Canola Flowers and Museums

This weekend was pretty busy. I did a lot of things with a lot of people. Starting off was the SAPA meeting on Thursday night. I got talked at in Korean about photography, most of which I couldn't understand, but I got the  gist of things. The presentation was about perspectives in photography such as low angle, high angle, and dutch tilt, nothing I didn't already know.
What followed was the usual dinner, 일차 (ilcha),  then 이차 (icha) and 삼차 (samcha). These expressions designate the first round, second round, and third round of restaurants/bars. At major celebrations, this can continue all the way to 육차 (yukcha), round six. Of course every stop includes alcohol and food.

Stewed pig skin tastes like rubber. Not my favorite.

Friday included The Avengers and a traditional Korean drum performance. I went to the movies super early in the morning; the matinee price was only 5,000 won! The theater was in the giant shopping mall adjacent to the subway station. we didn't even have to leave the building to get there. To purchase tickets, you went to a row of screens, selected your language, movie, playing time, and snack, and paid for it right there. No human interaction required. The ticket was a receipt, which confused me for a bit, and the admittance procedure was the same as at any theater in the States. The movie was in English with Korean subtitles, and was amazing! If you haven't seen it yet, you should.

That evening i went to the drum performance. It was held in a small ampitheater which was to be expected. Large boxes full of makkeoli bottles and cups were available to anyone who felt like drinking. They also had warm blocks of rice cake, which were absolutely delicious, and a variety of salty snacks. Needless to say I didn't have to buy dinner that night. 

Before the performances started they held an opening ceremony which was rather strange to behold. One of the drummers read something from a piece of paper and lit it on fire. Then singly and in groups, people were called down to the floor. There was a table erected with a plastic golden, pig two candles, and some rice cakes placed on it. The people called to the front would sometimes put an envelope on the table, get on their knees, touch their heads to the ground, stand up, and drink a cup of makkeoli in one go. All the while a group of five drummers were playing a beat. Once or twice, instead of drinking, the makkeoli was sprayed at the drummers.

The golden pig and altar?

So much makkeoli...

Yay fire

The entire drum team bowing. They did this three times

 Then came the performances...
The foreigners in the Korean class played a song as well. I didn't get any pictures though, since I was filming it for one of my friends, but they sounded pretty good.

A drummer with funny glasses. He was the target of most of the makkeoli spraying.

Bass and gong

In formation

Here they come

Doing their thing

Saturday was another outing with SAPA. We rode rented bikes along the river and went to the Canola Blossom Festival on Seorae Island. I had a good time except for the ridiculous slowness of the rest of the group. I'm used to riding with my dad and brothers, and wanted to feel the wind in my hair. Everyone else seemed to be creeping along. So naturally I raced ahead a few times to get the crazies out of my system. :)

All the people in orange were participating in an 8k walking festival

Samantha on her bike

Look at them go

Fountain with the walkers in the background

Wheee I'm not wearing any pants

There are the slowpokes and a patch of clover, smelling delicious

The bridge to Seorae Island and the flowers

Pretty pinwheels set up on either side of the path

The first bee I've seen here

Koreans in the flowers

At one point these lovely fellows started playing When the Saints go Marching On

Boy adding rocks to a pile of them

The creepiest living art I've ever seen

I dislike waiting...

Dinner with egg poured into the outside of the grill.
It was cooked by the time the meat was eaten.

On Sunday I went to church and then did some wandering at the Gwanghwamun Station exit in Seoul. I wandered right into a bookstore. I didn't take any pictures, but it was gloriously large, though not as inviting as B&N. They had a HUGE international section. I browsed for quite some time before picking out Eat, Pray, Love. In German. I can't wait to read it, but I have to finish the second Song of Ice and Fire book first.
I walked to the entrance of a palace, but didn't go in since I've already seen a few of those. They were having a change of guard that I just missed, but I took a few pictures of the immobile guards. Their jobs must suck, having to stand there all day, stony-faced, with random people coming up to them, hugging them, and taking pictures with them.

The entrance

A lion dog thing

What are you doing there Mr. Guard?
Standing, just standing

The large courtyard

A random drum

With a mountain in the background

Some school children learning under a ginko tree

In the shade of the ginko

It was the biggest ginko tree I'd ever seen.
I wanted to climb it, but there were too many people around.

From outside

I then went on to the King Sejong museum. He was the fourth king of the Joseon dynasty and was responsible for a great many advancements. He created the Hangul alphabet based on the shape of one's mouth while saying the letters, strengthened the military, and supported the sciences, leading to many new inventions.

The entrance had a mirrored ceiling

I got to write my name in Hangeul

Turtle ship!

Inside the turtle ship

Manning the oars

Can you see the vicious spikes on the outside

Broken turtle ship

Fixed it!

They had neat interactive games where you could row the ship, raise the sails,
and shoot your enemies

I also went to an underwhelming art exhibit

 I found myself back in familiar territory, near the beginning of the Cheongyecheon, so I looked around for a bit and then headed back to Suwon to do some homework.

A swirly thing at the beginning of the Cheongyecheon

Carriages