Charcoal Face Painting

What a fun weekend albeit a bit of a trek to get to Muuido! Amanda, Shanna, Katrina, Seol and I left our apartments around 9:30 and followed the following schedule:

9:45--302 Bus to Incheon Airport
10:15--Arrive at Airport, realize we have time to kill before the bus arrives to the ferry
10:40--The "bus" comes in the form of a small van which is immediately occupied to its capacity with colorfully dressed Korean hikers.
10:45--Run downstairs and find a jumbo taxi willing to take us to the ferry (score!)
11:25--Pull up to the ferry dock just in time to see it being loaded, so we sprint in to get tickets and commence a "Baywatch run" to catch the ferry
11:26--Realize we didn't really have to run at all...
11:30--Reach Muuido after the shortest ferry ride in the history of ferry rides, we speed walk up the ramp to get the bus to the beach along with the Korean hikers we thought we lost at the airport...all of them...

 12:00--The bus drops those who are hiking off at the base of a mountain on the island

 Those who are headed to the beach stay on the bus to the next stop--oh wait! That's just us...haha

12:30ish we make it to our destination, buy our beach pass, our huts, and finally exhale! We got settled and hung out outside our rooms basically for the rest of the evening! The rooms we rented consisted of just that--a room. We did have a bathroom and a fridge as well which was convenient for our barbecue! The room comes with mats and pillows for a simple and cheap place to stay for the night. I think the floors are heated as well--So if anyone plans to make a winter trip to the beach...anyone?...Bueller?...

Other members of our group trickled in throughout the afternoon as we began the festivities of soju, barbecuing, and zip-lining! (No, i did not zip-line). The barbecue worked out wonderfully! Amanda put a lot of effort into making burgers, and potato salad, and well..everything! Good thing we had the boys to work the grills...Thanks guys!

The beach itself is small but really beautiful. We rented rooms further back on shore but Katrina and Seol rented out a beach-hut which is on stilts right on the sand. I'll have to try that next time :) The weather couldn't have been better either. The sun came out despite the weatherman's prediction and it cooled off a bit in the evening. There were several other groups of westerners there this weekend as well who we met throughout the day! I spoke with some girls from Washington, and another from South Africa. A Russian man joined our little group at some point just because he was lonely? Or lost? We weren't sure really.

A few brave souls brought a tent to stay in for the evening. The following collage represents a significant amount of time and effort (from them as well as friendly Koreans). At one point a Korean woman came by with her camera to document the event as well--that was slightly unexpected.

Turns out they brought the smaller of 2 tents that were in a pack, but brought both pole sets...needless to say there was some confusion- but they did it!

When the sun had set we went for a stroll to the norebang on the island and belted our hearts out to the classics (Michael Jackson, Backstreet Boys, etc.) On the way there we set off some fireworks, which looked SO much like spells coming out of a wand! The Harry Potter nerd in me absolutely loved this! "Expecto Patronum!!"....ok I'm done I promise...

Throughout the night I think someone fell out of a wagon, I played with a kitten the size of my hand, someone did the worm (or the caterpillar...Amanda), someone else was passed out with a tambourine on his head (he still doesn't know this happened), and I believe a couple members of our group ended up with some charcoal war paint?

 

 

 ...what happens on Muuido stays on Muuido!

 The next morning we were all a bit slow to rise from the activities of the evening, but we all definitely agreed it was an excellent way to spend the few days off work! Shanna, Erin and I headed home early-hoping to get some things done today before school begins again tomorrow. When I got back I decided to explore a running route that a few of the girls were telling me about near the apartment, then I got some serious cleaning done! Dust seems to accumulate and multiply much faster here so I think as I type this I'm seeing dust form on my gorgeous counters that I just cleaned...grrr. I also brought a GIANT chair down from the loft to the main floor. After several minutes of grunting, twisting, lifting and scratching my head, the monstrosity of a chair is settled down here with me. Now I just have to figure out where to put it! Well enough excitement about my interior decorating- I'm looking forward to another week of teaching and will keep you all updated!

Korean phrase of the post: 건배 kahn-beh: Cheers!

xoxo