Jinju Lantern Festival - mid-week festivities

Last time I showed pictures and told you about the festival on the first day. Here's some more of it. I went again on Thursday and Friday, watched fireworks on Saturday and then went Monday and Wednesday of the following week. So, I'll tell you about the week (TF) in this post and then the last few days in another.

On Thursday night I met up with Spencer, Liezle, Cindy and Darragh to see some more sections of the festival. I get off work later than they do, so I met up with them after they had  already eaten a kebab (bitches). Then we walked though the market section, which I hadn't been to yet. It was huge and had random stuff in it.

Us and Nongage - she was posted all over letting you know what's what

Spencer and Cindy left us early because Spencer hurt his foot rock climbing and Cindy had school early the next morning. So the 3 of us walked around and looked at potential games to play. Darragh ended up playing this weird game where you scoop up a fish (or a turtle) and dump it in another bowl and it swims into a section and you get the prize from that section. He won a SpongeBob and gave it to me.

Fish game. The best part was actually scooping the fish. Overall - lame.

Back of a fake castle on the water bridge

Bullfighting floating lantern from the Jinju section

Dragon who guards the entrance to the lantern tunnels.

I putted my desire, now hopefully they coming true

Then we walked around and looked at stuff for awhile and I bought some Christmas presents. Then we tried out massage chairs while the Korean guy selling them tried to talk to us. It was pretty funny. Then we met up with Hein and drank some beers and talked while he tried various odd fried foods. They did have corn on the cob, but they don't serve it with butter or salt, so I didn't get any. Maybe I'll try it next festival.

We left the eating area around 1am and the lanterns were mainly still on. So we walked around while nobody was there and took lots of pictures. Another guy named Adam joined us. We played around and took pictures for about another 30-45 minutes then called it a night and went home.

Us in front of some guards

Castle attack

Inside of a lantern tunnel - with flash

Inside of a lantern tunnel - no flash. There were about 4 or 5 of these huge tunnels with these hope lanterns. You apply for them a month or so in advance of the festival, but if you want to, you can hang it yourself. I did not have one of these lanterns.

Me in a tiki guy's mouth.

Darragh riding a unicorn

Me on a motorcycle trying to outrun a charging bull. These lanterns were on springs like those bouncy things at a playground. They were fun.

Typical Korean type picture. Sadly I am not kidding about that.

Darragh, Liezle and Hein in a heart. Liezle by accident got in this picture with a guy who wrapped his arm around her. Later she figured it looked like a couples picture. It did. I found it hilarious.

Korean driving. Hein's camera battery died, so I took a bunch of pictures for/of him that night.

Cinderella pumpkin coach

Inside the student contest lantern tunnel

Voldemort lantern

Fake Santa - dude has brown side burns!

This is a cartoon kids show and is very popular.

Us and the dragon (he was turned off, but he usually breathes fire)

Friday morning I met up with Liezle and we ran some errands then decided to check out the festival during the day. I wanted to see if I could get some better pictures of the floats than the ones from the night since sometimes the lights blur the pictures. It was fun, but definitely not the same as it is at night. We ate kebabs for lunch and talked to the guy for awhile. He's a student in Korea but his brothers own the stand and make him help out during big festivals. Then we got slushies and headed off to work.

Guards fighting inside the castle. These are usually not up.

Blue dragon inside the castle

Lantern tunnel from the bridge

Before we ate, we asked the lady at the tourist tent where to do the hope lanterns. She didn't speak much English, so instead of trying to direct us, she actually left her tent and walked with us for about 10-20 yards and pointed the tent out to us. She was very nice. She also gave us a map of the festival in English and a lantern guide. The guide told all the different sections of floating lanterns including Jinju, traditional Korean things, fairy tales, religious, and countries from around the world. We also saw some guy using an old lady watering can to water the rocks on the stone path all around the lanterns. We don't know why because there is nothing there except dirt and all it did was make the ground muddy.

Beauty and the Beast

Cinderella and her coach

Kebabs. Chicken on the left, lamb on the right. Both yummy but I prefer chicken.

