apparently October is festival month!

First there was the Jinju Lantern Festival , then last weekend was the Andong Mask Festival and this weekend I went to the Asia Song Festival . October really is over run with Korean festivals! I've already posted about Jinju so I will start with the Andong Mask Festival. Andong is relatively close to Daegu so we just went for a day trip. When we got off the bus, our taxi took us all the way to Hahoe Folk Village which is a secondary site of the mask festival. At first we were a little annoyed because this wasn't the main site of the festival, but we soon realised that the village was a beautiful place so wandered around to make the most of it. We chanced upon a procession of the mask performers which was pretty cool because we got to see them up close and have our pictures taken with them. They were funny because they stayed in character the whole time, some of the characters were very unusual as we learnt when we watched the performance later on. The show took place in a traditional building with seating around a central performance area. We were given an English guide which made the experience much more worthwhile. The show consisted of several stand alone scenes which were loosely related. One was a butcher who fought with a bull and ended up removing its heart and testicles! There was a widow lamenting her misfortunes and going around the audience begging for money. And then the most 'unique', a young woman who gets caught short so relieves herself in the middle of the stage but is caught by a monk who then sniffs the urine. He defends himself by saying...'I may be a monk but I'm still a man'!!!  

We then went to the main festival area which wasn't actually as good. Fate! But we did make our own masks which was fun!

This weekend, I've continued my 'no (or little) party resolution'! On Saturday morning, I went out with Nikki and Megan (friends from my parent's class last semester). We had an amazing meal at a place I will definitely need to go to again and then drove out to a lovely coffee shop in the countryside owned by a Daegu designer. Take a look at how pretty this food is!

I then headed straight to the Asia Song Festival which was in Daegu this year (2011 has really been a great year to be in Daegu). Saw loads of kpop stars as well as some jpop and other Asian music starts. The Beast    fan club spelt out Beast with glow sticks which looked awesome! That's some dedication.

And finally, Sunday bike ride to the Moon Clan residence with Jefa and Phil...

the cycle diaries: daegu arboretum

I cycled to the Arboretum in Daegok on Saturday afternoon because the weather was so beautiful and I suspected the Arboretum would be the best place to go. It far surpassed my expectations. The colours were perfect autumn tones and it felt very much like being in the English countryside, which I greatly miss. The place was heaving but it's spacious enough to find a quiet corner somewhere. Over the next few weeks, I will hopefully visit more often in an attempt to save money and spend more time outdoors.

iPhone snaps #2

foundation day weekend

The last holiday of the semester has just passed by very quickly and now it's almost time for the long, hard slog towards winter vacation with no more vacation days. Today was Korea's Foundation Day so we've had a long weekend away from school. In addition to this, Friday was mid-term exams so we had no lessons and the usually severe vice-principal let Casey and I leave school at 2:30. Very happy times! This weekend has been crammed full of activities. On Friday, I went to watch Aida at Keimyung University as part of Daegu's 2011 Opera Festival with some of my co-teachers. I have watched a few operas on television but I had never actually been to watch an one before so this was a completely new experience. The stage design and costumes were very lavish, and always the best part of theatre for me, but I really enjoyed the story of Aida.

On Saturday, I made my way to Jinju to visit their Lantern Festival. This involved events at Jinju's fortress which was very pretty and where we spent some time just sitting and enjoying the beautiful autumn weather. So nice to have sunshine but no humidity! As it got to evening, we joined the hoards of people to watch some fireworks and the lantern lights get turned on (for any Brits reading, it felt like a slightly classier, Korean version of Blackpool!). The lanterns on the river depicted scenes from stories such as 'Beauty and the Beast', traditional korean stories and even Santa Claus. I was much more enamoured with the tunnels of lanterns: some handmade by students and others bought by the public to ask for good luck and the such. There was a never ending market too with loads of yummy snacks and random things to buy! I bought some chrysanthemum tea because it looked very pretty, and I'm into tea ever since I went to a tea cafe in Seoul! Then did the usual find a foreign bar which feels exactly like Daegu, followed by Noraebang and concluded with Jimjilbang sleep.

Sunday involved much sleep to catch up and then today I went to my co-teacher, June's wedding. The wedding took place in a very nice hotel called the Inter-Burgo. The first part was the viewing of the bride which involved getting your picture taken with the bride. June looked beautiful but my picture with her is a bit strange because I just kind of leaned over the chair, oops! The ceremony was really busy and people talked throughout it! The sweetest part was when some Wolseo student's sang a song to the couple and presented June with flowers. There was then a massive buffet with more food than I think I've ever seen. After the wedding, I spent the day downtown shopping with Rebecca. Unfortunately, Daegu has a brand new fancy department store which is just too much temptation. To counter balance this extravagance we went to the best second hand/ vintage store in Daegu 'Fly to You' and found lots of amazing buys.