Hello Muuido

We had a wonderful time at the beach this weekend!!! It was just the relaxation I think we all needed to recharge our souls.

Here's my first glimpse of Muuido (a small island near the Incheon Airport {which is where I flew into Korea}):


You can see how far out the tide goes - there were all kinds of swamped boats all over!

After we got off the bus, it was a fair walk to the ferry - here's the crowd pushing on:


Once you get to the ferry, it's about two city blocks to the island. Seriously, the ferry ride MIGHT be about 4 minutes long. Some families were inviting the seagulls to use the ferry as their personal toilet by tossing food to the as we crossed. It was kind of gross:



But we finally made it. Here's me kicking back on the beach:


And the beach:


These are the little 8x8 huts you can rent for $40 a night. I actually ended up sleeping in the sand in FRONT of the hut we rented :)


Ahh, summer:


Check this out - I think we were nearly a mile from the "beach" and look how shallow it was!

(Thanks to Nancy for this picture)

So Danielle took a cool "running on water" pic:


Also, the fates combined to make me homesick. There were a bunch of hippies with guitars at the beach, and we all gathered 'round the bonfire to sing folk music. As we were introducing ourselves, Rebecca, the Brit-hippie with an angel's voice, asked me where I was from. When I said Wichita, she said "Oh, I know a song about Wichita" and proceeded to sing the sweetest little song about the leaves changing in the fall in Wichita. As if that wasn't heartbreaking enough, THIS Korean woman was walking around on the beach too:

Ten points to the first person who determines if this is a real car place - CJ? :)

The coolest part of the whole trip, however, was the contest. We heard some commotion coming from down the beach, so Catherine and I decided to go investigate. It turns out there was this stage and some announcer with a mic and a bunch of Koreans sitting on the ground watching. We got there just in time to see this bizarre dancing contest. Then each contestant had to go grab a woman and bring her up on stage. Guess who got chosen?!?!

So there I was with about 10 Korean women wondering how the heck I'm going to figure out what's going on, seeing as how the extent of my Korean knowledge is some foods, hello, and thank you. My plan was to stay at the end of the line so I could watch them each go first and figure it out... No dice. The announcer sees my waeguk (the term for foreigner here) face and pulls me to the front of the line.

Basically the contest ended up being this: Repeat a string of korean words after the announcer. Then, replace the "kong" in each word with a snort. Towards the end it went something like this:
Announcer: dongkongkingkongwanakongkongnameul
Emily: dongkongkingkongwanakongkongnameul
Announcer: dong*snort*king*snort*wana*snort**snort*nameul
Emily: dong*snort*king*snort*wana*snort**snort*nameul

So I think my goofy laugh may have aided me, because I TOTALLY WON THE CONTEST!!!! Yes, I beat Koreans in a game where speaking Korean was essential!!!! Here is my awesome prize:


These gift packs are everywhere because it's almost Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) and nothing says "I love my family" better than getting them clean. Also, there's a rockin' Spam-and-olive-oil gift pack that I think could really show someone you care.

Anyways, that was my very wonderful weekend... AJ and Danielle have posted some other pics on their blog if you want to check them out!

Love you all!