Mud Fest 2008 and other updates

Hello all! Maria here, reporting on another excellent weekend.
Last weekend we visited Boryeong Beach for the famous "Mud Festival." Boryeong is famous for their mud which they sell in the form of face masks, soap, shampoo, mud massages, etc. etc. etc. Once a year they host the mud festival which is the most popular festival in Korea for foreigners. Basically, it's a time when you can get all muddied up with a thousand other people. There was a mud pool, mud slides, music, mud wrestling, mud painting stations, and more, all next to a gorgeous beach. We got muddy, chilled on the beach (to let the mud dry and thus do wonders for our skin), then went swimming in the ocean to wash off, then did it all again. We went with our usual group of friends, then met up with some friends and friends of friends from other places in Korea. It was a great time to reunite and be silly. Ethan got really into being muddy from head to toe. I did this once or twice....OK, once. Then I preferred the less encompassing approach, and drew designs on myself with the mud. That's what allowed me to take some pictures on our second day (because I wasn't too muddy to touch the camera!)
We've been trying to pack in as many adventures as possible in our remaining time here. Be sure to check out our pictures from the weekend before last too. (4th of July). The 4th of July is my favorite holiday, so we did it up right. We had a party on the rooftop with sparklers, roman candles, and singing. Then, we headed to Wando. Wando is a beach just south of here. We stayed just one night, and had a great time just the two of us. We are counting down the days until our "summer vacation"...a whopping 3 days off at the end of July. I think we're going to the northern mountains in South Korea. (don't worry, it's not North Korea.)




As for a daily life update, we are enjoying ourselves but we are also ready to have jobs that make better use of our gifts, and we're ready to work for people who think on more the same level as us. That mostly being, one which making money is not the primary focus.
The weather here feels like Florida. HOT and HUMID!!! With one exception, places aren't guaranteed to be blasting the "air con" (as they call it) everywhere we go. Also, somehow in Korea, mosquitoes fly up elevators and live in the bathroom drains. They were eating us alive for a while until last week we got some strange plug-in mosquito repellent. No mosquitoes were harmed in the process, I'm sure. So, overall life is pretty great here in Korea. Hope you are also doing great wherever you are!