Waygooks Wandering

the amazing fireworks from the bridge

This past weekend was the second weekend this month we spent in Busan. This time, though, we went for the 10th Busan Fireworks Festival. Our friends went last year and said it was phenomenal, so we decided to join them in it this year. We went down to Busan on Saturday afternoon. The big, hour-long fireworks show started at 8pm on Saturday. Last year, it was so crowded, our friends couldn't even get to the beach at all, so when we arrived in Busan, some of us went to the hostel to check-in and others laid down mats on the beach to get a good viewing spot. The Fireworks Festival takes place on Gwangalli Beach. The focal point of the beach is Gwangan Bridge (also called Diamond Bridge), a suspension bridge and the second largest bridge in the country. Fireworks are actually shot off the bridge and all around it. We ended up getting a great spot right between the two towers of the bridge. We had four mats for he 14 or so people who were coming. We had a 6 hour wait, so we busied ourselves with talking, snacking, and playing card games. It wasn't as bad as it sounds. It was difficult to get to the bathrooms though because you had to climb over people. Literally every available inch of the beach was covered with mats by the time the show was about to start. People would find any available space to put their mat down, including on a long, narrow strip right in front of us. Eventually, we started to sit closer to the edge of the mats to protect our space and make sure no one encroached on it. During the day, there were people selling mats, blankets, kimbap, and chicken all on the beach. We packed our own snacks, but it was very convenient. They knew that once you sat down you couldn't get up. About an hour before the fireworks show, there was a K-Pop performance on the main stage, which we were sitting pretty close to. It was something fun to listen to for a bit while we waited. The fireworks show itself was incredible!!! They used fireworks I'd never even seen before, and it was longer than any fireworks show I've ever been to. There are no words to describe how breathtaking it looked. On top of the fireworks themselves, the bridge already has laser lights on it, which were also incorporated into the show. There were two barges that had fireworks on them as well as these large circular things. The circles had lights attached, and they were like an awesome light show in themselves. There were a

crazy light show + fireworks, and a couple taking selfies!

few fireworks that stood out to me; first, there was one that looked like rain and kept going for a while. I would think it would have burned out, but it didn't seem to for quite a while. Then, there was the ones attached to the bottom of the bridge that made it seem like it was raining color under the bridge. Another time, there was a pretty epic song playing, so the audience was gearing up for something awesome. The firework they shot off though went up really high, but was lackluster when it exploded. Everyone was kind of like, "oh, well that was ok" UNTIL the branches of the firework each exploded into big bursts of colorful fireworks themselves. It was like a ton of fireworks in one. They also shot fireworks in all different shapes, like hearts and planets. It was a beautiful display, and well-worth the trip and waiting 6 hours. Luckily, the weather was beautiful and not too cold for October. Sidenote: there was a couple taking selfies throughout the show. They hardly ever turned around to watch it at all. Why bother waiting all that time and not actually watch it anything!? Dumb people! We didn't want to head out right after the fireworks because the trains and taxis and traffic would have been a nightmare. Instead, we collected our things and ate a late dinner at a Japanese curry place on the beach. Eventually, we made our way back to our hostel and played a card word game before getting some much needed sleep.

This past weekend, I celebrated my 24th birthday with friends and was able to finish the Daegu Stamp Book! It was a really good weekend, and the only weekend this month that we are spending/spent in Daegu.

On Saturday afternoon, I had planned to visit Dodong Seowon Confucian Academy with one of my coteachers at school. Unfortunately, she had to cancel because she was feeling sick. Instead, I recruited the help of Max and Serena (who have a car) to get me there. You can get there on public transport, but it's a big hassle. It takes about 2 hours, and you, basically, need to take a taxi part of the way. It's about a half hour away from our house in a really remote section of Daegu.