That night I met up again with Cindy early and we walked around the castle and took pictures and met Liezle to watch a performance. It was labeled as "Hey Ya" and we thought maybe it was Korean dancing to current music or something. It was not. It was this group of 4 women who played traditional Korean instruments. Some of it was ok, but we sat right near a speaker and it was pretty loud. I did start to tear up at "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree" but managed to contain myself.

Cindy trying to do a karate pose with the castle guards. It failed.

Then we walked down the stairs to the water and I wrote and lit my first hope lantern. These were lanterns where you could write a message and then float them. I liked the idea and wanted to do one before they shut down, so I did a quick one that consisted of "Love to Chapmans", "Love to HackPack", something generic about friends and family, and by request this:

It was for their mothers

Then I floated it. I went home later than night and worked out more personal ones that I eventually did on the last night (see future post).

Me in the lion's mouth about to walk onto the floating dock to put my lantern in the water

After my lantern, we walked across the water bridge and went up to the Millennium fountain and the bamboo forest. These are 2 places that I'm been meaning to go to and have never made it. Now that I know how to get there easier than before, I am planning to go again and take different pictures. The forest was set up as a Lover's Lane type thing and had random forest creatures (and the occasional tiger) plus a bunch of bugs "doing it".

Three ladies at the fountain. This is always in Jinju and usually lit up at night. The poles are colored during the day too, just no lights at the top.

Dragonflies do it

Grasshoppers do it (as well as lightning bugs, ladybugs, butterflies and a few other insect species)

Cindy and ET

A very angry lady

This random guy. There were a few of these huge people on benches. The problem was the lighting made it very difficult to get a good picture. There was apparently a "Rocky" type one at some point that we think got knocked over because it wasn't there when we went.

After the love forest, we walked up the backside of the festival and saw the "floats" from the "parade" lined up along a path. Then we played the drums with these people who sold tofu and played their scissors along with us. Then we went home because we were tired and it was starting to get a bit chilly.

Drumming with tofu people

Bike float

Soon to come...more lanterns!

Last weekend with Jeff in ROK

So for Jeff's last weekend in Korea, instead of going anywhere special or doing anything, we... cleaned his apartment. I've mentioned before that Jeff has a large apartment. Imagine it all filled with crap because that's pretty much how it went down.

I took the usual 6am bus to Daejeon to get the 9am bus to P-taek. I called Jeff and woke him up to make sure he would come to get me at the correct time. When I called again, he answered, "Dunkin Donuts. If I have to get you, we're going to Dunkin Donuts". That was fine with me. I had 2 large suitcases (one with my clothes to wash and one full of stuff to send home) so I didn't want to walk all over the place carrying them and made him pick me up on the side of the road. This usually isn't a problem, but created an issue in getting across the street to the train station (location of DD). So, we ended up going to McDonald's instead. Jeff made a panic order for coffee instead of soda so I gracefully switched mine with his. Mistake. Korean regular McDonald's coffee is crap. So now I was craving a latte.

When ended up going to another McDonalds and reordering breakfast. The latte sucked too, which is weird since I've had one in Jinju that was good. I guess P-taek McDonald's coffee is what sucks. We also did a little shopping and Jeff wanted to buy some walking pants for cousin camping but couldn't find a good pair.

We went back to his apartment and I took a nap. Then we cleaned. I probably did about 8 loads of laundry over the weekend. Even though he has drawers, he piles his clothes on the floor so often it's hard to determine the dirty pile from the clean pile. So all was washed. Then we sorted keep, give away and trash (it was like Clean Sweep!). He had already sorted a lot of stuff by the time I got there and we were mainly doing last minute stuff like cleaning out kitchen cabinets etc.

That night we ordered a pizza and watched some stories. Then we watched football - yay!
Jeff also played some Catan and I watched/advised. I also made him play some of my family feud games that nobody had played. My favorite answer of his was to the question "Name something fruit flavored" and he said "fruit" (because candy was already said).

