The Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival

For just about a week every year, the newly warm temperatures at the beginning of spring turn trees across Korea light pink as the cherry blossoms come into bloom. After months of cold weather, life is restored to the landscape and the brown and grey colors that dominated winter are replaced by the colorful palette of spring.  I think just about everyone in Korea would choose this time of year as a favorite--it certainly is for me.

After seeing the cherry blossoms last year, it was one of the things I couldn't wait to experience for a second time.  The river right behind my apartment building is lined with tons of cherry blossoms, which means I don't have to look far to get a glimpse of them when they're in bloom.  Unfortunately, this river has been under construction nearly the entire time I've been in Korea.  While the trees are still beautiful, the river is still an eyesore.  Luckily, the cherry blossoms are scattered not only through Jeomchon, but also throughout the entire country. Heading into this year, I knew that when this season came around I wanted to head to Jinhae, the cherry blossom capital of Korea.

The view from my building

Jinhae is famous for having the largest number of cherry blossoms in Korea (and allegedly the world).  In true Korean fashion, there is a festival to celebrate the arrival of the blossoms each spring, and up to two million people visit Jinhae each year to get a glimpse of this spring treasure.  This year a few of my friends from town also wanted to make the trip to Jinhae, and it worked out pretty well that one of our friends even has a car, which meant that we didn't have to take multiple long bus rides to get to the southern part of the country. Instead, we woke up early on Saturday morning and took a road trip directly there.

We arrived in Jinhae around 10 AM, and we didn't even have to make it into the center of the city before we started seeing huge cherry blossoms.  The cherry blossoms lined all of the roads, and unlike many of the trees in Jeomchon, they were HUGE.  Once we parked the car, we made out way more towards the center of the festival.

The streets of Jinhae

We made it to Jinhae!

Our first stop was Jaehwangsan Park, which is located on the top of a huge hill.  You have to climb a lot of stairs to get to the top, but naturally the whole way was lined with cherry blossoms, which made it more beautiful.  At the top there was a beautiful view of Jinhae, with mountains and a view of the coast.

Climbing to the top

Colorful umbrellas decorated the entire way to the top

You can see the pink patches of cherry blossoms

Our next stop was Yoejwa Steam, which is perhaps the most famous spot to view the blossoms.  The steam has a board walk, and even though it was filled with people, the sight was absolutely breathtaking.  I saw a lot of beautiful pictures of this area before I came to Jinhae, but I never expected it to actually be as beautiful as the pictures I saw online. Much to my surprise, it looked EXACTLY like the pictures, and was in fact even more beautiful in person. 

Couple outfits. We saw quite a few matching couple outfits during this festival.

By this point in the afternoon the sunny skys had become cloudy, and it started to rain a bit. However, when we got back to the car, the rain had stopped so we decided to head over to the famous Gyeonghwa train station.  I was really glad we made it over there because the cherry blossoms there were huge and had low branches, which made walking under them really cool (and a great place to take pictures, too!)

A traditional performance

So many people!

So amazingly beautiful

The train! I was not in a good place to take pictures, unfortunately. 

We hung around the train tracks for a while and enjoyed the festival foods for a bit before the rain came back again.  By that point we felt satisfied with what we saw and decided to head back to the car to make our way home. We made a stop in Daegu on the way back for dinner, then finally made out way back home.

This festival was one of my favorites I've been to in Korea. Everyone warned me that it was going to be SO crowded that I was afraid I wouldn't really enjoy it. It was in fact crowded, but I didn't find that it made it unenjoyable at all. Maybe I'm just immune to crowds after a year and a half in Korea (and my trip to China), but it didn't really seem much worse than any other festival I've been to. 

Although I obviously took tons of pictures of the cherry blossoms, no amount of pictures can really capture what it's like to walk under these beautiful trees--the details of the hundreds of beautiful flowers right over your head just cannot be captured in pictures. Walking around Jinhae almost didn't feel real--the majority of the time it was like walking under a canopy of flowers.  I'm so thankful that I've been able to experience this magically beautiful week in Korea not once, but twice. It's such a unique and awesome start to spring, and something I will definitely miss next year when I'm back in America!

The Andong Mask Festival, Round 2

After attening the Andong Maskdance Festival last year, I knew that I wanted to go again this year.  Andong is only a little over an hour away from Jeomchon, but the buses stop pretty early in the evening.  Since we wanted to see a bit more of the festival this year, we decided to head to the festival Saturday morning and spend the night in Andong.

After arriving in Andong Saturday morning, we found a decently priced motel and then got some delicious jjimdalk for lunch. Jjimdalk is the famous food in Andong and a must-have when you're in town--it's one of my favorite dishes in Korea. Following lunch we were stuffed, energized and ready to explore the festival a bit. 

The Mask Festival is one the most famous festivals in Korea, and is therefore quite the HUGE event.  There's tons of food to eat and you can buy just about anything because there are never ending rows of vendors.  And of course, our favorite part of the festival is the arts and crafts! Since it is a mask festival it's completely necessary to not only watch the mask dances, but to also make your own mask.  To fulfill this duty we started with the masks that use the hanji (Korean paper).  I would say overall we did a pretty good job putting our skills to work.