Dodong Seowon Confucian Academy is one of the five most important Confucian Academies in all of Korea. It was first established in 1568, but the original buildings were burned by the Japanese during their invasion in 1592. Dodong Seowon was reconstructed in 1605 in its current location. Outside the Academy, there is a 400 year old gingko tree. The Academy is surrounded by beautiful mountains and feels as though it is hidden from the outside world a bit. Waking around there was very relaxing. After Dodong Seowon, we all went back to Max and Serena's place for a bit until it was time to head downtown for dinner and a trip to the cake cafe for my birthday!

I decided I wanted to get pasta as my birthday dinner, so Matthew suggested a place called Italy Italy. The food was really good, and the concept was unique. Italy Italy is a make-your-own pasta and pizza place. You get a form (that is written in English as well as Korean!) and on the form you choose either pizza or pasta, what sauce you want, what toppings, etc. It was really cool. Serena, Max, Matthew, Maria, Ben, Marie, and Stef were there to celebrate my birthday. During dinner, Matthew and Maria gave me an awesome canvas bag with a mustache on the front. I love all the mustache products that Korea sells, so it was the perfect bag for me. Inside, they had given me a shot glass from South Africa (thanks Sian!) and some really cute stationary stuff, including some finger shaped post-its that are called "Finger It"s! That's up at the top of my list of poor English used in Korea. Hilarious! I didn't even notice the best part of the present until Maria suggested I continue to look at the bag. When I turned it over, Matthew, Sian, and Thomas had decorated the blank side with a very realistic drawing of Korea made to look like our favorite board game, Ticket to Ride. My friends are so freaking creative and wonderful! It was a really awesome gift. Thank you so much guys!

I have wanted to go to a cake cafe for a really long time, and what better time to go there than on a birthday!? Cake cafes are places where you can buy a blank, undecorated cake or cupcakes and decorate them yourself! It's an awesome idea, and not that expensive at all. We all ordered 4 cupcakes, which cost about $10. Each cupcake was a different flavor: chocolate chip, strawberry, cappuccino, and almond. With the cupcakes, you get two kinds of frosting: white and a flavor of your choice. Gianni and I got coffee frosting. The middle section of the cafe has display cases full of all kinds of sugar decorations to add to the cupcakes. Each thing is a different price, but Gianni and I spent around $5 extra on the decorations. Not bad for 4 cupcakes! I made myself a birthday cupcake, which was probably the best one I made. It didn't take long to do, but I think we all enjoyed ourselves. My friends sang me "Happy Birthday," and Maria attempted to put frosting on my face, but it ended up in my hair. :) Everyone decided to go to the board game cafe for a few hours after the cake cafe. It was a really great birthday party!

On Sunday, I had two more places to visit in order to complete the stamp trail. Gianni didn't feel like getting up early with me, so that was fine. First, I went to Yuksinsa Shrine. I was a bit worried about getting there because it's in a remote part of the city. On Google Maps, it looks like there's nothing around this place. I purposefully got off the bus in a more populated-looking area so that, in case the second bus was going to take too long to come, I could easily get a taxi. Fortunately, I got to the transfer stop, and the bus to the shrine came very soon. It was a branch bus, which Gianni and I have had trouble with in the past, but, luckily, this was the correct branch of the bus! I was the only one on the bus, sothe bus driver tried to make conversation. I think he thought I spoke more Korean than I do, but he was very friendly. He even tried to help me figure out where I was once we got to the stop. The Shrine itself is located in a small village comprised of traditional Korean homes, or Hanoks. The history of the shrine is an interesting one. King Danjong of the Joseon Dynasty succeeded to the throne at age 12. Given his young age, his uncle, Sejo, decided to stage a coup and seized power in 1453. The following year, six officials of court attempted to put Danjong back on the throne, but their plan was discovered, and they were executed. Yuksinsa Shrine now houses the mortuary tablets of these six men. Memorial ceremonies are held yearly for the men, and I happened to visit the Shrine on one of these days! I took some pictures of all the men praying and doing the ancestral rituals in their traditional attire. People kept trying to talk to me, and, again, I think they thought I spoke more Korean than I do. Still, they were very interested in me and kept offering me lunch. I was a little confused about what was going on. Once the praying was over, a few more men started talking to me and taking pictures with me. They thought it was hilarious that a foreigner was there I think. One of the ancestors of the Korean heroes sat me down at one of the tables to eat lunch with them. He put me down next to two other visitors of the Shrine who were from another city in Korea. They didn't speak much English, but they were a very nice couple. The food was delicious! We had a stew, fruit, rice cakes, and some bonchon (side dishes). When we were finished, Mr. Park (the man who sat me down to eat) gave me a big bag of rice cakes and a small towel commemorating the event! What a sweet thing to do for a foreigner who has no idea whats going on. The couple even drove me back to the bus stop so I didn't have to wait for the bus! 