We slept in for awhile on Sunday and then tried to sort out the phone issues. Jeff was nice enough to let me use his phone while we were here together. But, they wouldn't let us transfer the card or the name or the address to me. They also won't let you cancel the phone over the phone, it has to be in person. So, my phone was canceled later in the week - it was a much more drawn out complication, but it's even more boring than what I've already said.

Jeff did some things on post, including dropping off canned goods and alcohol at his office, grocery shopping and a checking the mail. By the time he came back, we needed to get read to go to his boss's house for dinner. His boss's family was nice enough to host a cook-out. Mrs. Edens made shrimp and grits (the grits were awesome; I passed on the shrimp), veggies, salad, steak, chicken, potato salad and pumpkin cookies. They also had appetizers and she made me a bourbon slush which was awesome. We ate a lot and talked for awhile.

After dinner they had a little ceremony but I forgot my camera (I think someone took some  on a iphone) where Jeff got 2 awards for service (or something like that) and some really nice bar glasses from the general. I hung out with their daughter (I think she's around 9) and she showed me her smencils - they are pencils that smell. We stayed until around 10:30 then went back to Jeff's and did some last minute cleaning, packing, laundry and watched more football. We also played a super fun game (sarcasm) invented by Jeff that I call "scenarios to fear Holly". Basically, it went like this:

"Imagine you're in traffic and Holly is driving and she is texting and someone cuts her off and she has a fork in her hand. Would you be scared of your sister?" The scenarios got more and more bizarre as the night went on (read: the more G&Ts that were consumed). This then developed into Jeff wanting to show me how he could break my arm. I did not enjoy that game, but luckily, no bones were broken.

The movers came on Monday afternoon and he dropped me off early Monday morning so I could get back in time for school. We didn't really have a teary goodbye and I think part of that was because I know at least I would have burst into tears if we said anything remotely sentimental.

I don't generally get mushy on here, but saying goodbye was very hard for me. I don't know when the next time will be when I will actually get to see my brother in person. I know that's kind of true for everyone (proverbial buses are universal), but he (along with my sister) is such a big part of who I am and not being able to call him again just to ask stupid questions, is killing me a little bit. Needless to say, Korean people were staring at me on the bus for the next 3 hours as my eyes welled up. I wasn't sobbing, but they could still tell something was wrong. It didn't stop an old lady from handing me her box of crap so I could hold it while she got on the bus, but they stared more than usual.

I'm glad he made it home safely, and I know he was ready to be home, and I'm happy for all of you that you get to spend time together, but really, I'm not. I want him back here. Y'all can come too.

Kids essays - Part 6 - Origins of Pizza edition

Little known fact about Jinju - it's the site of the original pizza. Mr. Pizza is a chain similar to Pizza Hut in Korea. This was posted up all over facebook last week because Jinju is rarely mentioned in Korean ads etc. It's a pretty funny ad so watch it if you have a few minutes.

I've been that special combination of lazy and really busy that I have perfected. Currently I am writing mid-terms (7 of 9 done!) So that can help explain the lack of recent posts. You're going to have to wait for another few days before you get a good one (rest of lantern festival, Jeff's last weekend in Korea and my bus tour of Seoul are coming soon), so to tide you over, here are a few fun essays.

Lightning is very bright. It looks like a yellow. Thunder is so loud that I become terrified. It sounds like a dinosaur’s footsteps.

I think the best water sport is scuba diving because you can see the undersea world. It is full of mystery things and beyond imagination. (This kid is 8)

Lightening looks like a fast yellow crack in a wall. It the eye all of a sudden passes by in the bird which will do thunder is kicks sound right very big.

I like dolphins because I like them. Haha. Sorry I’m very busy (shorts)(She actually wrote shorts in brackets, that wasn’t my commentary).

When I’m happy I like to eat ice cream and watermelon. It is refreshing on a hot day (he’s 9).

First (my grandfather) told me about when my mother was young. He said she was smart and cute but I don’t think so because my mother is not cute. I like my mother but she isn’t cute.

