Yondung Nori--Lantern festival parade

The Lotus Lantern Festival is the largest and most celebrated event dedicated to Buddha's birthday, which falls on May 5 this year.


Commonly referred to as ``Chopail,'' the day is observed as a national holiday on which followers of Buddhism across the nation head to temples for special services.

Showcasing 100,000 lanterns of all colors, shapes and sizes.



Such a variety of lanterns are to be seen, all in brilliant and luminous hues. Some take inspiration from Buddha himself, while others are derived from mystical figures synonymous to the belief, including Sachonwang, the Four Divine Guardians, dragons and great white elephants. Others resemble butterflies, ladybugs, golden bats and salamanders.





Yondung Nori, refers to the name of the lantern parade that marches in front Chogye-sa Temple.

Some pics of our neighborhood

Our lovely apartment building (looks exacly like every other building).

Our school: Herald Language Institute

Some parks in our back yard

Goodbye Andrea

On tuesday night, our long lost friend Andrea came home. She has been braving the beaches of South East Asia for the past 2 months. We had bulgolgi and an impromptu visit with the crew before took off for Canada.
And she's got a tan!! Even if you ask her, she'll deny it, but it's verifably true, ANDREA HAS A TAN!

Hers's Andrea, anxious to get home, with all her stuff at the airport bus stop.

You Are 28 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

It's the perfect time of year....

Saturday was the peak time to go exploring. The last time we went to Gyeungbeuk palace was in the fall, when the leaves were beautiful shades of yellows, reds and oranges. Saturday, there lot's of whites, pinks and greens.


Here's Hilary and Adrian. Aren't they cute?

A scooter with a cotten candy concoction.

Aren't we cute?

Just the 6 of us...we can make it if we try.....


Can you see Jogno tower behind? A mix of the old and the new.


Where's waldo?

Always an adventure

Today Jamie and I decided to go to Children's Grand Park. This was our first time visiting CGP and frankly we had a pretty vaque idea of what to expect.

What we experienced today was so much more than we could have even imagined. First of all, it's the prefect time of year to be outside because the cherry blossoms are in full bloom and the air just radiates of spring. When we stepped outside the subway and into CGP, there were trees, flowers and blossoms EVERYWHERE. There were ponds, fountains, live entertainment and beautiful botanical gardens. The park also had a very Asian theme with al the Pegotas and such.

There were also many, many animals. actually it was kind of a zoo. There were kangaroos, black bears, polar bears, seals, birds and plenty of other anilmals I didn't know existed.

The BEST part of the park was the amusment park. Jamie and I saw this amazing roller coaster (like California Adventureland amazing) and we jumped on the oppurtunity as soon as we saw there were NO lines.The ride only costed us 3.50 each. The carnie didn't even check our seat belts and we weren't exacly sure how SAFE the ride was, but hey, we were committed at that point. As soon as gravity hit we were spiralling upside down, sideways and going every direction you could imagine. I had these same freaking psychotic feelings when i rode the coaster at California adventureland.

And then we went to work.







Here's the roller coaster of DEATH.

Goodbye and hello parties

One of our coolest Korean friends, Tim, is moving to Australia. So, we spent one of his last nights in Jongno. We had a blast being entertained by Tim's Korean friends, eating strange bbq-ed meats and seafood dishes, drinking a lot of beverages. I even made a new friend, Jinju.



Later this week our church had a get-together at Swiss Chalet, which shouldn't be confused with the North American chain restaurant. This was a German restaurant with live entertainment. Just picture this: 3 Koreans yodelling, playing guitar and bells and other various German instruments.

Here's Jamie with Molly. She's one of the most hip older persons I've ever met.

Enter the yodellers...

Here's Hilary doing an impromtu spoon/percussion performance

Singing in the Rain

Here's an awesome movie we made with Jake. just copy and paste it into your browser and give it a few minutes to load:

http://ia310141.us.archive.org/1/items/Jake_in_Korea/JakeKorea2.mp4

Jake's visit to Seoul

Who doesn't love this city?

This past week Jamie and I have been busy being tour guides for my cousin, Jake, from Tacoma. It was a really fun week. We went to Lotte World on Sunday, Namsan/Meung-dong on Monday, Insadong and norebong (singing room) on Tuesday, Building 63 on Friday (even though we discovered the observation deck is closed until July), and Dondaemun/Chong-dok palace/Jogno tower/Chungechun stream on Saturday. The only reason for our sabatacle on Wednesday and Thursday was because Jake went to Gyenju for a couple days to see a tea plantation and to see a national park. Jake was a bit of a celebrity at our school on Friday when he came to observe some of our classes.


Here we are on Top Cloud restaurant (top floor of Jogno Tower), enjoying our delicious meal accompanied by a live jazz trio.


A beautiful pegotta in Jogno.


Along the Chungechung stream.


Jennica rules and Jake drools.

Christine, Jennica and Esther in the "Secret Garden"

Wow, building 63 is quite something....

Jake suggested we take this picture as an April Fool's joke. he told everyone that Christine is his new fiance. As if!!

In the cable car on our way to Namsan Tower.

Jake and Jamie got along famously.

Jake and Jennica in Myeng-dong