Sakura Spring in South Korea!

We had the pleasure of seeing one of the more beautiful natural events on this side of the world this weekend. It's sakura season (cherry blossoms) and they bloom for a short window of time which is about a week before they blow away or rainfall gets to them first. The Japanese sakura are very popular and well known, but these beautiful trees also bloom here in South Korea!

A special thing about this is that Cheongju also held its 10th annual Art Festival downtown by the river, which just so happens to be a big place to see all the trees in bloom. So not only were there tons of people out and about to take pictures with the scenery, but the art festival meant lots of families and art students out as well. It really was a lovely weekend and we had an awesome time. It's a special thing to see the trees in bloom in part of the world where they're such a beloved event.

First things first, after stopping at the usual stores in Shinae (Anipop and Artbox) we had to go get lunch at Rice Story. Rice Story is delicious and we have a tendency to get it to go when it's nice out and go eat by the river and have a sort-of picnic. Zach got the red curry and I got kimchi rice. Delicious!

I figured it would be fairly busy down by the river because of the sakura blooms, but what I wasn't anticipating was a huge crowd due to the 10th annual art festival in Cheongju. I'm glad we got to see it though, it was pretty neat. Lots of kids activities and some entertainment. Lots of artists too, of course.

This was pretty neat. There is apparently a local college that has some sort of silkworm program and they help educate people about silk and silkworms. There is apparently a silk museum somewhere in Korea too. I picked up a cool pamphlet with pictures, but I can't read it. At least it looks neat.

These fellows were very cool. The kids were getting a little rowdy and pestering them to get a reaction out of them, but they were very patient. Pretty impressive. You can't see it, but the man on the right has a sword.

It was a lovely day for being out. So many people though!

We walked by some live music by some young guys. They were pretty good.

We walked up toward the road and the line of cherry blossoms and saw lots of artists at work. These were particularly vibrant.

I also spotted someone with their mind on the sakura. Lovely art!

Because I insisted that we walk toward the Buddhist temple, we happened upon a festival going on there too. It was a good decision! We walked in initially and had people directing us toward the food stands (despite just eating lunch) since the whole thing was free. It was neat with live music, balloon sculpting, lotus lantern making, cotton candy, tea sampling, and various other things. 

I made a lotus out of a cup, paper, and rice paste/glue. It was fun and easy and now I have a fun little souvenir to take home. You can see more complete versions than the one in my hand further back.

I mentioned live music, here there were drummers! There were also ladies that came out to sing in hanboks too. They were all pretty amazing. 

These ladies were stunning. You can see a video I posted on Facebook using this link. Click to change the video to HD for better quality. :)

I like collecting fun and unique things and Korea has been fun for me in that aspect. I spent a good amount of time looking at the bracelets and things on a small table near the temple and the lady was very helpful. In the end I got two very beautiful bracelets and Zach got a strand of prayer beads. The lady was so helpful and slightly after we stepped away she took this picture of us. There is also a balloon dog in my hand that a man rescued and turned into a "poodle" for me. Everyone was so very sweet.

We finally decided to continue our trek and found tons of people taking pictures in front of the cherry trees. The picture above is very Korean to me and I thought it was kind of cute. We did the same and I speculated while all this was going on about why the do it the way that they do. By that I mean that most people had cell phones in hand and despite the ability to ask one of the many, many people walking around if they could take a picture of them or their group, they decided to take "selfies" or photos of themselves. 

As another note, as unpleasant as it was, there was a man throwing up down near the line of bushes while we were people watching. He was dressed nicely and someone (presumably a friend) was hitting him on the back while this was happening. Seems like someone spoiled their sakura viewing with too much soju! A guy even snuck up with his cell phone (what seemed like a stranger) and snapped a photo. It was... interesting.

This was definitely a worthwhile venture, enjoying the lovely weather and sakura in bloom!

Modicum of Mementos (or Manda has more pictures to share)

I love the cute stuffed produce and food in the picture above, I'm trying to figure out if I want to get one to bring home with us! I am a fan of the banana, but there's also toast, a burger, and donuts down in the very bottom row. They're just too cute. 

So welcome to another round of me posting various interesting pictures from our location here in South Korea. I like taking pictures and I especially like finding things of interest, so this should be fun for everyone! Of course, any questions are welcome, I will do my best to explain things though. 

I understand that the delicious items found in this bag are a regional specialty here in the Cheongju area. Unfortunately my searching has come up with nothing, so I'm not sure what you'd call them. I'll keep trying. 

This is the delicious contents of the above bag. Take a moment and think of waffles, delicious warm waffles that not only taste good but smell amazing too. That's what these yummy treats are, but the large walnut shaped ones have a sweet bean paste inside while the peanut shaped ones have peanuts. Both are delicious and can be found while walking around on the streets. Some of the stands that sell these also have waffles too which are delicious. 