I don’t have a grandfather here. He went to sky country (?) (She put in the ?) I want to see my grandfather because I don’t think my grandfather’s face. He said me a good speech I think. He gave me many presents!

(In an essay about games) Hangman à speaking English well à get good job à get much money à good for our life.  A video game isn’t good for us and it makes us sick our eyes.

I love Korea. But I usually don’t love Koreans peoples. But Korea is a fantastic country.

Title of essay : Cheese pizza pony cheese

Conversation with a student: Student- Do you have a baby?
Me – No
S – Do you have a 9 year old baby?
M – How old do you think I am?
S – 19

The fat panda became a dragon fighter. He is so cool and handsome. I want to be a kung fu panda because I can be a hero. If I was a girl panda I would marry him.

I really like Jiyun because she has charisma and cute. She can taegundo and swimming too. But sometimes not cute because she’s charisma is very scary because she’s eyes are little be same the fox.

My special place is under the my desk. It is dark. I like to play under the my desk. It is a small place. So I like it.

When I grow up I want to live near the Kyung bok palace because that place doesn’t flood and is beautiful.

(I think this was part of the essay topic, but I don’t assign them, so I’m not sure. Still it was odd to read this first sentence.) I think it is very weird to pretend a pet is like a person.

I think bees are danger because they have a needle.

I think one hundred years ago they didn’t have mini pizza and muffins. So I think our lives are better today.

Weird things I ate today

I met Liezle and her Korean co-worker Keung He for lunch today. Keung He is hilarious, in my opinion. She's one of those people who is unintentionally funny, but not a spazz or anything. She's the one who started "strong to alcohol". She's really nice and helps Liezle and me with lots of Korean issues - like doctors etc. She also texts or calls me to ask English questions - what phrases mean, grammar and culture etc. Today's were "woman repeller" from an episode of "Friends" when Joey gives Chandler a gold watch, if you very say "so I am" instead of "so am I", and whether we throw rice at weddings.

Anyways, we went to lunch at a Korean soup place today. I totally should have taken pictures, but I didn't. We went in and they put us in the tiny room in the back. It was actually kind of nice because we could talk and not bother people (which is the point, I'm assuming). It was also a sit on the floor restaurant and the back room had a backrest you could lean on, which is nice for me. You could only order 2 kinds of soup - that's it. So we all ordered the same thing - which ended up having shrimp and tiny clams in it. It was spicy enough that you couldn't taste the seafood though, so I just ate around it. It also had peppers, onions and tofu. I actually like tofu in the spicy soups because it gives texture to the soup and flavor to the tofu.

With the soup, the lady brought out a bunch of side dishes. Japchae (clear noodles with veggies and sometimes fish cake), 3 seaweed things that I didn't try, cucumbers with spices on them (good), some kind of gourd that didn't really taste like anything (it looked like honeydew melon), nuts with honey on them, and tiny hot dogs cut up and mixed with something called devil's tongue. It was pretty funny trying to figure that out because Keung He knows the Korean word for it, and looked it up in her dictionary, but neither Liezle nor I had ever heard of it. Apparently it's a type of flower (like a Calla lily) and smells like rotting water buffalo. Luckily it didn't smell that way when we ate it. Even luckier, it didn't taste like that (or what I'd imagine rotting water buffalo to taste like). Basically it didn't taste like anything, it was just really really chewy.

After lunch, Keung He had to go to work and Liezle and I still had around an hour before either of us did, so we went for coffee. We went to this cute place near my school called Coffee Flower. I ordered a vanilla latte. The waitress repeated our order and it sounded a little like banana latte. I joked to Liezle, I wonder if I'm getting a banana latte. I shouldn't have joked because that's exactly what I got. I'm not sure there was actually any coffee in the drink, but it was like a frothy, hot banana shake (but not quite so thick). Needless to say, it was not my favorite. Next time I will be sure to be clear on the vanilla.