My final stop in the Korean version of the Daegu Stamp Trail was Daegu Shooting Range. I had never been shooting before, so I was really eager to try it. It's actually really close to Maria and Matthew's house, but you have to get a taxi from that part of Daegu since the buses that go to the shooting range are really infrequent. The shooting range is apparently way more expensive than it would be at home, but shooting isn't something a lot of Koreans do, so it's kind of a novelty I guess. There are several options for shooting: "combat zone," screen shooting (which is just like a video game on a large screen), air rifle target shooting, pistol shooting, and clay target shooting. The shooting range has a "combat zone" area set up outside for practice shooting around barriers. Maybe they use paintballs or airsoft or something. I opted for the pistol shooting. They had two guns available to choose from, and I chose a 9mm automatic gun. It cost $16 for 10 shots. You have to put on a vest and headphones before going in to shoot. The staff does everything for you, and the gun is actually attached to the sides of the booth in order to prevent you from turning the gun around to face the people looking through the glass windows. The staff, in broken English, explained how to aim and let me take a few practice shots. Then, he loaded the gun for me, and I just shot. I had no idea what I was doing really, but I ended up getting 9 shots on the target and four of those were 9's! I was kind of proud of myself for this being my first time! I didn't do any other shooting, but it was really fun to try it for the first time. I'll have to make dad take me to another one when I get home.

So the stamp trail is finally finished, and I am all set to submit the book and get my surprise prize for finishing it. It was really fun to do, but it came down to the wire, and I am glad to now get a break from it for a while. I saw some really cool places in Daegu that I would otherwise not have seen, and I feel like I understand and know a lot more about Daegu than I did before.

Because Sian and Thomas were unable to make it on Saturday, Gianni and I got dinner and went to the board game cafe with them on Tuesday for birthday shenanigans. We taught them the new game we played on Saturday. The owner of the board game cafe, who knows us all since we go in so much, just gave us this game, called Love Letter, on Saturday. We didn't ask him for it, but I think he wanted to watch us play it since it was new. It's a really simple card game, but it's more fun than it sounds at first. Sian and Thomas and Gianni and I don't really hang out a lot without other friends around, so it was really nice to spend some one-on-one time with them. I really appreciate that they cared enough about me to celebrate my birthday separately since they couldn't make it on Saturday. Love you guys!

On my actual birthday, I had a really funny interaction with one of my students. I told them it was my birthday, and I wrote my age on the board. One of the kids looks at me and goes, "Oh! Teacher German!" I was like "Ummmmm....I'm not German." My coteacher then explained that the word "German" in English sounds like the Korean word for "young!" It was really funny. Gianni and I decided to go to a restaurant downtown to celebrate. We went down right after school and spent some time browsing our favorite shops to check out the new products. We also went to a new store right across from the board game cafe, called Neverland. No idea how long that shop is going to stay around, but it deals exclusively in realistic animal stuffed animals! It's the weirdest/cutest thing, but they are really expensive stuffed animals. I don't see how this store could actually turn a profit, especially since they have several $2500 massive stuffed animals in the windows to attract customers. After walking around for a bit, we got dinner at 55 Dining, the place we went to for our anniversary. It is a set 6-course menu for only $16 per person, and the menu changes depending on the season. The spring menu was fantastic, so we really wanted to go back and try it in the fall. It was partially Italian influenced. One course was a pizza on a flaky pastry, and another was fried chicken and risotto. All the courses were really delicious, especially the blueberry pie with canned milk served in a little jar. I decided that wasn't enough dessert for my birthday though, so we stopped to get pieces of cake on the way home.

