A Weekend in Seoul

Fire Breathing Dragons

This elephant even trumpeted as he carried Buddha down the parade route. (Yes, I had to google the sound elephants make).

I've managed to make some Korean friends which is extremely helpful. I spent Saturday with them. We went to Saemi's university to some conference she thought was going to be in English. There was only one section that was in English and it was about the "Untranslatability of Poetry." Yawn! Not my type of thing. We did get free lunch though.

We then wandered to a pool hall and met up with our friend Yehwa. Alfred lost four games to us girls which was amazing! The pool hall was pretty relaxed. It was filled with guys playing billiards. I think this was the first time I've seen billiards played. The Koreans told me that guys play billiards in Korea and girls play pool. When then headed to a coffee shop which served "free" cake with your coffee. I had some pretty great chocolate mousse.

Here is where the fun begins. We were talking about playing cards and miraculously I had a deck of cards in my backpack. We started playing poker (not that I really know how to play) and my Korean friends taught me some Korean card games. In exchange, I taught them "B.S." They loved it! Yehwa is horrible at lying so she constantly ended up with most of the cards.

We then moved to Alfred's house where he made us Kimchi Bokkeumbap which is Kimchi Fried Rice. Kimchi is spicy fermented cabbage that Koreans eat with every meal. It's kind of like spicy saurkraut. Alfred's food was delicous! We continued playing card games and Alfred broke out the Korean version of monopoly. I have to say the Korean version is much more fun! The "Chance" and "Community Chest" cards were combined and were called "The Golden Key Cards." I didn't find anything "golden" about them. I think there is more bad cards than good cards in the deck. Anyway, the best property you can buy is Seoul. I wish I would have taken a picture of the game board. Next time I will for sure.

Sunday, I spent the morning doing laundry and hanging out. Alfred and Saemi were in the neighborhood so they stopped by my apartment. Our plan was to sit on my roof and order some food (delivery people will go anywhere in Korea) but it was cold so we decided to leave the neighborhood. We sat out to eat Mexican food at a new restaurant in Jungkuk. It didn't happen as we stumbled upon something even cooler than Mexican food...The Lotus Lantern Festival. This festival celebrates Buddha's birthday.

There was a huge parade with some amazing floats. It took place at night. My camera died shortly after the parade started so I'm a little sad but I'll share the pictures I did take. I experienced even more Korean hospitality. I was standing front and got an excellent view of everything. We were waving at the people walking by and as I've said before most Koreans are amazed by foreigners. I was given two lanterns, candy, and a pin. It was pretty awesome.

This parade definitely puts Denver's parade of lights to shame. There were huge dragons that breathed fired, pigs on motorcycles that shot fire from guns, and LED peacocks that raised and lowered their feathers. Ahh...I'm so mad my camera died! I know you're thinking pigs shooting guns? What does that have to do with Buddha? The answer is, "I don't know." One thing I've come to realize is Korea is pretty random and I think this is just another example of it.

All in all, it was a pretty amazing weekend!