Experiences Abroad: Boryeong Mud Festival

This post will talk about a festival that happened earlier in the summer. I didn’t have a chance to post about it back then because it happened right before going to Thailand, and I was busy getting ready for an English summer camp. First a little background knowledge. Before coming to Korea I found out that I was going to be living in the state that I live in now (Chungcheongnamdo). Once I found this out I did look up the different things that happen around my home state. I did find out about this particular festival I am going to describe in a minute and I thought it would be pretty neat to go if I have the chance. About two days before getting on the plane I found out that I will be living in my current city (Boryeong) and that happens to be the location of this particular festival. Once figuring that out I knew that I would be able to make it to the Boryeong Mud Festival.

This festival takes place for two weeks usually around the end of July and has been going on for fifteen years. The reasoning behind the festival is because there is natural mud pits somewhere around my city. This mud is nice for the skin and they compare it to the mud at the Dead Sea (I think the Dead Sea mud was better). So this festival is held to draw attention to the mud and the health care products that go with this particular mud. It does happen out at the beach which is about a five minute walk from my school. The festival started on a Friday night but for that whole week leading up to the festival they were setting up the two stages and everything else that went along with the festival. Then on Friday the South Korean Black Eagles (air force aerobatic team like the Blue Angels) were practicing it seemed like right over the school. Plus there was music being played from the stages so the students were pretty distracted.

The festival basically is a huge party with mud, blow up slides, music performances, Air Force Aerobatic team performances, fireworks, and more mud. On the weekends there were a lot of foreigners out at the festival. It was the busiest I have ever seen the beach. Then during the week (after school I could check it out) it was mainly Koreans. Since it is in my hometown I was able to go each day. The first weekend was the Air Force performance and fireworks and so that was pretty neat. We barely found a spot on the beach. Then the second weekend it wasn’t as busy but still pretty crazy. That weekend there were some music performances that I watched. Plus the whole time there was free mud with paint brushes to get covered in the mud. Of course the Sea is still right there and was the best way to wash off the mud.

Overall it was a couple good weeks and with the festival being so close was pretty convenient. Even though I have played in the mud before it was pretty interesting to have a festival solely for mud. This week it has been back to school like normal. I have the same amount of classes as before but different times to teach. Basically it is about twenty different classes. The level of the students range from false beginners (act like they know nothing, but in fact know some of it) up to my conversation class where the best English speakers at my school. Still the highest students I would consider at a low middle school level compared to students in the United States. This weekend I will be going up to Incheon. It is right next to Seoul and is actually where the airport is located. I will be heading up there for a 5k race. It will be a fun run because it is a "Color Me Rad" run. I will leave it at that and describe it in another post, but first I need to go to the run. Attached are some pictures showing the mud festival. I will write later.