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Ok so now updates. Wow I haven't written in a while. So the weekend after my birthday was Mudfest. What a mess! It was so much fun. I signed up to take a bus from Noksapyeong (my hood) with 250 other foreigners. My friend Dave organized the buses and hotels, as Mudfest is 2 hours away in Boreyeong. Enily decides she doesn't want to go so she gives her ticket to Paul. Paul is my new boyfriend who's been in Korea for 2 months now. I met him at a bar a month ago and have pretty much hung out with him every day since. He's 25 next week (I'm a cougar, I know), from Pittsburgh, went to University of Michigan and is now teaching English with the rest of us in Korea. He lives in Hongdae which is awesome. Itaewon and Hongdae are the two main places people go out in Korea. I don't go to Hongdae too often because it usually means a 6am night, but now that I have a place to stay there, i've become a regular. Anway, we were supposed to get on the bus at 6:30 am with everyone, so of course I wake up at 8:30 to 300 texts from Krissy saying "where the hell are you?" haha oops! So we get our stuff together and run to Yongsan to jump on the next train. We ended up getting down there by 12, so we didn't miss much. And when we get down there it's pouring rain. Im talking torrential rain. Did I mention it's rainy season? Stupid July in Korea. On the trainride down Paul asked me to be his girlfriend. haha I've never been asked before! And we'd only known each other for a week. So it's official, I am off the market :)

In Korea 1/2 the time you get a hotel (minbok) there are no beds. It's just a blanket on the floor with some pillows. So, of course, here is no different. We have 8 people staying in our room and it's probably 10ft x 10x. It was tiny and we all have to curl up next to each other on the floor. It's pretty funny. So we start the trip off by meeting Krissy and her dude James (see my zoo pictures) in our empty room and take tequila shots chased with mudslides, appropriate right? Did I mention Paul and I drank the entire train ride down? We go outside to partake in the rainy, kind of cold mudtivities.

Right outside our hotel there are what look to be inflatable pools except instead of being filled with water, they're filled with mud! Everyone's running around fighting eachother, bouncing off the edges, falling, and just getting covered in mud. So we jump in! At this point the rain is moderate and kind of stopping. We played in the mud all afternoon, swam in the ocean, and fell a few times. There's free medical care which was good for Paul because dude could not stop hurting himself. Come 10 pm and Paul is a waste case, put him to bed and I went out. Ended up going swimming in the dark fully dressed, saw some fireworks, had some late night seafood, and just had an overall great time with some of my best friends from here. At one point I went into our room to change out of my wet dress and Brad teacher was in there. We chatted for a few minutes while I changed and then we went outside. His "girlfriend" (who I am friends with, or so I thought) then approached me and said we need to talk. "What were you and Brad doing in there?" Talking!!! I thought it was all over until I was out on the street later and her and her friends walked by and yelled, "Whore" at me. hahaa ive never been called a whore before. I thought it was funny and Brad assured me she would be kicked to the curb ASAP. What a nut!

Day 2 and it's absolutely gorgeous out. Paul and I venture further down the beach to where the real activities are. There are sinks filled with mud and paint brushes, mud slides, mud pits, mud painting stands, all sorts of mud crap. And everywhere you go, you are a celebrity. The paparrzi here are hilarious. One starts taking a picture of you and then you're swarmed by 15 Koreans trying to get a photo. Since Paul and I were together we were stopped no less than 20 times by Koreans asking if they could take pictures of us kissing. "No no over here" "In front of this statue." "Do it again." It went on all day. Hey, Im not complaining, I liked the celebrity status.

We ended up making the bus ride home and then it was all over. Definitely going back next year!!!

Last weekend was also a productive weekend. Friday was pretty low key, and then Saturday Krissy, James, Paul and I went to the zoo. I was expecting a small crappy prison like experience, but it was just the opposite. Seoul probably has the nicest zoo I have ever seen! It was massive, clean, and had tons of animals. We were there all day and didn't see the whole thing. Sunday was equally as busy. Emily Paul and I took a train over to Suwon, like an hour outside Seoul, to watch Emily's boyfriend Luke's cricket game. None of us had seen cricket before, so were sitting in the stands making up our own version of what's going on. It was a lovely Sunday in the sun.

This weekend is going to suck. Ha right. I'm on vacation!!!!!! Tonight I'm having a smore party. My mom mailed tons of marshmellows, grahams and chocolates, so I'm having people over to eat it and drink! Then tomorrow AM Em and I are off for Malaysia!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait. Were going to try to do a day trip to Singapore, we're flying to Langkowi (a Malaysian island) and from there take a ferry to an exclusive island of Thailand, Kipe. It's supposed to be totally untouched and amazing. I can't wait.

To the beach!