After we finished our masks we caught the bus to Andong's Hahoe Folk Village. This folk village is a traditional village from the Joseon Dynasty and gives a glimpse of what is what like to live in Korea before the neon lights and plastic surgery took over.  I've actually been wanting to go to Hahoe, but since it's one of those things that is so close to Jeomchon, I just never took the time to go see it during my first year because I knew it wasn't really time sensitive and I could easily go at any time.  With that said, I'm very glad that I finally went because it was absolutely beautiful.  The rice fields surrounding the village are now turning bright yellow, which is quite the stunning sight (as an aside for those who aren't familiar, the rice is green during the spring and summer and turns yellow in the fall before the harvest).  The village as a whole was really peaceful and a cool place to walk around.  

As it became darker we made our way down the the river to get comfortable before Seonyujulbulnori, the fire show, which turned out to be my favorite part of the entire night.  There were long lines of pine needles hanging across the river and as they were lit on fire small little pieces slowly dropped, creating a twinkling effect that is difficult to describe, but almost looked like there were tons of fireflies falling to the ground.  I tried to video it since it's hard to describe how it works, but it didn't show on film. While this was going on there were also flying lanterns being released into the sky and some sort of poetry/play type thing being performed on a boat that was floating along the river. Then, one of the most interesting parts of the show was when burning logs were thrown off of the cliff that overlooks the river. The crowd would count down and huge logs were thrown off the edge of the cliff to tumble down to the ground. This actually looked really cool, but again is a bit hard to describe the effect.  Finally, the night ended with an awesome fireworks show.  All around, it was quite the combination of fire-related events and made for a beautiful and relaxing evening. 

After the night's festivities were over, we went back to the main site of the festival for some food then went back to our motel to get some rest after a long day.

Sunday morning we slept in a bit, grabbed some breakfast and headed back to the festival.  This time we wanted to make the other kind of masks (we are just all about the arts and crafts!)  The masks took a while to finish and afterwards we took a taxi to the bus station to get back to Jeomchon.

Being at the Mask festival really made me realize how different it is being in Korea for a second year.  Last year when I went to the Mask festival everything was new, exciting, and sometimes really perplexing and strange.  My first year in Korea was full of new sights, smells, tastes, and sounds. As I walked around the festival this year I realized how ordinary it all seems to me now.  I know what the food is and I know how the games are played.  When I ask how much something costs, I don't have to sit there and process the long list of numbers--I just know now (well, usually).

My first year in Korea was exciting and overloaded with amazingly fun memories.  So far this year has been much more calm, but I appreciate the way it's giving me a chance to look at Korea in a different way.  I find myself feeling much more desperate to communicate with others this time around, and this is fueling my motivation to study in a way I had a difficult way doing last year.  Now that the first year excitement has worn off, I find myself having an experience that is in many ways completely different, but teaching me new things nonetheless.

The Darangee Village Farming Festival

This past weekend marked the fourth weekend in a row that I was away traveling.  I'm pretty sure that that's a record for me here in Korea (or anywhere, really!)  I typically like to take a weekend off in between trips, but with Megan and Nate here there was far too much to do in so little time, and about a month ago my friend Jen also asked if I wanted to go on an Adventure Korea trip to the Darangee Village farming festival.  It looked too cool to pass up, so even though I knew that I would be coming off of the exhaustion from Megan and Nate's time here, I agreed and we signed up for the trip.

Originally we were supposed to be picked up for the festival in Daegu, but about a week before the trip we were notified that there weren't enough people for them to do the Daegu pickup, so we had to get picked up in Seoul instead.  Now, Darangee Village is part of the island of Namhae, which is in the very southern part of Korea.  So basically, we went two hours north to go to Seoul....just to go back down to the southern part of the country.  It seems pointless, but actually going directly there with Adventure Korea is way easier than planning everything by ourselves. Consequently, Friday night after school we rushed to the bus terminal to head to Seoul, where we spent the night in Hongdae.  I then realized that I've spent three of my last four weekends in Hongdae...I think I should start getting a frequent customer card at the hostel! Needless to say, I'm getting to know that area very well.

Saturday morning we had a very early morning because we had to meet up with the Adventure Korea bus at 6:50.  After picking up other parts of our group along the way, we finally arrived at Darangee Village around 1:00.  Although it was a really long bus ride, it didn't feel too bad because I spent the majority of the time sleeping.  Can't complain!

Once we arrived, we got shown to our rooms--we were told that is was a home stay, but really it was like we were staying at someone's guest house that is clearly frequently rented out.  Not exactly what I imagined, but we had a beautiful view of the ocean from right outside our room. Doesn't get much better than that!

The view from the room. 

After we changed, we headed to Pebble Beach, a very rocky, but beautiful beach.  We were only there for about two seconds before they were getting us ready to go rafting.  The view was beautiful, but man did my arms get tired quickly! At least I can feel like I did SOME exercise this weekend.