sign says "no money for long sleeves"

In addition to it being my birthday week, my school had two special days in a row this Thursday and Friday. They were both awesome! Thursday was Sports Day. They compete with their homerooms against the other homerooms in the grade. I believe there is a winner from each grade, and the winning team got money to get pizza for their class--sounds like a fantastic prize to me! To start the day, the PE teachers led all the students in a group stretch on the soccer field out in front of the school. All of my grade 3 kids were dressed up in all kinds of crazy costumes. I asked Sun Mi why none of the other

relay obstacle course

grades were wearing costumes, and she told me that the grade 3 students had told the grade 1 and 2 kids that they weren't allowed to wear any! What bullies! hahaha. I guess it's their prerogative as the oldest kids in the school. There were some really great costumes--hanbok, Simpsons PJs, Hawaiian, etc--but my favorite costume was the team wearing matching blue floral t-shirts and shorts in October! The sports day was supposed to have been in the Spring, but it was delayed because of the Sewol ferry accident. They ordered their costumes before the date was changed and decided not to get new one! They actually went

Mrs. Bae cheering on her team

around with a big sign that said, "No money for long shirts!" It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen! These kids are hilarious. The sports day competitions included relay races, obstacle course relay races, tug of war, jump rope, and a Korean game called Nott Dari Balgi. In that game, one students is lifted by two other students on either side. The student then walks over the backs of his or her classmates who are bent over. The line moves across the field as the person walking get towards the end of the line. It was kind of a dangerous game. There was another Korean game where all the students in one class lined up on the

Korean game called "Nott Dari" or bride walking

field. Then, two students from the class had to run across the field each holding one end of a rope with a plastic tube in the center to hold it to the ground. Basically, they are dragging this rope across the field, and the other students need to jump over it when it comes in one direction and duck under it when it comes in the other direction. There were some serious spills and a few tears, but it was fun to watch. It's interesting to see the games that are played in other countries. The tug of war was really fun because, after the students competed with each other, there was a special teacher and parent against student competition. The students seemed to select mostly really strong boys to go against us, which, if you ask me, isn't fair at all. We obviously lost, but it was a lot of fun to try. My hands were shaking after! Even though I didn't get to participate in sports day very much, it was amazing to get to interact with my students outside the normal classroom setting. I just kept walking around to the different homerooms and talking to my students on a more personal level. It was a really wonderful day, and I wish we could have more like that.

The beautiful, talented girl in front speaks wonderful English

The boy on the right in white is my c-level who is a great dancer.

Today was the school's talent show AND school festival day. In the morning, we got to go to a nearby church with all the kids to see the talent show. It was excellent. This year, they did a much better job with the flow between performers. The first part was all very cultured and sophisticated--one girl did ballet, a few girls played piano, a body played the trumpet, and one class played the recorder together. The transition to the second part was listed in the programs as a "flash mob," but I don't think Koreans really grasp the concept. It was just a few friends who got together and did a funny dance. The second part of the show was all singing and dancing to K-Pop songs. I really wish we had gotten to see more magic tricks, like last year, but the amazing piano players more than made up for it. There was a slew of what I would deem school-inappropriate dancing from the girls again. I am really torn in my head between "should I be watching this?" and "damn, these girls are really good dancers!" Some of my best students are up there shaking their bums and humping the floors...it's a strange situation to be put in. What stands out to me the most is just how supportive the students were of their classmates who were performing. One girl in my C-level class is very quiet in class but also quite good at English for her level. She stops to talk to me a lot after class is finished. I always thought that, because she was so quite, she might not be very popular. She performed at the talent

my C-level girl can belt!

show, and there were plenty of people cheering for her as soon as she got on the stage. I had no idea, but she has an incredible singing voice. I absolutely love

