I've been fishing and it is pretty boring, but this was pretty cool. We got our sticks and were told to flick the pole up and down, so this way it is more involved than just setting it in the water and waiting. Well, no one explained to me how to reel in the fish. There was no reel and I didn't know how heavy the fish would be and if our measly little plastic sticks could handle it. So when my line went tight, first I freaked out in excitement, then I started walking backward to bring the line out of the hole in the ice. I backed right up into another hole. thankfully that hole was frozen over. But I can't say as much for the hole I backed into with my second fish... I backed up straight into it. My foot sunk in making me fall back. The water went half way up my shin. OH-Wee, it was cold! After I ripped off my shoe and sock, Hunny helped me hobble over to a huge heater where I steamed for a while. But I couldn't sit still long so I soon slid my damp sock back on and got back out to catch my last fish. Both Hunny and I caught our limit of three fish! That's more than any of the others. We would do well if we were abandoned in the tundra...so long as there were holes and fishing poles...
Then we got to roast and eat them! Well, sorta, they had already cooked fish. We essentially traded a raw fish for a cooked fish. I'm not a big fish fan, plus pregnant, I didn't eat a lot. But I sure did dissect it and label as much of it's organs as I could. :)Next we went down a long slide on a tube. Five dollars for three times, but the neat thing was they gave you a voucher for $5 that you could use for food there or anywhere in the city. Pretty good deal! Then there were ATVs on ice. I wasn't comfortable on my own so I let Hunny do the driving and held on to him. It was pretty hard to control with little traction. But that didn't stop Hunny from driving our buddy off the track. Little Punk says it wasn't his fault :P We all had a good time. Our friends went on the giant tube being drug/slung by an ATV next. There was even a little hill to get them airborne.
My second favorite, after fishing, was "Running with Iron Sticks in Hand" - as translated by the Koreans. It was a small sled board and two poles with a nail on the bottom of them. You sit on the sled and pull yourself with the poles. It was hard to get started but once you got the hang of it it was pretty fun. But it wore me out pretty fast. We all lined up to race and you can guess who was the winner, Hunny with his long and strong arms. :) We scooted around a while before some of our friends had to go and we got the taller sled that is a bench and you run and push and jump on. Hunny pushed me around, mostly hitting or skimming by, scaring our friends. We plowed through the slow and ended up starting a slow clod fight. The snow was pretty packed and the kids would go and find these clods and throw them at us. Three kids were attacking me and Hunny came and grabbed one and pretended to dunk her head in the snow. Then we all turned on him and the four of us attacked him. :) The littlest one had found a clod bigger then her head and as she got close to throw it at him he kicked it while she was still holding it and it exploded in her face. We had a good laugh at her expense but she was a good sport about it and thought it was pretty funny too. We had our fun a little longer than it was time to regroup and move on to the next event.
We didn't have much time left. We were on our way to the snow field to make snow men but stopped on the way for our friend to sign up for the craziest thing you could think to do at the ice festival. She even got two of her kids to do it with her. They signed up to jump in the water and catch fish with their bare hands and put them in their shirts!! And you thought Hunny and I were crazy. She was stoked. Oh the people we hang out with... Well, we didn't have time to walk all the way to make snow men so we stopped and checked out a small shop and got a fried potato spiral on a stick. YUM!!
We got back for the participants to change and waited for the big event. The announcer was saying something in Korean and throwing bags of live fish to the audience standing around waiting to watch the crazies. And then they came out in their shorts and T-Shirts. They took off their sandals and walked around the edge of the small circular pond. They were instructed to stick in their feet and kick and kick, splashing the participants. They then had 20 minutes to jump in, grab up to four fish; three in their shirt and one in their hand. The whistle blew and they all hopped in. Their faces were priceless. Immediately son of Momma Crazy became disoriented and kept going back to the edge looking like he wanted to jump back out. And then a worker brought a fish over and put it in his shirt for him. I think he is traumatized now. Momma Crazy actually caught a fish! She reached down in the water and got one! As she was holding it up to take her victory picture it slipped out of her hands so she never got the feel of a fish down her shirt. Shame. None of our friends lasted the whole 20 minutes. They hurried out and put their feet in a hot bath and warmed up before going back to change. Crazy folks! And the Momma doesn't think that was the craziest thing she has done. My favorite is her story of their Eggnog Relay. In December her and a bunch of friends got together and decided everyone drinks a cup of eggnog and runs a quarter mile till you either puke or quit. Someone got up to 14 cups of eggnog which equals 3 1/2 miles. Whew! These people.
I'm impressed that you just kept going after you got wet! I really don't like being uncomfortable and kind of shut down. You're amazing!
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