And everyone asked me "Why are you going to KOREA?!"  Well...did you have a view like this this weekend? Korea's beauty is breathtaking and seriously underrated by the rest of the world.

After we finished rafting, it was on to fishing.  This wasn't the kind of fishing you're thinking about with the worm and fishing line, but instead we used sea cucumbers and our hands.  We had to stick the sea cucumber under a rock and as the water came up the fish could bite onto the cucumber.  From there, we had to put them in our little cup.  It was way more challenging than it sounds, but I ended up catching three of those little guys.

Jen was really into the fishing. 

After we finished at the beach, we headed to the farming festival where there were some people there plowing the traditional way, with a cow.  There were also people there playing traditional music, which we were told was meant to encourage the people planting the rice to work hard for a fruitful season.

Getting a ride up to the festival

Look at all that mud!

You don't see this every day!

Before we knew it, it was our turn to get into the mud with the cow and do the plowing ourselves.  The mud was WAY stickier and deeper than I expected, which made walking quite the challenge.  The other people working in the field also enjoyed throwing mud at us, which meant we were rather filthy by the end of our turn.

After we finished our plowing experience, we were served some "snacks", which was essentially a lunch of noodles, pajeon, kimchi, makgeolli, and other traditional Korean foods.

After that, we participated in a race where we had to wear some sort of traditional contraption to carry garlic.  It was way heavier than it looked, and in the end Jen just about had a tie in our race, and both won huge bags of garlic, the main product of the Darangee Village.

Lifetime supply of garlic. Woohoo!

After we finished the race, it was time to plant some rice.  Although we were already dirty, this is where things got REALLY messy.  We had already taken off our long boots that we were the first time around because we didn't know that planting rice would also be so messy.  So, this time we got into the mud with our bare feet.  Yes, we put our bare feet into the same mud that the cow had been peeing and pooping into. YUMMMMMM.

Planting the rice!

We planted the rice as the musicians played the traditional Korean music.  This then turned into a huge dance party/mud throwing/water splashing fight.  Needless to say we were filthy by the end, and I think I am all set missing the Mud festival that will take place in July because I don't think it could be any muddier than this was.

After we finished in the mud, it was back to our room, where we showered and got cleaned up before dinner. While we were told we would have dinner at our home stays, the owner of our home stay owns a restaurant, so we went there for dinner instead.

After eating some traditional Korean food, it was time for the night performances.  They had an array of performances that night, most of which I really couldn't understand because well, they were all in Korean.  The mask performances always seem strange to me, especially when I can't understand what's happening.  However, at the end we could tell that one of the characters died and there was consequently a funeral taking place.  The next thing we knew, the funeral turned into an even that required audience participation.  The people started collecting the chairs and we were directed to hold hands and start walking in a circle.  Things became very upbeat as we continued to hold hands and weave around and around in a circle.  People were dancing and things were just plain crazy.  We had NO idea what was going on, but we just followed along and did whatever they directed us to do, which was mostly just dancing around with our hands in the air.  This was definitely one of the most unique experiences I've ever had in Korea, and something I definitely will never forget!

So much dancing!

After we left the party, we were walking back to our room as we noticed that they had lights all along the rows of rice.  It was incredibly beautiful, and was only made more beautiful by the HUGE moon that overlooked it all, complete with its reflection in the ocean.  Does it get any better than that?

The moon! This picture doesn't even begin to do it justice. 

The next morning we had breakfast provided for us again by our host, and then some people went kayaking and hiking, but Jen and I decided we just wanted to stay and explore the village a bit more.  Although I love hiking, the previous day was so busy and it was nice just to explore at our own pace.  This part of Namhae is just beautiful, and it's always interesting exploring those really small towns where you feel like you can get a glimpse of Korea's past. It's such a huge contrast to the bright neon lights and blasting music of Hongdae that we experienced on Friday, and it's still fascinating to me that places like Darangee Village and Hongdae coexist in the same small country.

What do you eat for breakfast in Korea? Kimchi, rice, soup, fish, eggs, and potatoes.

These flowers were so beautiful!

We are shadowy, but the background is beautiful!

The roofs had flowers painted on them.  Love it!

So green. So beautiful. 

We had a relaxing morning walking around, and later just laying out by our room, where we had a beautiful ocean view.  When the others returned from kayaking and hiking, it was time for lunch, then we got back on the bus and headed back to Seoul.

We got back to Seoul around 7:30, only to have to catch another bus going back south at 8:30.  By 10:30 we were finally HOME!

This was quite the jam-packed weekend, but one I will definitely never forget.  If you would have told me even two years ago that by my 25th birthday I would be living in Korea, planing rice in a traditional village while dancing around in mud, I never would have believed it.  This weekend served as a reminder that sometimes God can plan much bigger things for us than we can our plan for ourselves.  This has been the most amazing year that I never could have imagined in my wildest dreams, and I'll never stop being grateful for all of these unique experiences.