Mudfest

Sorry this post has taken so long (although there are a couple of others that I still have to do from even longer ago), but I was lazy about getting a camera developed and then other stuff happened, so you're getting it now.

Mudfest sign. These little guys are the mascots for the town and were on everything.

In July for the last few years there has been a huge festival in a tiny town called Boryeong. The mudfest originally started out kind of like a spa event, where Koreans came and sat in mud and spread it on their skin because it's really good for the pores or something. Then some younger people and foreigners found it, added booze and games and tada - Mudfest.


A huge group from Jinju went this year. One guy arranged it for us and we got a karaoke bus to take us the 2 hours (which took 3 1/2 because we made a lot of stops) to Boryeong. He had also arranged a pension for us. I don't remember how many rooms we booked in total, but I ended up in a room with Liezle, Cindy, Vera, Carlie and Dan, which was one of the smaller rooms. It wasn't very fancy, but we had our own bathroom and a/c which was nice.

The first night was interesting as our group decided to sleep so we could enjoy the next day, while others partied until 4am (or later). Two people actually got lost in a town the size of my mom's subdivision and ended up renting a hotel room. Saturday morning we got up bright and early and tried to find a place for breakfast. We ended up at a convenience store eating yogurt and muffins. After food, we got changed into bathing suits and shorts and headed about 5 blocks down the road to the festival. They had free lockers for foreigners and we put towels and wallets etc. in them and went to the main area.

There were 4 main areas - regular painting mud, colored mud and food, the inflatables & games and the beach. We started with painting and you basically just use paintbrushes or your hands and draw on yourself or other people. There were dozens of troughs set up with brushes attached.

Vera, Liezle, me and Cindy post painting but before truly being covered in mud

After that we went into the inflatables area (the main events area). It cost around $5 to get in and no bottles or alcohol were allowed inside. They had lots of slides, pools, mud pits, and obstacles courses set up. Some of the lines were really long, but we did one huge slide and I took out the "catcher" at the end of the slide - oops. The worst part was that mud literally went every where - up your nose, in your mouth etc. I had decided to wear contacts for the festival because I didn't want to break/lose my glasses. The only reason this sucked was that mud stuck to my contacts and I and 3 other people were often running to a sink (or pool or hose) to rinse our eyes as best as we could. It felt awesome to take them out at the end of the day.

Girls getting hit with back splash mud

In "jail" where they throw huge trash cans full of mud at your back (or face depending on the direction you're facing)

Standing in line for the mud slide, after going to "jail" and into the mud wrestling pool

After hanging out there for a few hours, we grabbed kebabs for lunch and walked around a bit. Then Cindy and I waited in line to get colored mud. After being painted, we went to the beach and met up with another group of people. We went swimming and there was a mini dance contest. Then they brought out a fire truck and turned the hose on the crowd. They also had a couple of hoses shooting mud too. People went nuts for that, and while I didn't really mind the water, I didn't like the mud coming at me that fast.

Cindy and me after being painted with colored mud.

Group on the beach, right before the water/mud cannons

After beaching, we went back to the pension and showered and got dressed to go out. We all had dinner together - we ordered pizza - then went back to the beach for a fireworks show and some floating lanterns. You could buy your own Roman candles and Spencer and Cindy got in trouble for shooting them too close to the water (or something). Most of the group went out to a dance club, but I was really tired and not in the mood, so I stayed on the beach and talked for awhile with another group of people. I decided to try and get some sleep since I had only had about 2 hours the night before. This didn't happened as people were partying all around our house (both inside and outside). The girls got home about an hour after I did and told me all the gossip about the club. Then we went to bed.

The fireworks display was pretty good. So far, the fireworks as just about  every festival have been good. Koreans seem to know their fireworks.

The next morning Cindy and I got up and went to the beach. We swam and met a group of her friends for a couple of hours, then we had to head back to the pension to get the bus back to Jinju. The bus ride home was much more subdued than the one there. We watched "Old School" and lots of people fell asleep. Not sure my skin was any better, but it was definitely worth the trip.

