The Lotus Lantern Festival (and Ryan's birthday)

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So, whew!  Last entry!  Anyways, after Jeju, we got our flight, went back to Busan, got a bus for Masan and transferred to Suncheon.  We came back to my house, where we proceded to take a nap before dinner.  After dinner, we met up with my friend Kim and went to Elvis, the foreigner bar here.

Elvis was fun, on a whole.  There were many people there that night, and we were finally able to dance, which we hadn't had a chance to do yet, but wanted to.  The strangest thing that happened at Elvis, was that Ryan ran into a friend of his from University, who happened to be teaching in Mokpo, and who was visiting Suncheon for one night for his friend's goodbye party.  This night just happened to be the night that Ryan was there also.  How strange!  So that was cool.  Ryan and Kim seemed to hit it off, which I was relieved about.  I was a little worried about how they would interact, but they're both fun and outgoing people, so that seemed to work.  The only bad thing that happened really was that there was one annoying boy who smashed some bottles on the bar, right next to Ryan, which naturally pissed Rye off.  But anyways it was still fun, and I was glad Rye got to see a little bit of my town.  Oh, I also showed him my school and introduced him to my coteachers and some of my students.

What could possibly be better than having loved ones fly around the world to see you

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We went to Nore bong with Kim afterwards, where I ended up falling asleep on the couch.  It was another 6:00am bedtime for Rye and I!  We were supposed to head of for Seoul around 11:00, but that, really really didn't happen.  After much travel difficulties and issues, we finally got to James' place around 9:00, where we found James asleep on his couch.  Even though it was a Saturday, we ended up laying low, and taking a night off.  This was probably a prudent plan since we had been going full throttle for the entire week.  Ryan never really took a chance to rest, even though he went through a major time change.

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Sunday was Ryan's birthday, which coincided with the lotus lantern festival.  After a failed attempt to meet up with Charlene, a Singaporean friend of ours from University, we headed to the festival area.  We saw Korean dancing and drumming, and cultural show.  Then, Angele and I made our own lotus lanterns (little ones) which we bunged up quite a lot (me especially).  From there, we were invited to make bracelets with a Buddist nun, and then Angele, James and Ryan prayed with her while I took photos.

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After that, some people in our group went and tapped a scroll, which was really cool to see being done.  I myself didn't make a scroll, because I figured it would get crushed in the trip home.  After that, we had traditional lotus tea, with the full lotus flower as the tea leaves.  How cool!  IT was very delicious tea as well.  Oh, embarrasing side note, I wore the most hole-ridden socks of all time, and we continually had to take off our shoes for the activities!  Ooops!!!  The most amazing thing to me about the whole thing was that everything that we did was free!  I expected to spend a lot of money that day, but we were able to do so many awesome cultural things with very little cost.

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After poor Angele had a bird poo on her head, we decided that it was time to get a drink.  We (being me, Ryan, James, Angele and their friend Shauna) went for pitchers and a snack, and actually ended up getting quite an affordable set up.  Afterwards, it was pretty much time for the parade.

The parade was an increadible spectacle with stunning lanterns you will see in photos that accompany this entry.  I will also do a yahoo site with all the parade photos eventually, but not today.  Today I don't have the energy. No sir.  I have been here long enough and it's past time for dinner.  If anyone is wondering I've been here 3.5 hours.  Jaysus...  SO anyways, the parade.  The parade was amazing.  There were fire breathing dragons, and monks and nuns, and children, and beautiful massive warrior lanterns.  This is all a celebration for Budda's birthday, but I told Ryan that it was really a celebration for his.  I'm sure it will be a birthday he will never forget.

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Monday morning I was off to Suncheon at an ungodly hour, and it was back to teaching for me!  Ouch!  Fortunately, I only had to teach for four days, and Thursday was a short day.  Thursday midnight I headed back to Seoul, got into James' very early in the morning, and crashed.  Ryan and I spent Friday together and went out to Itaewon, which was a lot of fun.  We briefly went dancing, but didn't like the scene.  We then went to a great bar where Ryan had been a few times before, and had so much fun.  We met a wonderful table of people next to us, and stayed there drinking and dancing until about 4:30 in the morning.  Then I needed to sleep.

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We ended up going to the Korea sauna at Hamilton Hotel, which I was nervous about ,but really too tired to care.  What was interesting is that, this place is very nice and clean, and it is wonderful for bathing.  Sauna is a big part of Korean culture.  By Sauna, they mean baths.  But at the sauna, you can sleep.  You can bathe, and then you go sleep in a communal room.  You can either sleep in gender specific rooms or a coed room.  You get a mat, and a block, and you go to sleep in the middle of a room with many people all around you sleeping as well.  IT was actually a really cool experience, which felt very primitive and communal.  I liked it.

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The next morning it was back to James' to nap and pack, and then off to the airport for Ryan's goodbye.  That was hard.  Let me tell you.  That was really, really hard.  I cried.  But you know, we really made the absolute most of the time we had, and we had a great experience and adventure together.  We saw 4 Korean provinces in a really short time period, and then Ryan was able to stay in Seoul and really experience that as well.  I was very happy with the way that everything turned out, and I think that he was as well.  Most of all, it was just amazing to have my best friend here. What could possibly be better than having loved ones fly around the world to see you?  Stay tuned for my parent's visit.  It's coming up!

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Today I slept for a long long long time.  I'll bet though, that he'll sleep for longer.

Hope you've enjoyed my chronicals of our adventure.  Oh, btw, I'm too lazy to put comments on the pictures of the last two entries.  Sorry about that.  I might come back and do it later.

Love you all!

Ash