Seoul Lantern Festival

Howdy all! Sorry its been awhile.. I've been busy and never really got around to writing anything. I have a lot of stuff for this post though! Although most of it is gonna be pictures.. but who can complain right?

I forgot to mention this last post but November 11th is Pepero day. Pepero is just like chocolate covered sticks, and the company made this huge holiday on 11/11 just to market their product.. and because its South Korea, it worked!! Every shop had massive amounts of pepero outside. I had to buy pepero for all of my Korean teachers, but because my day off was Pepero day, I didn't get any :(

I had another window washing experience.. again at 8 am. But at least this time they actually washed my windows. It was freezing outside! I don't know how he survived, but there was a large crowd gathered in the street to watch the man hang on the side of a 30 story building washing windows. 

So Joon had this idea that he was going to take a sewing class... and since I've always wanted to be able to make my own clothes, I joined him! So every Tuesday, Joon, Brittish Emily and I go to sewing class from 10 to 1. They ajuma instructor is so cool! She said we are the first foreigners to taker her class, as well as the first males (which explains why everything we do and all the fabric is for old Korean girls). But anyway its really fun and interesting. She doesn't speak any English, so Joon has to translate for us.. but most of it is hands on work. Her son was also a student at DYB (my school) for 3 years! Here are some shots.. 

This is the stuff we make the first month. A binder cover (you can't see it), the tote bag on the right, the brown and blue little string sack, and the blue wallet behind it. 

This is the second month

and the final month! I can't wait to make the hoodie.

Rumor has it that Hayley Nordstrom has been learning how to knit.. so Hayley.. pick one of the things you see on the shelf and I'll trade you it for an earflap hat!

This is our sewing ajuma! Her studio is called Simple Sewing.

The finished product!

I also took some more pictures of my walk home..

People are always chillin on the benches under the bridges.. and they aren't even homeless! How bout that.

A random water wheel.

There were old Korean ajeossi's behind me playing some sort of board game, gambling, and drinking soju in the middle of the sidewalk behind me. I really wanted their picture but I didn't want to cause trouble.

I went to the Seoul Lantern Festival on my day off. It was packed! But it was worth it. It took place on a stream going through the center of Seoul. The stream was once concreted over by roads I guess, but the current president (or one of the presidents) decided to take out all the roads and reopen the stream! It was cool. It's kind of like the stream by my house ^^^.

While I was walking to the festival, I noticed this building. The lights make tree branches on the buildings! And theres a semi Christmas tree, but it's blue and has a star of David on top.. I don't even think they know what Judaism is.. at least on of my students didn't. He was wearing a Hannukah shirt but had no idea what it was. 

Every lantern had a story about it underneath it, but because there was a lot of people I didn't have time to thoroughly go through all the details. 

These pictures were all taken from the road while I was waiting to go down.

This is a picture of tradition Korean music

I guess this little guy is the mascot of Seoul, but I forget his name.

This is a horse drawn buggy with lights all over it, although I'm not sure if you can tell.

I finally got down to the stream!

A whole new worldddd....

One cool thing was that a stretch of the stream was left for other artists and countries who want to contribute a lantern to do so! So he is the work of other artists and other countries.

I was taking a picture of this float and these two girls posed for a picture for their mom.. I couldn't resist they were too adorable.

The leaning Tower of Pisa!

Lady Liberty

This stretch of stream had trees in the water with different themed lanterns hanging from them. This one was obviously Halloween.

The next two were from Japan and were AMAZING! Such attention to detail. 

Rajah

This is a road that goes over top of the stream, but is covered in blue lights. So many girls were taking pictures of themselves in this tunnel.

So this was the newest "Get rich quick" scheme.. Ben fond a Kebab truck for sale on Craig's List for $3,000. We were so excited about it so me and Peter went to Itaewon to check it out. The guy was really nice and spoke good English. I dunno what happened though, one week everyone was so excited for it and the next week no one said a word about it. 

On Tuesday we had a mini Hweshik, a sort of work gathering where the Grade 3 team leader took everyone out for food and drinks. The desk team leader even came out! That's her on the left. She didn't speak any English but she sure was fun to drink with. 

The 3rd Grade Team Leader is the girl in the white between Alan and Peter. We all had a good time. 

This was my second week of sewing class! I made a tote bag. 

Although the judges at Project DYB Runway said my handles are not reinforced. This Tuesday we have a massive parent meeting, so I'm going to have to miss sewing. I'm not to happy about that.

On Wednesday, Hailey from Parthenon (the elementary school) hosted a Thanksgiving dinner. All of the people there were from Parthenon. It is supposedly impossible to get a turkey from the army base during Thanksgiving.. but Hailey pulled some strings and got us hooked up! It was delicious.