july 4th weekend....river party!

this was the best fourth of july that i can remember....funny enough, i can't really remember the specifics of any other july 4th weekend. anywho...to clarify a bit, it is one of the best weekends i've ever had. period. i took a trip w/ fantastical people to go rafting and river trekking in gangwon-do, which is the northeastern region of s korea.
as rafting goes, it was a great time ... the rapids were pretty weak, but we somehow flipped, we all got wet, we jumped off of rocks, etc. oh, and the guide of my boat was hot ... and i didn't think i'd ever say that about a korean dude. ^^
the most fun, however, happened that night. bbq ex-tra-va-gan-za. cooking was a group effort ... everyone had a job of some sort, from washing, rinsing, chopping, sauteing, & grilling, to playing music to simply keeping everybody's cup full. the food turned out pretty amazing, for both veggie and meat-a-tarians alike.
after the eatin', some folks started the jam off old skool w/ some pots and pans to accompany the sole guitar. i think just about everybody joined in w/ some noisemaker and some rhythm at some point...and maybe i was just drunk, but i think we sounded pretty sweet. so sweet that we gave ourselves a name... "rice beats".
while jamming, ka (my newfound hawaii friend ... who is just awesome, btw) fired up his hookah and a new circle formed. so a little smokey, chill time. and then began the fireworks fun. i can't really remember what all kinds we had, but the usual, roman candles, bottle rockets, sparklers... i do remember that i was given some sort of sparkler wand, which freaked me out because it looked just like a roman candle, but it was really just a big tube that threw lots of sparks. there was lots of jumping and running around, and of course a horrible rendition of the US national anthem. oh, and then ka busted out his glowing poi balls and was teaching a few of us to spin...until trisha succeeded in killing one of the poi by repeatedly smashing it on the concrete. ha.
then......some people decided that mud wrestling would be a good idea. and i don't disagree, because it sure was entertaining. before long, the whole group (i think there were 54 of us) formed a ring around the big muddy spot in the schoolyard. we shouted and cheered as different tough guys stepped into the middle. the grand champion was this big english dude, who was surprisingly given a run for his money by a much smaller korean guy. all ended well & w/ no injuries. after that, the crowd dispersed....some went to bed, some continued drinking & some continued jamming. i joined a massage train and then went to bed. and i slept well.
the next day was really saweeeeet. we went river trekking for like 6 hours. entered the river by jumping off of a bridge, then did a medley of stepping cautiously, climbing, slipping, sliding, jumping & floating for however many kilometers of that river we followed. river trekking is probably my most favorite outdoor activity ever. for real. being cool & wet & climbing all over warm rocks. it just doesn't get much better.
after the trek, we all sat down for some traditional korean grinds...the best vegetarian bimbimbap i've ever had. then back on the bus, where we had our own noraebang (karaoke) set-up to entertain us for the ride back to our other, less interesting, lives. EPIC.