He is playing the janggu

being able to see a different side to my students. That's what these last two days were about--getting to see other facets of their personalities and interact with them outside the classroom. It's an amazing feeling. There were other times when a student would make a mistake or forget some words to their songs, but the entire audience cheered them on for encouragements whenever that happened. The students were all so kind and supportive of one another! They are really good kids. Another one of my c-level students danced. I suspect that he is a c-level more because he doesn't care about school than because he doesn't understand English well. He was at camp, and he has told me he likes dancing before, but it was nice to get to see it for real. He and his friends were incredible! They did some very popular K-Pop songs that I know and enjoy.

Doing their zombie makeup on their hands

making masks

After the talent show, we ate lunch and got ready for the school festival. Rhys and I were tasked with creating an English booth for the festival, and it was suggested that we do the topic of Halloween. I took the lead as Halloween isn't as popular in England as it is in the US. For a few weeks, I've been planning my activities and making signs. I chose to have the students really experience Halloween by making costumes (face painting, doing zombie makeup, or making masks), taking pictures with their friends (photobooth style with instant cameras and Halloween props), and getting candy when they say "trick-or-treat." This is something that I couldn't feasibly do on a normal day in class, but I think it's wonderful that they see what it's like to celebrate Halloween in the US. I think they really got to experience another culture without me just telling them about it like I usually have to. I think it was fairly successful. Most students didn't really go all out with the costumes, but we ran out of masks, and I was teaching them to do zombie makeup with toilet paper constantly! Rhys and I wore Gianni and my dinosaur costumes from last year, and the kids thought we were really cute.  Sun Mi was kind enough to take a whole bunch of pictures for me while I was working. It was really nice that all my coteachers were so helpful is setting up, running, and cleaning up the English booth. It was definitely a team effort. It was probably one of the most fun experiences I've had at school so far. I hope the students had as much fun as I did.

For the last day of our trip, we headed down to the Nampo-Dong area of Busan. We dropped our bags in a locker at the subway station for the afternoon. Nampo-Dong is a big shopping area of the city with a lot of tourist spots. I showed Gianni the fish market, and he was a little disappointed he didn't get to eat anything. Then, we went to BIFF Sqaure. For some reason, BIFF Square is not near the actual film festival area. BIFF Square is where hand prints and signatures of celebrities from past film festivals are put on the ground. Unlike Hollywood though, the hand prints are not actually in cement. Instead they are done in metal of some kind and them put on the ground. It was interesting to see the spelling of the city's name change from Pusan to Busan during the 16th year of the festival. This year's festival is the 19th, so it was only 3 years ago that the change happened. That surprised me. There are a lot of markets in the Nampo-Dong area, and we must have walked through at least 4. We found one alley I had heard of called "Book Alley." Unfortunately, there weren't any books in English, but it was still cool to see. A small alley of wall-to-wall book shops. I did see a "Magic School Bus" book in Korean! We took forever to find somewhere to eat lunch and ended up walking all the way through the shopping street in the area before choosing a rice bowl restaurant. After lunch, we made our final stop at Busan Tower. It's not as impressive as Seoul or Daegu Towers. We didn't go up, but we did get pictures of the nice view of the city just from the base of the tower that is at the top of a small hill. The area around the tower is a small park, which you can access by taking several escalators up--super convenient! At the top of the escalators, there were a few small, individual rooms that looked like little houses. It turned out that those rooms were adorable artist studios! A few artists were working inside, and one massive paintings of Bane from Batman and King Kong on the walls. 

In my broken Korean, I hope that the title of this blog post says, "Korea has a lot of festival." I have known that for a while, but this month is making that fact even clearer. This weekend alone, Gianni and I went to three festivals. This month in Daegu alone there were/are 6 festivals that I know of; colorful daegu festival, suseong lake festival, palgongsan festival, herb medicine festival, dongseongro festival, opera festival.

