Jinju Lanterns (part one)

We had been thinking about going to experience some of the festivals around South Korea for a while but for one reason or another we just haven't done it yet. Thursday night I sat down to see the dates for the upcoming Jinju Lantern Festival, one festival that I was really looking forward to, and realized that of the week or so left of the two week festival the only time we would be able to go would be this Saturday (less than 48 hours from the discovery). Luckily Soren agreed that it was something we should do. 

Waiting for the train. Hyrum loved the trains passing by the platform.

Since we don't have a car, we decided to ride the train to and from the festival. Apparently it takes twice as long by train as it does by car but the scenery was beautiful so I don't really feel put out. Also this was my first time on a train unless the one at Disneyland counts. We drove through miles upon miles of farmland with beautiful terracing. 

There were also these beautiful wildflowers that grew along the train tracks for a good portion of the southern end of the trip. I'm not really sure what they are but I like them.

One of the lanterns outside the station.

Once we got to Jinju, we were greeted by the lanterns at the station promoting the festival. They looked neat but didn't, by any means, do justice to the lanterns that we would see later. (It could have been that we saw them when it was light out though.)

Another station lantern

The part of the weekend that I was not looking forward to was making hotel reservations. The train that we took to get to Jinju only goes through town in each direction once per day. It goes north at 9:20am and arrives heading south at 4:30pm. Since we needed to go back north, we would not be able to get another train until Sunday morning (unfortunately meaning we would miss church). At home, hotel reservations are easy. You go to a website and they have all of the hotels for a given are right there; you just have to choose one. Here it's not like that. Only the high-end, business hotels are really listed. The smaller, more affordable hotels are found some other way that I have yet to discover.

We originally made a reservation Thursday night for one of the business hotel since they were listed online and they spoke English. It was more expensive but would have been worth it if they hadn't called the next day, 24 hours before our train left for Jinju, to say that they didn't have any more rooms. Luckily I found a smaller hotel for us that ended up being closer to the main part of the festival for almost half of what the other room would have cost us. Upon arriving though, the clerk at the hotel, through an interpreter, tells us that she is sorry that we made a reservation but they didn't have any more rooms. Eventually she decided that if we came back in about a half hour they would have a room for us and they did. That was a relief. With the crowds on the street, I doubt that the hotel room search would have gone well.

We didn't spend much time in the room but it was nice. It even had a computer for us to use. Hyrum particularly enjoyed the fact that he got to take a bath since all we have is a shower.

When I was removing some of the food we brought with us from the bags, Hyrum decided that it had been too long since we had fed him and that he no longer needed to wait for us to help him. Needless to say he didn't get very far! :D

 
All in all, it was a rough but good start to an amazing trip!

Ribbon Flowers

I'm not a very "crafty" person. I can follow directions but coming up with something on my own is really tough. So I'm not sure where this came from. All of a sudden last week I decided that I wanted to try my had at ribbon flowers. 

It probably had something to do with the fact that the weather is cooling down so I have started wearing my hair down again and wanted to get a hair band. The problem is that hair bands are very expensive, ranging between 6 an 13 dollars. Granted there are some cheaper than that but not many. I guess I just decided to make one.

So I went to the stationary/craft store downtown and bought all of the makings for quite a few headbands and clips. More than I will wear probably.

When I saw the lace for this flower in the store, I knew that it had to be turned into this flower. I am very happy with the results!

This is a hair clip bow that I made

This head band it my favorite. I made it to go with an outfit that I wore for giving a talk in church.

This is probably my next favorite. :D

 

I feel like they turned out pretty well!

My Way of Apologizing

So I haven't posted in a while. Obviously. So to make up for it, here are some pictures of Hyrum. Hopefully they will soften the blow.

Onions and Mustard

So a few posts ago I talked about one of the harder things to get used to here in South Korea, putting our trash on the street. This time, I want to talk about one of the more fun things to see happen. I guess first I should explain a little about Korean food.