Mikey got the award for best sunburn

Me and the mudfest mascot before heading to the beach

Jinju Lantern Festival - Saturday

Jinju is known throughout Korea for it's beauty, silk, and the Lantern Festival. I've seen the flowers etc. that make it pretty, I've finally found the Silk museum but have yet to do it, and this week was the start of the Lantern festival.

During the war in 1592, lanterns were used as a way for the Korean army to communicate with each other. So the festival was designed to honor the soldiers who fought against the Japanese invasion. It's every year from October 1st through the 12th. I was very excited about it because it was a local event and it's apparently one of the best in Korea.

Saturday was the first day this year and it started off well. A bunch of Liezle's friends and Cindy's Daegu friends came to town. We met up and hung out for a bit and then went down to the musical fountain where they had a slightly crappy "parade" that basically consisted of people pushing huge lanterns (that were later set up on a different street) down the road with a couple of bands in between.

After the parade, we went down into the center of the fountain area where various lanterns were already lit up. This was the cartoon section and included Spider man, Batman, Superman, the Smurfs, Popeye and various other cartoon characters. After taking lots of pictures, we crossed over to the opposite side of the river to watch the fireworks.

Ladies and Batman

He's faster than a speeding bullet, but for the fact that he's stationary

Me and Spidey

Smurfs (or in the Konglish from the program, the Smuffs)

Liezle using the metal hoop for traditional Korean games as a hula hoop

The area for the festival was mainly between two large concrete bridges on either side of the castle and the musical fountain. For the festival, 3 "water bridges" were set up. They're basically plastic floats tied together. It feels sort of like walking on a waterbed. That night, Liezle, Dan and I crossed bridge #1 and met the rest of our group on the other side.

Liezle and Dan on the bridge

On the opposite side, we went into half of the student tent. The high schools and middles schools in Jinju let students create their own lanterns and there is a contest before the festival begins. They hang all the lanterns in one huge tent. This is one of my favorite parts of the festival because you can see some really creative ones.

Group standing in front of the student lanterns tent

Kung fu panda kicking a shark

 

Lots of angry birds - this one was one of the best

 

Small section of the student tent ceiling

After we walked down about half of the tent, we left to watch the fireworks next to the river. They were really good. The best part were these 2 birds that floated, burst into flame, then turned back into birds. I only caught the last part on video. After fireworks, Liezle's crowd was ready to go to a bar. Considering it wasn't even 9pm yet, my friend Kyle and I decided to go to dinner instead. We went to a cute Italian place. The experience was very weird for us because there were a ton of people (including foreign foreigners) and Jinju is usually not busy.

After dinner we went to a little bar next to the restaurant because it looked cute and neither of us had been there before. It was a nice bar, but they only sold beer, or bottles of wine (cheapest $35) so we only had one drink. While we were at the table, a very inebriated elderly Korean man came up to us and started talking. He spoke decent English, but he was very quiet so we couldn't hear much of what he was saying. We pieced together that at some point during his military service, he was in a helicopter and had or was a translator. The one thing we did hear clearly was, "Do you like Korean men?". We both sort of shrugged that one.

After our drink, we went to Beast Bar to meet Liezle and Cindy and their respective groups. Kyle left really early. I stayed awhile and chatted with everyone. It was very full of foreigners, most from out of town, so again it was a little weird. I did get to see the fire show this time. I think it's hilarious that people just bring out flaming bottles of alcohol and nobody cares.

Cindy, me, Spencer and Dan at Beast Bar

Sunday was the IEC retreat (see last post) so I didn't go again over the weekend. Monday - Wednesday I was lazy and didn't go back. Thursday after work I met up with a few people and some of us stayed out until after 1. It was great because hardly anyone was there and we were able to get some good pictures. I also went again Friday afternoon with Liezle, Friday evening with Cindy and Liezle and I hope to go at least one more time before the end. I will post and give more details about Thursday - the end of the festival in later posts, otherwise this will be huge. I will tell you that out of over a dozen things I wanted to do at the festival, I only have 5 things left on my list, including a repeat.