It's Official!

I have now lived in Seoul longer than I lived in Seattle...madness. In a couple weeks, I'll hit the 6 month mark and the half-way point of my time here. I've heard from a few people that the last 6 months are going to fly by and I have to say, May has been going by in a blur.

Yesterday was the Lotus Lantern Festival. Every year near Buddha's Birthday, they have a big parade from City Hall to Jogyesa temple. Everything is centered around lanterns and the floats are basically giant lanterns lit by electric lights. People holding lanterns were dressed in all sorts of traditional Korean clothing and there were a lot of drummers. It was really beautiful but sadly, my effing camera battery died and I had to buy a disposable camera so now pictures just yet. There were some really amazing lanterns, ones you could tell were hand-painted. One group had lanterns made to look like flags of different countries and the group's big float lantern was a Buddha sitting on a globe.

This whole thing gave me one of my "oh holy crap, I live in Asia" moments, which are getting few and far between since I've been here for a while now. Everything about the parade was so distinctly Asian...I mean, first off, it was a major Buddhist celebration and there were delegations from all over Asia marching in it. It was pretty cool.

I got a sports massage this week at a sauna. I found it hilarious that not only are you dressed for it, but the masseuse put towels over my back. This cracked me up. Salespeople have no problem yanking my clothes off me, I've been felt up by an ajuma in the sauna pools, but when I get a massage, they have to be cautious about touching. Oh, Korea.

Belated Cinco de Mayo

Yeah, yeah, the lazy Mexican can't write about Cinco de Mayo until nearly a week later...

I did all the Mexican activities I could do here, such as cleaning my house, drinking at 11 am, eating bbq with rice, and going to a big box store to pick up more beer at a late hour. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

P.S. Claude went on the roof for the first time and it was...not good. He freaked out a bit and gave Justin a nice scratch on his stomach. Oh, Mr. Claude!

Jeju-do

Alright, this post is going to be about my fantastic weekend in Jeju Island but first, I have this to say: Suck it, Chelsea! Liverpool's going to the Champion's League final and you're not! Mwahahahaha!!!

Ok, now that that's off my chest I can get to business!

Paige invited a bunch of us girls to head down to Jeju-do (an island at the tip of the Korean peninsula) for her boyfriend Yong's ultimate frisbee tournament. It ended up being Courtney, Stephanie, Paige and I going as the the Beer Consumption Squad. I had to fly stand-by on Saturday morning due to a mix-up at the travel agency but it was all good since I got to fly business class. Pretty much the moment I got in, I began my duties.

Saturday, we actually did stuff and walked around the beach and one of the commercial areas of the island. I found a Seattle's Best and got a little misty-eyed looking at a huge picture of the Puget Sound. The beach was absolutely gorgeous! It was so nice to be around ocean again and to see how blue the sky is when there's no massive pollution.

That night was the Mysterious costume party. We all wore wigs and didn't really know what we were, that was our mystery. Or, as Stephanie said, the mystery was how much we cost for the night. By the way, soju in iced tea is delicious!

Sunday we did nothing but sit in the sun and drink beer. Courtney, Paige and I kicked a soccer ball around for a bit but seriously, that's it. It was glorious!

I flew home at 7 am on Monday and was seriously depressed all day. I cannot wait to go back to Jeju. Soon, people, soon.


World Cup Stadium






Traditional Jeju statue


Woman selling seafood at the beach


Hehehe


Being mysterious...