We found a delicious little restaurant around here with very reasonable prices and I'm slowly looking at sampling the various items on the menu. The one above was from this week. It's bibimbap and it is quite amazing. Bibimbap has many variations and it sometimes served in a hot stone bowl. This was one of my first introductions to Korean food at home at a small restaurant near Indianapolis. In the stone bowl you're supposed to stir everything together and that helps ensure that the usually raw egg placed on top is cooked.

This is one of my favorite little girls-- trying on my glasses. She's seriously too cute. 

Homework has become a big thing here at our hagwon, a project taken up by our director. I'm sure you've noticed my many criticisms of our boss's English abilities and I see errors probably everyday. This was one of them and I'm just not really sure what's happening?

Periodically I take toys from small children and photograph them. Nah, not so much. I ended up with Carley's Pokemon toy, however, because she was not being very good and I took care of it until class was over. It was kind of cute and I figured I'd get a picture. 

Another unique thing I've seen while we've been here has been this inflatable baby-shaped body to display diapers. There was the Huggies brand one and another Korean brand. It makes sense, it was just a rather interesting thing to see. 

We went to a local mall that's also part of an apartment complex (huge, rich area of the city) and I thought it was interesting that there is a female parking lot for the customers. Makes sense considering that South Korea has very high sexual assault rates, sadly. :/

This is really cool and I wish I had gotten a better picture, but they're moving so quickly on this building that I didn't get the chance. Looking through the doorway on the floor you can see the tubes placed for the ondol heating for the apartment. They were placed very precisely and it's pretty neat to see how it works. The ondol heating pumps hot water through the pipes to heat the room/home from the floor.

This unique work of art was found on the Chungbuk University campus here in Cheongju. There's a handful of art displayed on the grounds which I may post later, but this was particularly cool. 

 

Finally, on our walk across the river from Shinae (downtown) I spotted this on one of the pillars. It's pretty neat. The text in the balloon reads: "where is human rights?" and if that isn't a cool message, I don't know what is. I've enlarged the image below for detail and easier to read text. 

I'll keep hunting around for more photographic evidence of life over here. Hopefully some video too!

Residence of Random Photos

Hello there, it's been a bit slow here with all the cold weather lately, but I have some new pictures to show off! Unfortunately I just haven't taken a whole lot of pictures since we've been keeping to the indoors. The above picture was from around Christmas time and you can tell that they certainly like their mecha and Power Rangers here!

This one is doubly interesting. Here you can get this cool little VIP window thing from McDonald's, which I understand has some small perks? I just think it's cute. Also, many cars have these little signs with the phone number of the owner on them, some saying "sorry" or other small phrases. I guess they're courteous (if a bit crazy) drivers and parkers?

This is a find at Daiso, which is a small dollar store/cheap item store. You need bowties, you go to Daiso.

This small paragraph was done by one of the older elementary kids, I love reading what kids write.

I mentioned that it was cold, right? It's certainly not uncommon to see frosty windows, but I look forward to the end of all this cold!

There's a small path that leads up to the fields that sit on the side of the hill back behind we live. Recently after it had snowed I saw the chair sitting up there (it's always there) and the tracks nearby, it looked so peaceful. 

That's it for now, I have several topics in mind and things to discuss soon! Hope all is well out there in internetland!

Home for Confused Photos

Not all pictures are lost, some are just confused or otherwise don't really know where to go. So in this case we'll call it a home for confused photos, but it's all the usual here. Looking above though, this was on a timer for our food when we went to eat at Lotteria one of the first times we got here. The picture and the text says it all. This is the Lady Burger we're talking about here. "Sorry, Boys! Only for Ladies!" Clearly it's a "MUST-EAT" Hahaha. We got a giggle out of that one.

Speaking of food, what is this even? This is a bacon cheese donut from Dunkin Donuts that's down the road from us. They have some delicious things, but this is not one of them. I do like the fact that pretty much every place you go (that is fast food or something like DD) tells you the basic nutritional value and the kcal count.

Speaking of food, and things that are not food, another perk of living here is that they love to give you free things. This cereal has free small cereal packs attached and you see this pretty frequently. HomePlus likes to give you free things by way of their 1+1 sales too. You see the free attached things everywhere though, whether it's feminine products, frozen foods, or other miscellaneous products.

We first saw this amazing car when we started traveling down near the hub of the bus station. I love the pumpkin and I wish I could be cool and have a pumpkin like this one. It's worth noting that the road that the car is on in the direction it is facing is the local market.

Speaking of transportation, advertising comes in many shapes and forms and this is just one ad for an English school that was on the side of a bus. I like how the school can make kids into English speaking superheroes.

It's not uncommon to see ads inside the local buses advertising for various drawing and animation schools. This is similar. They're ads that are posted downtown (Shinae) near this little craft/youth hub that is next to a Dunkin Donuts. Sometimes there is singing or dancing and quite a few people gather in the general area. These are the ads for the school you want if you're looking to specialize in anime girls apparently.

Speaking of Shinae, the other day we were downtown just roaming around as usual and we ran into this event happening. There was singing, dancing, cameras, you name it. It kind of seemed like a Cheongju's Got Talent sort of thing. Yes, those are backup singers.

