Roadtrip! A Vist to Jinju and Boseong.

The second weekend of October met us with gorgeous early fall weather. We woke up and got ourselves ready to go out for the night (in hind sight we should have prepared some things the night before, but oh well, you live and learn!), and were on the road by 10 or 11 am. Ellora slept for awhile in the car and Joe and I chatted and enjoyed the scenery as we drove through the mountainous southern regions toward our first stop, Jinju. Our friends Nick and Becky and a visitor from home, Emma, were joining us there.

Luckily we had a GPS to follow because we decided to go to our pension first, to check-in, and then figure out the location of the festival from there. On the phone the owner of the pension described the location as only 15-20 minutes from the festival, but what we didn't realize was that the place was buried out in the country, so not exactly easy to find. When we arrived, we discovered that it was so secluded, they didn't even lock the doors or have a reception. I called the manager and she said just to go inside the room! I was a little disappointed when we looked at it. The website showed a really charming little getaway pension but our room was pretty bare bones. There was only one bed and the other three of us and Ellora had to sleep old-fashioned Korean style on the floor with very thin mats and small hard pillows. Good thing we were only staying for one night! The surroundings were really beautiful though, with large flower fields and pepper patches all around us.

Our pension.

In front of the door to our room.

The flower patch.

Our bare bones room.

The pepper garden out our sliding door.

Ellora playing on our floor bed. The thin purple sheet is our "mattress" and those red pillows were stuffed really full so they were hard.

We were still waiting for our friends to catch up with us so Joe and I decided we should go on ahead to the festival to start looking around, since it was already mid afternoon. Our drive had taken us around 2.5 to 3 hours to get there, since we had crossed almost the whole length of the bottom of the country, into the next province.  We just guess-worked our way into the city and then to the festival site, and eventually found a place to park.

A description of the Jinju Lantern Festival:

One of Korea’s “Best Festivals” as designated by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, the Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival takes place in the Namgang River area in Jinju, Gyeongsangnam-do.

Not just a stunning display of light and master craftsmanship, the festival has a historic side as well. The festival was first held as a memorial event to pay tribute to around 70,000 soldiers who gave up their lives for the nation during the Imjin Waeran, the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592.

Despite these solemn undertones, the main highlight of the festival is the indescribable beauty of the multitude of lanterns, particularly the “wish lanterns” that float down the river carrying each participant’s hopes and dreams. The festival’s historic roots can be seen more clearly at the Jinjuseong Fortress, where soldier stand to welcome visitors in to see the lanterns inspired by the lives of Koreans from over 500 years ago.

In addition to the lanterns themselves, main festival activities include “making your own lantern,” “crossing the bridge of love,” and participating in traditional folk games.

Since we arrived in the day time, the lanterns were not yet turned on, but still just as fun to go around and enjoy. Here is a little photo collage of our day at the lantern festival:

Ellora up close and personal with a giant radish.

And now with a giant chicken.

Just your typical day when Joe is getting devoured by a dinosaur.

Mommy and baby love.

The river full of floating lanterns.

A map of the festival grounds, showing the various themed sections.

A guard enjoying himself on duty.

Ellora's zodiac, the dragon.

Pinning a message on the wish zodiac.

A big green paper dragon.

Traditional wedding scene: The bride is carried to the husband's family home.

Ellora has hoards of fan club members everywhere she goes. The usual commentary is, " OMG, so cute! She looks like a doll. Look at her big eyes. Wow, her eyes are blue!..."

Happy family!

At this point, late in the afternoon, we finally found our friends and decided to go for dinner. Having read online before the trip that Jinju is kind of famous for eel, we sought out a restaurant close to the festival grounds to try it out. Too hungry to shop around for prices and menu differentiation, we took a seat at a place that had tables set up outdoors. It looked busy so that must mean it would be good. We had a choice of sea versus fresh water eel, but now I can't remember which one we decided on! Which ever one it was, it was more fishy tasting than the one we like to eat in Mokpo, and also the dish was far too spicy. Since the portions were really expensive, we bought just two for all five of us to share. I knew it wasn't going to be enough so we talked about stopping in a grocery store on our way back to the pension later. 

 

This is what an eel restaurant looks like.

Our getting set up for dinner.

Here's our plate of seasoned eel, cooking on our own gas burner.

Ellora ate with us too, though her food was much more bland.

After finishing up our food and drinks it was already dark. We re-entered the festival grounds to check out the lanterns which were all light by this time. These were the first set we came upon:

Ellora under the trees.

Cute kids posing with the herons.

We walked around almost the entire area we had covered earlier again, enjoying the scenes of animals and traditional Korea life. Especially this one:

What's so special about that, you may be asking yourself? Take a closer look.

Ta-daa! Of course the bull lantern must be anatomically correct!

Finally we crossed the floating bridge over to the opposite side of the river, to see the wish lanterns and homemade lantern contest entries. This was also where people were launching their mini-floating lanterns to gently glide down the river. It was much busier over there so a bit difficult to navigate with the stroller at times, and easy to lose sight of each other. But the lanterns there were well worth it!

