Seoul Lantern Festival for Buddha's Birthday

The night I returned to Wonju from the USA I immediatly met up with my friend Liz. Liz is an old friend from UCI who was also a campus tour guide. She is currently working as an English teacher in Japan and had come to Korea for her one week of spring vacation. She had been travelling around Korea for the week but wanted to come hang out with me in Wonju. We both arrived in Wonju Thursday night around 8pm via bus so it was very easy to meet at the station. We took a taxi back to my place and talked until I finally decided I had to go to bed because I had work the next day.

School on Friday was Physical Exam day so the students had no classes. Which meant I was free to sit and do whatever the heck I wanted. I told Liz I would walk back to my apartment around 10:30 and bring her over for a tour of the school. She was really eager to see the similarities and differences between a Japanese and Korean school. Right away we met some students in the hallway who squealed "you're beautiful" and "I love you!" to Liz. She said this was very flattering and much more forward than a Japanese student would be. After going to the English Room and talking for about an hour we wandered downstairs to find out what was going on with lunch. We happen to run into two of the women I eat lunch with and Mr. Byeon. They suggested we all go out to eat together (even though I never eat with Mr. B, I think he just wanted to talk to the new foreigner.) We went to a simple restaurant where they tried to suggest pork katsu and tempura to here, to which Liz and I exchanged glances, as this is Japanese food, but Korean's will try to tell you it is Korean. We ended up with a noodle dish and kim bab, which is Korean. They asked her a lot of difficult and nervewraking questions like, how do Japanese and Korean students compare, what do you think of Korea, etc. She managed to field them pretty well although I could see the look her face when they asked certain questions, to us it seems so bold and a little rude but to them they don't see that at all. Lunch was nice though and they did treat us.

After that Mr. Byeon was all too happy to give Liz the master tour of Sangji, just like he gave my parents. Again Liz was a great sport and had a lot of fun. We visited numerous classrooms, she met the VP and lots of other teachers and saw the high school. She was interested in the cafeteria because in Japan they don't have any, the students eat lunch in their classrooms, so we went in and ended up having tea with the super nice lunch ladies! Liz was also given a Pororo bubble blower (a popular animated character in Korea) by one student and gave her a pen in return. Every room we went in Mr. Byeon had her blow bubbles, so odd!

Around 4pm we finally went home. I never get so detailed a tour and introduction to teachers I have never met unless a visitor is here. We were tired after that so we just relaxed around my apartment until 7pm when Amber came over for dinner. We went to a near by galbi place (grilled beef) which they both loved! Amber headed home afterwards but Liz and I went to grab a drink at a local bar called Pub. Where she lives in Japan is really small so she enjoyed getting to go out, even in a casual way, with a friend. We headed home about midnight even though two very shy Korean men tried to get us to stay and drink with them.

The next day we headed back to Seoul with Amber. We wanted to see the famous Lantern Festival held in Seoul for Buddha's Birthday. We left the apartment about 10am but didn't get to our hostel where we would stay the night in Seoul until close to 3pm in the afternoon, after all the bus and subway travel. Then we headed to the Myeongdong area to eat and do a little shopping at Forever 21. We had CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) because we were craving a little western food and it was the only thing I knew for sure where it was. We enjoyed strolling around Myeongdong, it was busy as ever! And I had a very successful shopping trip.

Around 8pm we walked to the City Hall area to see the start of the parade of lanterns. Although it was crowded, it was less so than I thought it would be and we were able to get right up next to the towering 10 feet high + lanterns! They were beautiful, made out of paper and sculpted into perfection. There were huge warriors, fish, mountains, flowers... and they were all light from inside. To move them men grabbed poles on the outside and pushed them along the street. The parade was a little harder to see but it looked beautiful as well, it was huge and filled with group after group of people dressed in traditional Korean outfirst walking or dancing down the street, each carrying a different kind of hand held paper lantern.

The area was starting to get more crowded so we walked down a side street in hopes of finding the buddhist temple we had heard was at the end of the parade route, where all the lanterns would be placed. We didn't find it but ended up walking in a huge circle. It was no matter though, because the night was warm and clear and tons of people were out enjoying it. We ended up seeing the main Gyeongbokgung palace again and the statues out front of it. They were light up in the night and lhanging lanterns lined the main streets. I was all really beautiful, I wish they always stayed up.

Finally we asked some people how to get to the temple and they pointed us in the right direction. Soon we were back in the throng of people, but this time it was filled with the performers from the parade who were rushing to get on the subway and go home. We saw some foreigners with paper lanterns in their hands and asked how we could get our own. They said the performers just gave them to them. Not a minute later, an old women in traditional wear walked up to Amber and gave her a baskeball size and shaped hand made paper lantern, with a lit candle inside. Then one was handed to Liz. We kept walking and an old man gave me one shaped like a lotus flower. We were so pleased! As we kept walking though, people tried to give us more and more! Liz refused a first but she and I ended up with three each! Unfornately with so many it was hard to keep them from getting damaged with all the people bumping into me. Amber had the better idea, only keep one perfect one. It was so hard to refuse though, I could see the old women look at us, hear them utter "waygook" under their breath (foreigner) and next thing I knew they were handing us a lantern! They just wanted us to be happy and included. And we did feel that way.

After almost walking in the opposite direction of the buddhist temple once again we finally found our way after almost throwing in the towel. And we are so glad we didn't! The temple was definitely the best part. As you walked up its front entrance you were sheltered by a floating carpet of lanterns. There were thousands of them, strung together and of all different colors, bright green, red, pink, yellow, orange, all glowing with the warmth of the candle within. Theye led the way to the temple itself, where sat a large golden buddha (wish I had known about this place when my family visited!). Out front was a stage and milling around were visitors and people in traditional costumes, dancing and playing instruments! It was just breathtaking. I would have been happy to sit and stare for hours at the colorful lanters, some which made shapes in the carpet above or spelled a word.

Determined to take our lanterns back to our respective homes we boarded the subway to dump them at our hostel before going to Hongdae for some night life. We got many stares on the subway. We ended the night eating chicken and beer, a must before Liz went back to Japan.

Sunday morning we munched on Dunkin Doughnuts before saying our goodbyes. it was a nice warm, sunny day. (Soon it would rain for the next week!) It was really nice seeing Liz and hearing her talk about Japan. It brought back good memories of UCI that I really enjoyed.