We were advised to also check out this underground mall downtown because it has this cool fish tank and is generally kind of interesting. There are so many tiny businesses, a lot of which sell clothing or shoes. Speaking of clothing, the Engrish (or Konglish for here specifically) can make for some very interesting apparel and signs. They're sometimes very logical mistakes considering the fact that there are some sounds that Koreans don't distinguish between. Others are just grammatical mistakes.

Changing gears this time, this is the rice field that we walk by when we come and go from the school. It's all been gathered up and placed very nicely, it's so pretty. By now it's been taken elsewhere and the field is just empty, but it still looks neatly trimmed.

And last, but certainly not least, this time around is this adorable chocolate whale cake that I saw today at Tous les Jours which is a local bakery. They have the prettiest cakes for sale and this one just looks so cute and pleased. Maybe I'll get a cute cake for myself as a treat, hopefully it'll be as cute as this one!

That's all for now though, I'll post another round of pictures in the near future. You never know what you'll find here and I like to appreciate the little things and I hope you do too. ^.^

Home For Lost Photos

Siblings with matching outfits. There are also couples with matching clothing that's a popular thing.

So sometimes you take pictures and you just aren't sure where they should reside. They have some immediate value and you want to share them, but the hard part is figuring out where. Thus, I am making this into a small home for (current) pictures that deserve some sort of acknowledgement due to their sheer awesomeness. That or they're pretty neat, or vaguely interesting. You get the idea.

Everything over here is cute! This is paper clay for our art project.

So we get these interesting Dream Science kits which are of varying interest to our kids. Mostly due to their current fine motor skills or lack thereof.

So I have the big green yogurt bank, now I just need to get the adorable teeny ones to go with it. 

Playing my adapted Scrabble game in class with the older girls. They're surprisingly not being super lazy.

This stuff is delicious. Dried, seasoned seaweed is so good.

Not the best shot ever, but I caught a really pretty sunset.

Korean versions of familiar board games! Pretty cool.

Stella made these since she has a tendency to make many things rainbow, but I'm not sure what they are. At first I thought caterpillars, but I really have no idea.

I think I explained pepperoni penguin a couple posts prior to this one. But everyone should love pepperoni penguin, so here you go. Even if it is an anatomically deficient penguin.

Aren't we cute? Here we are sitting waiting for the 105 bus at the bus stop near our school!

The view of the exit doors for the bus.

We visited this rundown arcade in Cheongju near the bus terminal, it was cute.

The sign for the arcade, isn't it interesting? The Engrish makes it even more fun.

Chance of Victory with by Good Game

Some of these things are not like the others... 

Koreans and their clothing... it's so cute though.

My class of older girls? Yeah, they're kind of weird.

You see Gangnam Style references everywhere. Written with dry erase markers on boards in front of stores, on huge signs, everywhere.

I will play you when I get home, just you wait Viva Pinata.

This is the flower that was started before I got here. It's a cute little marigold.

This is adorable. Sarah is so cute and animated and she is, of course, talking to the daydreamer Evelyn.

Ellena has this thing for writing/talking about magic ddong powder and Lily which just sounds awkward and I really don't know what it means.

Aiden made robots because he is just that cool. He apparently drew these freehand too.

I have no idea what this is, but it's from the kitchen and I sometimes see it sitting out in the sun. I'm not sure I want to know and want to live in blissful ignorance. Also, what I think is Julia's hand.

These are crushed up seeds (that you crush yourself) that you get at Saboten. You pour this delicious dark sauce on it and mix it up and dip your food into it. It's so amazing.

Aiden made a bee without wings. We are kindred spirits as I have drawn wingless bees in my time too.

Speaking of bees, this is the packaging for baby wipes that are around the school.

Who knew Snoopy was a chef?

This is the tissue box for HomePlus tissues. Why is everything so cute here?

I wish I had gotten a picture of this earlier, but I'm not sure what these are. Previously there was an older woman sitting on the tarp whacking them with a stick. 

They cut down the rice field near us, but now it looks really neat.

At first I got these because the whale is adorably smug. Then I tried them and they were delicious. Also crunchy, which is good sensory input.

This snack was dumplings! They were so good.

I don't remember why I took this picture. I think they saw me taking a picture of my snack and wanted to pose. This is Daniel, Evelyn, and Stella.

Attack of the sticker monster, on my Kindle case!

Me with two of my favorite little girls, Sarah and Evelyn.

I wasn't aware that Tomas was into the confederacy, who knew?

In which sleepy Sarah fell asleep in my lap, which seems to be a trend.

I found this butterfly in the middle of the road in the middle of the night (on our walk back from the bar). Poor thing was so cold, but it's so gorgeous!

Dunkin Donuts has these fun Halloween donuts! I should have grabbed one of the chocolate ones, they look so good. I guess there's always tomorrow.

Pokemon snack! An odd chocolately snack, but the packaging is cute.

You get this little logo thing at the bottom and then a little hologram prize too. Fun stuff. :)