The tunnel of wish lanterns.

Mini-floaties.

The river light up with colourful lanterns.

Contest entries.

This is one of my favourite pictures, with the more traditional Asian style lanterns.

 

This video shows a fire-breathing dragon lantern.

Feeling exhausted and still needing to find more food to fill the void left form dinner, we called it a night and made our way back to the pension. O think we got in somewhere around midnight and I was sure that Ellora would just drop when I laid her down on our floor bed, but no. No, no, no. She decided that midnight and a room full of tired people, was the optimal time and place for a loud shrieking play session. Since Joe needed to drive the car the next day, to our second road trip location, I was the lucky one who got to stay up and try to coax her to sleep!

The following morning, after far too little sleep for some of us, we had a nice breakfast together before hitting the road back west, to the Boseong green tea fields, where we were hoping to arrive in time for the supposed fall blossoms on the bushes.

Bagels and cream cheese, fruit, cheese and crackers, yogurt drinks and banana bread!

Yes, yes this is Ellora chewing the table.

We snuck in a quick photo shoot in the flower fields first, though:

Such a wonderful colour!

Our flower girl.

Fun in the swing.

A link to some information about the tea fields: http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=257623 

Mostly it's just a nice place to go for a scenic walk and buy some organic tea products. They also sell some really beautiful tea service sets in the Korean style. In the lower parking lot there is a soft ice cream cone place with, in my opinion, the most delicious green tea ice cream! Not like that garbage they serve at Baskin Robbins....  We, Joe and I that is, have visited this place several times before, but it was a first time visit for the rest of our group. Too bad we had to walk around separately, since I couldn't manage walking up the hills with my running injury. Joe and Ellora and I still hobbled around a little and this is what we saw:

I loved the way the light was hitting this trees stump and highlighting the rings.

Ellora's favourite toy of the day, an empty wet wipe package. Why do we bother to buy "educational" toys?

I really see Joe's dad in his face and body stance here!

Sweet bear hat miss!

Fall tea fields. Seems we were a little too early for the blossoms.

Father-daughter time, because Mom's muscle injury was too sore to carry her around!

Initially the plan was to carry on to the beach not far from here but again time was against us and it was already much later than we planned to get going. From here the group split ways, us back home and the other to the beach. All in all it was a really great weekend with fun adventures and good company!

Chuseok: The Only Long Weekend Between May and February

Early on we knew that this year's Chuseok was going to be very nice - because it was being given as a five-day weekend! This is almost unheardof in Korea, as labourers often complain that this situation is "too much time off"! How did it happen? Well,  the Chuseok holiday fell on Saturday, September 29th through to Monday, October 1st. Tuesday was a normal work day and then Wednesday, October 3rd was another holiday, National Foundation Day. In a surprise move, most schools, including Joe's and mine, allowed the Tuesday between to be a bridge day, giving us five consecutive days off!

Here's a quick blurb about the two holidays:

Chuseok is a major harvest festival and a three-day holiday in Korea Celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. Chusok, also known as the Korean Thanksgiving day. The celebration starts on the night before Chusok and ends on the day after the holiday. Thus, many Korean families take three days off from work to get together with family and friends.

A ceremonial table with fall harvest foods.

A family dressed in traditional clothes, enjoying Songpyeon (a kind of rice cake) together.

National Foundation Day is a public holiday in South Korea on October 3. Also known by the name Gaecheonjeol Day. This holiday celebrates the creation of the state of ancient Korea (Gojoseon) founded by Dangun Wanggeom in the year 2333 BCE. "Gaecheonjeol" means "Heaven-opened Day".

Dangun and ancient Korea.

This link shows the year's calendar of holidays in Korea, with links to information about each one: http://portalseven.com/calendar/Holidays_South_Korea.jsp?year=2012

Originally we planned to take a few family days at home in Mokpo together, and also to go to Seoul for a couple days, to visit the Canadian Embassy for some paperwork. However, the Thursday before the holiday, our wonderful babysitter suddenly had to quit due to her mother's serious illness. I spent all my free time at work on Friday calling around to daycares all over the city, trying to find an urgently needed placement for Ellora, for the next week. I was not successful, so we had to cancel our trip to Seoul in order to stay back and continue searching for a daycare. More on this later, in a separate post.

The other thing we had planned for the long weekend was Ellora's next set of photos for the year-long package we purchased. In the package was included several shoots at various stages in her first year: 30 days (I wish we had gotten in there earlier, like around 2 weeks!), 100 days, 250 days, and one year. This time round was 250 days, and we were allowed to choose two "concepts". After browsing their samples we choose a princess scene and a cute angel scene. Actually I had to convince them to let me do the angel scene, because it wasn't one of their normal outfits, just a few things I put together out of their stock of props, but it turned out really well.

Our photo studio, Lime Orange.

A big advertisement for the studio...

...and our baby girl featuring the knit animal capes we let the studio borrow for awhile, in return for some free framed photos later. She's famous!

