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.
