So this story starts in South Korea, my second year in country there as an English teacher. Every year there is this huge festival called Boreyoung Mud Festival. The MUD festival is on the east coast of Korea, it is 2 weeks of mud parties, partying with strangers, mostly Koreans and Expats from all over, watch out for those military guys, that's for sure. And this mud festival has the best mud in the world, its really good for your skin and stuff. So you paint yourself and your friends and strangers up in it, then go run around with fireworks, put people in jail, a fake jail and go down slides, at night the party doesn't stop... there are these floating stages, well not floating, but they are in the sea... it is a platform with all the lights and performers.
Well, that's the location - best I can describe. So my friend Funeka, from South Africa joined me on the train ride there... which was said to be impossible to board without reservations made months in advance, but that didn't stop me... we got on, I made a creative use of the free space in-between seats, and started jamming out... well in my backpack I wanted to try a social experiment, so you know how Koreans eat dogs, well I wanted to see if I could shock them by eating dog food... so I bought a bag, gave the dog food to a dog and put cornflakes in the bag... looks like dog food, then when people walked by they'd see me eating from a dog food bag and just start starring, which was usual.. they never understood my eye color, nor my hair color... plus I wore some crazy hair styles... it isn't uncommon to feel like a zoo animal on display while in public there. So I had fun with a few people, some soldiers gave me a few beers and we played card games on the train. When I got to the beach, Boreyoung... it was party mode, as I am sure you could imagine, well later that night we packed like 30 people into a Karaoke room that should only fit 5, we sang our hearts out... I ran into friends I met in all corners of Korea, this one girl took me to her motel even, we had a naked shower together, but I never really liked having sex with strangers, so I just made-out and ran out... all the time outside was raining, so we were covered in mud, sliding in puddles etc... some of the crowds were standing around, so me and this girl started a dance party, which caught on in a matter of minutes... that was always something I wanted to do in life, start a dance party in a crowd that wasn't dancing but the concert was playing... then this girl I was dancing with, she sneaked up onto the stage and they let her dance with some Korean girl artist, it was hot!
Well I ran back to my tent, took off my clothes and went to sleep listening to my radio... smiling ear to ear... this was in the midst of a storm...
in the morning hours, which must have been like 7 or so, I think I passed out happy and laughing at the wind blowing my tent around, at like 4... so this is what I felt upon awakening, my legs very cold, no radio, just loud wind, my tent hitting me because of the force, but my upper torso very warm still... so I look around, notice the OCEAN is in my tent... and I am still naked as a new born baby. So I get out of my tent, still naked, and try to do something, but I am still so drunk and sleepy, so I walk around my tent and decide that I am going to have to save it, and in a hurry... then I hear laughter and then I turn around and see 4 Korean Policemen. They were laughing and pointing, this is in the middle of a storm too. And they didn't help. So I pulled and yanked on the tent, got it out of the sea and onto dry sand, then I smiled and waved to the Koreans and crawled back inside and slept for another hour or two... then I had to pack it all up, ran to a train, found Funeka somehow and made it home.
Oh, and on the subway home... I was really tired... so usually I stand and allow the koreans to sit first, but not this day... so I pulled out my wooden snake, and they all thought it was real so they moved away... which opened up a spot on the bench for me to sit... so I did, held tight to my bags and passed out, woke up at my stop and hiked back to my apartment.
No comments:
Post a Comment