Lanterns, lanterns and more lanterns...

Near the end of April, the entire country of South Korea decorated itself with lanterns in preparation for Buddha's birthday. This is a National Holiday in May that changes dates each year. This year it was May 12th.

Our friend Ben found a free lantern making event being held at Hong Beop-Sa temple in Busan. It was an event for foreigners only and it was very well organized. They had a bus pick us up from the closest subway station and it brought us to and from the temple. They also had several English speaking people to assist us in our lantern making attempts and they had everything required to make our lanterns. Did I mention the event was free? Very nice of them...

I cloned the end result of our lanterns in the grass on the left in the second picture. The lanterns are hanging in our living room to add color to our white apartment.

School Trip #1

Here are a few pictures from a school trip we had a few months ago. All the teachers from the 3 Reading Town schools went on this trip organized by the school owner. We had a traditional Korean meal with very tasty fish and the oppurtunity to make some famous Korean food.
First off, we went far into the mountains to get to our destination. We saw buildings that told stories from long ago just by looking at them. It was a very small town with a lot of beautiful scenery. It was like the Ramore of South Korea.

Next, we made some tofu using these 2 solid stones that crushed and grinded beans into the white pasty cream you see falling off the side of the stones. We added the beans in a hole on the top and a little water to make a better fluid consistency. The rest (boiling and such) was taken care of by the Korean chefs. Next thing we knew, we had made tofu.

We also made some Korean rice cakes. More fun to make than it is to eat. Basically, take cooked sticky rice and hammer it until it's turned into one thick gluey consistency and add some kind of flour and it becomes a rice cake!

Our last stop was at a train station where there was an old TV/movie set for a Western cowboy style movie, where we met this cool old guy making everything out of straw. Shoes, hats, bowls, stuffed pets, you name it, he made it. He loved having his picture taken with foreigners too and he had a great smile. Thank you Reading Town for a great trip.

Wildlife

A long time ago, Greg posted a question: "What kind of wildlife (if any) is in South Korea?" I have since been looking for wildlife and I haven't found much. They have a lot of birds and cats, does that count? By the way, I think the sand in the small park outside our building is one big litter box because we frequently see several cats hanging around there.

We have recently taken a trip to Gyeong Ju which is one of the oldest (if not the oldest) and famous cities in South Korea. They had ruins that date back to BC times. They have made several tourist attractions in this city and one of them is a nature walk where some of the old ruins remain, which was really cool. We saw some of the most beautiful flowers, trees and what is really rare here, nice grass.

We took some really cool shots of butterflies and my favorite is the spider. The white lines must be the mark to where his home base is on his net. Angèle caught a spider in action and the story is quite long but if we are sharing a drink at some point and looking for something to talk about, bring it up...

We also saw a few squirrels and chipmunks and this little guy was running from tree to tree while I was trying to take a picture of him. As I was about to snap the shot he stopped, stood up for 1.2 seconds, just long enough for me to take my picture, and ran off. It almost felt like he posed for me.

If we see any more wildlife action, we will try and capture it for you.

Stone Walk

Throughout Changwon, and I'm sure other cities as well, there are parks and school with stone walks. I don't know their real name so stone walk it is.

There is usually a short path of about 20 feet and then a circular path at the end where you could walk around for hours massaging your feet. You are supposed to take your shoes off at the start of the path, then walk to the circle on the stones then walk around the circle until you or your feet have had enough. We usually see children playing on them. However, I have seen one older man walking around and he did it for at least 30 mins and he was still going when we left the park. He looked like it he was doing it as a prayer more than to massage his feet.

It looks painful but we haven't taking time to take off our shoes and try it to be able to comment on how it feels.