash and anchor for the WINNING relay team. That alone should be enough means to be MVP of the tournament. I didnt do too good at the dizzy race, flppy cup, or the carry race, but I did essentially win 2 events outright, so, heck, I think thats worth something. Left quite an impression on the spectators with my display of speed. I also think I deserve MVP honours because of my display of team spirit - if i hadnt heard a cry of "Skwozzy Skwozzy Skwozzy!" in about 2 minutes I was right there to give another one. I also broke out into songs and dances of "I come from a land down under", "Tie me kangaroo down sport" and "Waltzing Matilda" whenever I felt appropriate- which turned out to be pretty darn often. I dont need to tell u who won but I will say the scorekeeper was also from that country and im a little suspicious as to his scorekeeping methods. Either way the sqwazzies can hold their heads high, knowing they represented their country they way it should be. All in all an absolutely fantastic night. The kind of night that you dont really want to end. Friendly, and not so friendly, cross country banter, drinking, joking, competing, dressing up and scaring the locals. Doesnt get much better then that.




- Lastly here is a couple of cool pictures from the Herbal Medicene Temple that I visited a few weeks ago as part of the cultural day.