Festival Season: Lantern Festival

This past weekend filled with fall festivals, my favorite kind!  First on our agenda was the Lantern Festival. in Jinju, South Korea.

After a relaxing Friday night at the beach (i'm afraid it may be our last) the boy and I were on our way to see some lanterns.  What originally began as a way for soldiers to pass military signals, turned into one of the most famous festivals in all of Korea.  The festival gives people the chance to make their own wish lanterns to send down the river, take a speed boat around the river to see all of the life-sized lanterns on the water (for the bargain price of $5), witness an amazing fireworks display, eat an amazing array of food from multiple countries, be entertained by local performers and so much more.

We were able to spend the day just meandering around the beautiful city of Jinju and take in everything the festival had to offer.  We took pictures with as many characters as we could (did you expect anything else?), ate the Korean version of carnival food (basically just meat on a stick or dough balls in a cup) and took in the sights of all things with lantern associations.  There were lanterns hung on the pathways.  Lanterns placed at the entrance to the swaying bridges that crossed to different parts of the festival.  Lanterns in the water.  Lanterns with fire coming out of them.  Lanterns with smoke coming out.  Lanterns that moved.  You get the idea.  There were lots of lanterns.

Tiny little guys welcoming us to the Lantern Festival

Just a few of the dozens of water lanterns

Hundreds of lanterns

Dan making our "wish" lanterns.

We got our portrait drawn.  I think it looks like
a Koreanized version of us.  What do you think?

Yup.  That's my boyfriend.  

Quick shot of us at the tail end of the festival

Between the beautiful lanterns (these pictures don't even remotely do them justice), great atmosphere and  incomparable company this is at the top of my list for festivals to experience in Korea.  Keep a lookout for my next festival post.  The next one?  The Gyeongju Rice and Liquor Festival.  Sounds like fun eh?

Nakedness and Police Stations

This past weekend was the last 3 day weekend in my shortening stay here in Korea.  While I didn't go on a long weekend holiday or do anything especially out of the ordinary, it was an excellent one nonetheless.

Due to the fact that the upcoming month is filled with weekend trips to random festivals and other cities in Korea that I still have not fully seen to my liking, I had a very low key weekend with close friends.

Friday was spent at a jjingabang (a pubic bathhouse of sorts) with two of my favorite ladies, Emily and Anna. It is basically a place to be naked (calm down people, it's just with the girls), enjoy the multiple saunas and steam rooms, get massages and generally relax.  We worked our way through the different levels on the big daddy jjing in the nearby neighborhood of idong.  Rooms with scented oils.  Rooms with temperatures upwards of 122 degrees.  Some below 12 degrees.  After we had relaxed ourselves into oblivion (with a nice bottle of wine), we headed our separate ways .  The girls went home to rest up for a morning swim.  I went home to rest up for my impending police station visit.

That's right.  I had to visit the police station on Saturday about my scooter accident.  Needless to say, I was not a happy camper.  After being picked up by my Korean co-worker, we were on our way to see the future that the Korean government had in store for me.  Almost five hours later (i'll spare you the ridiculousness of the actual proceedings), it was decided that I was at fault and that I needed to apologize, sign some papers and wait for the insurance company to decide just how much of my hard earned Kids College cash was going to be sacrified for this.  Super.

Our next stop was the palce where my scooter was.  Or I should say, what was left of my scooter.  For $100 and endless debating, I was able to convince the owner of the shop to transport the remains of my bike to my mechanic near my house.  It's not that I didn't believe the joe schmoe downtown, but the guy near my house has been taking care of foreigners for years.  I trust HIM.  I will know by the end of the week if my bike is truly ruined beyond repair or if I will be able to salavage some kind fo money from it.  Stay tuned.

The rest of my weekend was a quiet one.  I met up with friends for drinks on Saturday night and then headed off to the Marine base on Sunday to spend the day with Dan.  A relaxing day of movies, American food (be jealous teachers in Korea) and time with the love of my life.  How can it get better than that?

My upcoming weekend is going to comprise of heading to the nearby city of Jinju for the annual lantern festival. My coworkers, Lia and Brendan went yesterday.  They also have a blog and wrote about their experience here.   I hope to see as many beautiful lanterns as they did.