Starting on Thursday evening, I convinced our Korean teacher to take us to the Herb Medicine Festival. To be fair, this festival was moved to the fall because of the Sewol accident, and it wasn't supposed to be this month, but still. It wasn't a big festival, and it was mostly just different vendors selling various herbs. I wish I could understand enough Korean to know what the herbs were for and how to consume them. It was a fun learning experience to walk around and learn random Korean words with our teacher. She ended up buying all us soaps in the shape of teeth! They are so weird, but the women who sold the soaps were funny.

After we got back from the festival, our teacher decided to tell us the story of Foundation Day, which was this past Friday (so we got a long weekend!). The story is part of an old religion called Cheondoism. Korea was formed on October 3 about 4,346 years ago by Dan-Gun, the son of a God named Hwan-Ung, who came down to Taebec Mountain. The more interesting story though is about Dan-Gun's father and mother. His mother, named Ung-Nyeo, was a bear who appealed to the God Hwan-Ung to turn her human. He told her to go in a cave and eat only herbs for 100 days. When she finally left the cave, she turned into a beautiful woman, and Hwan-Ung fell in love with her.



Friday, we went with Matthew and Maria to the Hahoe Village in Andong during the Andong Mask Dance Festival. We were unimpressed by the festival last year, but the Hahoe Village is a very special place in Korea, and we'd never been. Gianni and I managed to get to the bus station quite early and get tickets, but we didn't realize we didn't have seat numbers on the bus. It was first come, first serve seating, so by the time Maria and Matthew came and we got on the bus, the bus was almost full. We weren't about to stand for over an hour, so we had to wait for the next bus. The bus to Andong took longer than expected due to traffic, but we made it to the bus station without a problem. Unfortunately, the bus station is pretty far away from any of the tourist sports in Andong.  You'd think they'd have a free shuttle or at least more buses running, but of course they don't! We tried to take the public bus, but it was already jam-packed before it even got to the bus station bus stop. We had to pay 25,000 won in order to get a taxi to the village. When we got there, we were all hungry for lunch, so we decided to eat a few of the special foods from Andong, grilled (or maybe smoked) mackerel and jjimdak. Jjimdak is a meat with chicken, vegetables, and glass noodles. Everything is cooked in a somewhat sweet and flavorful but watery broth/sauce. Gianni and I had the grilled mackerel last year at the festival and haven't stopped thinking about it since. We've been trying to find it, but we didn't realize it was an Andong specialty dish. We got one plate of each, and the meal was around 50,000 won for the 4 of us, which is a bit

our delicious meal

expensive for Korea. It was all delicious though, and served with more side dishes than I have ever seen in a meal. They have a shuttle bus from the museum near the Hahoe village into the village itself because it's kind of separated. When we got there, there was a comedy mask performance going on. Unfortunately, we didn't speak enough Korean to understand what was happening, so it was a bit boring for us. The Hahoe village is a village comprised of old style straw-roofed houses. They do a lot of farming there still. It's similar to a historical village at home, except that people actually live there all the time, and they don't have to do everything like it was done way back when. They have cars and TV and stuff. There are a lot of guest houses in the village where you can stay and experience some traditional Korean culture. We spent a few hours getting lost in the village's winding dirt streets. It's a very beautiful place although there isn't a lot to do. Leaving was easier said than done though. We tried to get the bus back to the station, but, again, it was jamed
full before we could even get on. We then opted for the taxi and asked the poor women at the

The flowers I became obsessed with photographing

information booth by the village to call us one. These women were swamped with people doing the same things and fighting over the taxis as they came. It took probably an hour before our taxi finally showed up. You would think for something as popular as a festival, that there would be taxis at the taxi stand there because there will, clearly, be customers. But there were none! It's so stupid that they had to be called. I could understand them not being there on a normal day, but this was a festival. Ugh! We finally made it back to the station just in time to catch a bus that was about to leave for Daegu.