We did encounter one problem though, and that was that Ellora was just not impressed with any amount of laughing, funny tricks or noises, or bubble blowing the photographer and assistant threw at her! That kid would not crack a smile for anything! It made the photo shoot rather difficult in terms of getting a good range of expressions. In the end, we just had to choose from what we had but I really wish she would learn to be more open and relaxed around Koreans and adults in general. Lighten up, little serious face! Here are a few choice examples of her "I'm not having it" attitude:

I'm not going to fall for that!

Do you think you are being funny right now?

Whatever, I'm just going to stand here and stare you down.

Whatever it is you are doing right now, it's not working.

Of course, as soon as we got her home she was happily playing and laughing with her toys, giving us lots of silly fang-tooth smiles. That's just the kind of girls she is, and she's not afraid to show it.

Catching Up On October

October has really been quite a busy month for us, even with a couple weekends at home.

We started with the long weekend and with Ellora's photoshoot and the scramble to find Ellora a day care, followed by a roadtrip weekend to see the lantern festival and tea fields, followed by a weekend at home with a sick baby and endless laundry, and then this past weekend the "Canarican Thanksgiving" potluck dinner. But the month isn't over yet and we have one more weekend outing coming up, out east to Gimje to visit our friends Adele, Tak and SoYeon, and also to see the International Fireworks Festival! It's just non-stop, action-packed weekends that we come away from wishing we still had another day or two off to recover!

I'm doing my best to get caught up with these events, so I'll start witht the first weekend, Chuseok, or Korean Thanksgiving. These days we certainly have a lot to be thankful for!

The (bashful) return of the blog!

Meet Our New Friends!

A few weeks ago we were waiting for sandwiches at Quiznos and playing with Ellora. A Korean couple with a baby boy looking to be near her age came in and were waiting nearby. Their boy was looking and Ellora and smiling so I brought her closer for them to meet. The father, who goes by Lewis, started talking to us with really good English and he mentioned that he was planning on moving to Canada next year. His wife, Anna, spoke some English and seemed very sweet. Their son is named Aaron and is just a year old.

We continued to chit chat a little while we were still waiting and then eating our meals. Before leaving the store I asked if they would like to exchange contact details and we could get together to let the babies play together; they were happy to do so and with that we had made new friends!

Fast track to last week during the Korean Thanksgiving weekend, Chuseok, and Joe and I were heading to their home for dinner. I was going to invite them to our place but he beat me to it! Here's what we found when we arrived:

Lewis and Anna are living in this beautiful country home with mountain views out their front door. The have two outdoor cats and a bunch of chickens, as well as a big greenhouse and several small veggie gardens - everything I want someday! The in-laws live nearby and own a pear orchard. He is renting this home while on contract for a job in the shipyards. I'll give a description of the inside which was modernized, so not the original traditional style. Right away when you enter the house, you are standing in a hallway that leads to an unexplored room to the left and their laundry room on the right. Walking straight through the door across the hall you enter their large living room/playroom. They have one small sofa and then large mats on the floor for sitting, plus a bunch of really nice baby toys.To the left of the living room  you can go into the kitchen which is open to the laundry room. Anna and Lewis had renovated the home a bit when they moved in, so they had nice fresh and bright wallpaper and floors.

Ellora and Aaron were put into the living room to play together while we prepared the food.

 Getting ready for the formal greeting and introduction.

 Aaron is so nicely sharing his piano.

 Ellora loved being in the ball house.

It was a gorgeous Indian summer evening so we decided to eat outside on the platform that Lewis had built himself on the side of the house. Except for all the flies, it was a really pleasant meal, outside in the late afternoon sun. I brought along a banana bread an lemon raspberry squares which seemed to be a crowd-pleaser.

They were very cute in their meal choice, since they wanted to make an "American style" meal for us. Both of them have spent some time in Australia so they are familiar with western dining. Lewis was bbq-ing steaks and Anna had prepared a bunch of side dishes such as green salad, pumpkin salad and noodles,  and corn soup. Right away when we sat down at the table we were offered forks and knives and they made sure we both had plates. This is in contrast to their other family members who were dining with us (Anna's parents and brother and sister-in-law, and their children) who just made do with whatever other cutlery and dishes were around. During the course of the meal they of course asked what kinds of Korean foods we like, and were surprised by our answers. After talking about t for awhile, they admitted they had discussed before what kind of meal to serve but weren't sure if we would like Korean or not, so they were embarrassed about their choices! It was very cute and kind of them to think so considerately about us like that.

After eating we went inside with all the kids and let them play together. At first Ellora was being shy but after a little time she started to have fun with the other kids and enjoy Aaron's toys. Here are some shots of them playing together:

 Ellora the destruction artist.

 Our hosts, Anna, Aaron and Lewis, and their nephew, aka the dinosaur. 

The niece and Ellora having a blast in the swing. 

And finally, a couple videos of Ellora havng such a good time at their house. First, crawling in the long hallway, and second loving the swing:

We look forward to spending more time getting to know Anna and Lewis before they go to Canada next year. It's nice to have a Korean family as friends!