Lantern Parade

Buddha's Birthday, which is one of the biggest holidays here in Korea, is coming up this weekend and the celebrations are on the run. They started last weekend with Lotus Lantern Festival and filled the city and temples with hundrets of thousands lanterns.

We went to see the Lotus Lantern parade that went through the downtown Seoul. It lasted for hours and there were 100 000 lanterns in the parade.

My camera doesn't take good pictures of moving targets in the dark so the reality looked better than these pics!


Dragons...

Dancers with Dongdaemun gate in the back.

Thousands of people with lanterns. The women here are wearing the national clothes.

Some of the lanterns were a bit far fetched when it comes to buddhism. I don't know if dragons represent something in it.

And I don't know what these men are about. *Now I know, after my templestay, thay're guardians of the soul.*

Some of the lanterns had a message. This is for the unification of the two Koreas.

This pleads for slowing down global warming.

But some of the lanterns were just weird. What is this? Modern Buddha driving a convertible?

More dancers.

Traditional Korean drummers doing their thing drumming and running in a circle.

I have to say that my favorite part in parades is always the drumming group. No matter how amazing the visual stuff is, the drumming is what creates the feeling. The best thing was when you saw thousands of lanterns floating by, dancers dancing, listened to the drumming group coming closer to you, and still heard the last drumming group echoing from between the tall buildings.

Some people there gave away candies and stuff, and I got a lantern :)

After the parade we went to this cutest little restaurant called Lily Merlyn. The owner is truly a decorating enthusiast. There were all kinds of decorations, pictures and small objects around. And yeah, two birds!

We had a fruit salad with Raita. It was interesting with fruits, vegetables and salad dressing combined, but it was good.

When we left I forgot my lantern to the table. After walking a bit I remembered it and we went back to get it. When we got there the owner had already relit it and hung it to the gate and made it part of the decoration! Aww, but he gave it back to me.

:)

Spicy and fun, what else can you ask from the mid-term week?

It's mid-term week now and damn boring. I wouldn't want to study for the exams at all... And I really hate this Korean style of studying. A few days before the exams they move to the library, read like crazy and try to memorize, not understand or get the big picture, memorize all the small details for the exam. They might even be extremely good students and stay up studying all night before the exam. That is, probably a few hours of studying and rest of the time well spent not sleeping and getting a rest. After the multiple-choice exam they get wasted and forget everything they memorized.

This is a university. Here you shouldn't study just for the exam but for your freaking future job! Well, here it doesn't matter what you know. Your career is, roughly put, defined by which university you graduate from and who you're related to.

My style to study for the exams is to go through the stuff I've already learned in the class. And I found a really nice place to do that. Holly's Coffee, where you can choose a "grande" size, which is a BIG cup of coffee.

Well, well. Aside the studies. Yesterday we had lunch in a restaurant called "Persian Palace" that serves the most spicy food you'll find. Like ever. After choosing your dish you have to choose how spicy you want it to be. The scale is from 1 to 10 and if you wish to have number 5 or more, you have to consult the owner.

Number 2 was described very mild, number 2.2 mild and 2.5 "good choice for most foreigners". So me and Ho Yiu we went for 2.5. After that the scale doesn't go "straight" though. 2.7 is twice as spicy as 2.5, 3.0 is twice as spicy as 2.7, 3.5 is twice as spicy as 3.0 etc... Ville wanted to be bold and he ordered 2.7.

The food was spicy. I ate my chicken and rice and some of the sauce. It was burning in my mouth and my throat and it felt like even my ears were burning! That sure killed all the bacteria... But I was still okay compared to Ville. His 2.7 was truly hot. He was sweating, caughing and his nose was running. After a while also his eyes turned bit red! He said that the food was still burning in his stomach and even breathing hurt! Whatta hell, 2.7?? What are the spicier ones then?

We asked the owner if anyone had ever had number 10, and no one has. The highest anyone has eaten is number 5 by drunken Koreans. After eating that they fall down and pass out according to the owner. What a culinaristic experience!

Today we realized that on this shopping street next to our university is the coolest shop ever! If you wanna have a good time and just get to laugh, that is the place to go :) They sell all kinds of junk you can - or let me correct - can't imagine. My favourite products are: Moomin vacuum cleaner for cleaning your table or other small levels, USB hand warmer and massager, a calendar that says "Let's trip together" on the cover, a monkey sitting on a toilet seat nodding its head with solar power, a never-expiering toast you can write a love letter on and use as a wrist pillow when using computer, and many, many others. I bought from there a green, pig-shaped flashlight, that runs with manpower. You have to continuously and quickly squeeze it to generate light, that comes from its nostrils. I'm telling you, your souveniers are gonna be from that store! I'm gonna send a package home from here, because I wont be able to fit all the junk I want into my luggage. :)

Flowers take 3: Yeoido

Cherry blossom. That is probably the most beautiful view in Korea during spring. We finally came to see it in Yeoido during a flower festival.


Jon exited on a bicycle.

Brita even more exited walking.

Everyone had their cameras and took so many pictures.

The place was full of people, everyone taking pictures and posing with the flowers. Koreans love to pose!

Our lovely Finns.

Me and a Russian pose.

Jon and a Korean pose.

Kate and a Japanese pose.


Cherry blossom.

And then we saw a mirror.

On the street there were all kinds things to see. Music performances, magic performances, and then this cutest little animal! I don't know what it was and for what reason there was a man letting people hold it and pet it... but it was soo cute >.< Girls with a cute pose!

More flowers...

This was just rediculous! Koreans have such a twisted relationship with dogs. They eiter eat them or treat them like some royalties. She had a pram for her dog that matched with the dog's died ears!

After admiring the flowers we went to a park for an evening picnic.

We had chicken sticks.

And beer.

And: we made a pyramid! :)

Here in Seoul it might be really warm in the day but it gets chilly soon after the sun sets. We were getting cold sitting outside so we headed to Sinchon.

We went to a place called Mike's cabin. It was a nice place, you could do both sit down and dance, and the music was good :) After a while listening to only Korean bubble gum pop songs you get tired of them and crave for something else...

That was a bit too western place though. Since we're in Korea, we don't want to go to the places just full of westerners...

It was really nice that you could also play board games there! We played "moving labyrinth", "guess who" and of course "monopoly" :)

After a while people started to get into the party mood...

...and let loose. Just like Antti here :)

Ahh, cherry blossom!

Flowers take 2: Naksan

Suddenly the temperature jumped 10 degrees. When a week earlier we were freezing with only 10 degrees outside now there was over 20 and total summer for us! We went to Naksan to play badminton.

Kate working it.

We climbed to the top of the hill and saw the great view.

This is one of my favourite pictures!

The sky was so gloomy because the relatively high levels of yellow sand, which blows from Gobi desert in the dry springtime.

There is a wall running through northern parts of Seoul, and on Naksan. We climbed onto the wall to hang out since that was the only place to sit. All the ground exept for the path was sloping.

We noticed that behind the wall, that is: further from the center, the area looked pretty shaggy.

We stayed until the sun had set.

Flowers take 1: Yeoido

The club in our university taking care exchange students took us to an island called Yeoido in Hangang to see the cherry blossom. We came there only to realize that we were just a bit too early, the trees weren't blossoming yet. We then just hung out there really doing nothing...

Our tutors.

A park in Yeoido which is and island with many fancy office buildings and the National Assembly.

Raita and Mari chilling.

Raita and Gregor taking it easy.

Flowers.

Me and Raita we were playing around...

...and letting our inner wild horses free. :)