Koreans are famous for their side dishes. No meal is complete without them. It's not just one or two but bowls and bowls of side dishes. At the last meal that we had a t a Korean restaurant I think we had  6 side dishes plus 3 sauces along with the main dish of pork and rice with lettuce for wrapping it in. Koreans eat like this for almost every meal. There is not a lot of each side dish but there is definitely a variety of choices. I guess I will get back to my point.

The other day we went to Costco for the first time and while we left empty-handed because of money issues, we were told by the friends that took us that the next time we went to Costco we should look at the plates of the Koreans in the food court. So we did. The food in the food court is very similar to that served within the States. They have different toppings for pizzas but that's about it. It turns out though that the Koreans simply must have a side dish. They will take plates and FILL them with chopped onion that Costco puts out for the hotdogs and then cover the onions in mustard. This is their side dish.

It is so funny to watch them stand there at the onion dispenser turning and turning that handle! I feel so bad for the person who has to refill the dispenser. "Oh, it's been ten minutes. I should go fill that again!" Personally I would rather go without a side dish than eat onions covered in mustard but it seems to be really important to them!

Things I Took for Granted

I realized that there would be things that I would not be able to buy or that would be really expensive in Korea. There were some changes, however, that I did not prepare for. Here is a list of things that I/we miss.

1. Normal-sized towels - The ones here are the size of a hand towel or two hand towels sewn together if you put out the big bucks.

2. Milk - The equivalent of a half-gallon is almost $4 here.

3. Meat - 6-7 Chicken breasts were about $16. Pork seems to be the cheapest but it still costs a pretty penny.

4. Normal-height brooms -  I think those at the store were made for midgets. They only come to, at most, my hip.

5. Peanut butter - $6 a jar here

6. Spices - I can only find a few spices: rosemary, thyme, sage, bay leaves, cinnamon, and oregano. We practically lived on chili powder, paprika and lemon pepper before we left.

We were eventually able to find decent sized towels and a broom though we have yet to purchase them (Costco apparently doesn't take VISA cards when even the corner market does!). I know that there are more things that should be on this list. Maybe I am having trouble remembering the rest of the list since it is late. Oh well.

The Unknown...Food, That Is.

Last night we went out to eat by ourselves for the first time since arriving here. It was an adventure (As if this whole trip isn't an adventure). We already knew that our only chances of understanding what we were ordering was to find a place with English on the menu or, less ideally, a menu with pictures. The times that one or both of us have gone to eat out with people from Soren's work, the menus have had English on them. We had no such luck last night.

After wandering around for 30 or so minutes, we finally found a couple places with pictures on the menus. Not knowing which was better we just chose one. We took off our shoes and sat at a table while the waiter pointed to the wall and said "menu." I can only imagine how I looked as I wandered up to the wall stared at the menu, looked around the room, and went back to stare at the menu. The pictures didn't really help. In the end, I just chose something that looked like it wouldn't eat me before I could eat it and went back to my mat. 

In the end, the food was delicious! Both Soren and I were thoroughly impressed with how good the food was and how well we survived our first restaurant alone. It was a little more than we expected, about the price of dinner for two at Denny's, but it was well worth the price. We've added it to our list of places to visit again!

Where's the trash can!

Most of the cultural differences that we have run into so far in Korea are not too tough for us as far as feeling normal while doing them. For instance bowing instead of shaking hands. One, though, has been particularly challenging for us. It involves our trash.

In the U.S., when you take out your trash, you put it in either a trash can or a dumpster. Not so in Korea. Everyone, households and businesses alike, put their trash on the street. Anytime. Just put it out there. You can buy the "approved bags" or not (the people in our neighborhood don't for the most part). It is so hard to get used to. I guess they come buy everyday/night and pick up all of the trash.

It's a small thing but to us it just seems weird.

The closest neighborhood appointed trash spot.