On Saturday morning, I went to the Nokdong Seowon Confucian Academy and Korea-Japan Friendship Center as part of the stamp trail. I'm getting down to the wire on finishing the trail, so I'm really trying to cram them in. There's only three more weekends left to do it, and I still have three more places to see. But of the three left, I am only going to be in Daegu for one of them! I'll be in Busan this weekend for the Busan Film Festival. It's a long weekend for me because its Hangul Day (the day the writing system for the country was invented by King Sejong) on Thursday, and my school was nice enough to give me Friday off as well. Gianni's school didn't, unfortunately, so he will join me in Busan on Friday night. Then we're in Busan again in two weekends for the Fireworks Festival. It's going to be a busy few weeks. Anyway, getting to the Academy wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We've been having such bad luck with the branch buses, so I expected to have to take a taxi. This branch bus comes about ever 40 minutes though, so it wasn't bad at all. . The Nokdong Seowon Confucian Academy was built in 1789 to commemorate the achievements of Kim Chung-Seon. Kim was a Japanese general who became a naturalized Korean citizen during the Japanese Invasion in 1592. He later spent many years in the Korean military, helping to defend the country against further foreign invasions. The Nokdong Seowon Confucian Academy is a very peaceful place, located off the beaten path surrounded by trees and mountains. Next to the Academy is the Korea-Japan Friendship Center, a museum, opened in 2012, focusing on the long periods of positive interactions and relations between the two countries. The museum also offers several experience programs, including trying on traditional clothing from both countries and doing a tea tasting. There were a ton of people doing some sort of class, trying on hanbok, but I didn't know if it was open to the public to do or not. It seemed like they were with a group of some kind. When I was ready to leave, I sat down at the bus stop and started to eat my peach yogurt breakfast. Rob, my old boss, wanted to chat on skype, so I was trying to manage too many things in my hands, and I ended up spilling my yogurt all over my pants! Ugh! I cleaned it off in the bathroom (thank God the museum had one!), but I still smelled like peach. While I was at the Academy, Gianni, kindly, packed all our things to visit Jinju overnight and brought me a clean pair of pants. We met at the bus station to head out. Jinju had it's annual Lantern Festival, and we went to stay with Lish for the night. It almost feels surreal thinking about how much things have changed since then.

The view from the mountain. Lanterns on the right.

Jinju Fortress behind the lanterns

We got some dinner with Lish and her boyfriend, Ryan, and headed up a mountain in the city to see the view of Jinju and the festival from above. Actually, the mountain view makes it so you could only see a few of the lanterns, but it was still a beautiful view of the city. We didn't even have to hike up because there's a paved road, so the taxis can just drive it. We walked back down the mountain and headed to the festival along the river. Our first stop was the ticket booth to make a reservation for a river boat ride. We weren't able to do it last year because it was sold out, and I was disappointed, so it was nice to be able to do it this year. We had to kill time for 2.5 hours before our boat ride, so we went to the floating bar and got some beer and fish cakes on a stick (odang). We walked along the river a bit, looking at the new lanterns. The boat ride was short but worth it. You get to sit on an open boat with a lantern on it. They had an eagle, a dragon, and a fish boat, and we got the eagle. The boat took us back and forth down the river so that we could see the lanterns more closely. They are beautifully constructed. After the boat ride, we were all exhausted, so we went back to Lish's house to sleep.


We woke up on Sunday at only 10:30am. I felt like we went to bed way later than we did, and I had woken up a few times and the sun was up, so I thought the sun was up for longer than it actually was. I was really surprised to check the time and see it was only 10:30 because I thought it would be like 2pm or something. We all slowly got ready and went to a coffee shop that also served paninis for breakfast! I haven't had a panini in over a year! Tomato, mozzarella, and actual pesto! After that, we relaxed for a few hours before heading to the bus station to go home at around 3:30. When we got there, the place was packed! We had planned to get on a bus around 4, but the next bus was only at 6:50! Gianni and I ate dinner and waited at a coffee shop until it was finally time to head home.

It was a weekend of festivals and friends, and it was excellent getting to see Lish again. From now on, we are going to try to go to new festivals that we weren't able to get to last year, and I'm really excited for what this new year has to offer.