Hi! Seoul Part Deux

Well, Hello There, Seoul! We did it again...another weekend full of festival-ness in the city. I knew this saturday wouldn't let us down when we saw this gold lame (that's pronounced Luhmay) pig outside the Yongsan electronics market. It is, afterall, the year of the golden pig in asia which has sparked an increase in pregnancies so that parents can cash in on the supposed inherent luckiness of children born during this year. I had just seen Blades of Glory and kept imagining the part where Will Ferrell barfs into his Grublets costume head. It was gruesome imagery, but funny. Now to the business at hand. Our guidebook encouraged us to take a walk across the Han River on specially made walking bridges that were submerged slightly under water. This seemed about as extreme sport as anything else Hi Seoul offered since river pollution increased the chance of coming out on the other side with a mutated super power and hair growing on your feet at an accelerated rate. This in addition the promise of a farmer's produce market on the other side made it a natural choice for our Saturday excursion. So off we headed to the Han with great anticipation... only to discover that the line to walk across the submerged bridge was monsterous due to the fact that they were making walkers sport not only a life jacket but also a HELMET. People were lined up to walk across a polluted river in 30 cm of water in a costume usually reserved for level 5 rapids and epileptics. Yeah. Lucky for us there was another less cumbersome bridge a little further down ye olde river and it was delightfully adorned with flags and tar paper.

And what do you think we found on the other side? The advertised, "Operation of Agricultural Products Market"? Well, sure. Hi Seoul doesn't lie....it just sort of exaggerates. What we found was less farmer's market more dirt parking lot with three tents full of dried squid and black beans. In an effort to simplify my blog for future writing, Lumina and I have created a name for this uniquely Korean maneuver: The Korean Twist...oh, it's there like we promised, it's just a little...well...different...sorry we forgot to tell you.... I hope it doesn't change EVERY PLAN YOU'VE EVER MADE... The "farmers market"

Me trying my hand at tak-making (gooey rice cakes)

Wacky fun for all ages at the Hi! Seoul Festival... This was the most occupied "traditional art" tent at the festival. These kids seemed oddly content to snuggle up with mom in a hay filled tent on a sweltering day in the dirt parking lot just tying the hay together into boring garlic holders. I guess that makes sense when your other options are straining tofu through a cheesecloth and dancing on the dirt parking lot.

Later that evening after a delightful session of Stake Conference, we went to the "International DJ Festival and Concert" A quick quote from the guidebook to get you as excited as we were "Seoul World DJ Festival was born with the upgraded version from the explosive passion and exciting. That is the Nanji District were anybody can shout loudly, sing a song, play music and dance without trying to read someone's mind!...In addition, the Nanjido Campsite will operate a festival village where visitors may eat, sleep and enjoy themselves. Would it be a good time to be with a number of people, including families, groups and associations, as well as foreign tourists?" Well, certainly! Who wouldn't want to be with associations when they are enjoying themselves? (that's for you, alie.)

There was a Korean Hippie drum circle. I danced with them, but I don't think they really wanted me to. Not real hippies after all.

And this....this....large....creepy...marionette...creepy....puppet thingy named TARA. There were all these weird signs all over seoul teasing us that "She's Back" and I thought it was a horror movie advert. Turns out that the "she" is tara...Like watching a train wreck. You can't tear your eyes away and you're not really sure why you're so intrigued with something so inherently wrong...all you know is...
...you'll be forever changed at the gym.
And here's another Korean Twist...so after giving up hope of ever catching the "ghost bus" that the festival brochure promised would come to pick up all the foreigners...we walked approximately 5 miles to the waterfront only to have half of our group (military friends) turn around after reaching the gate so that they could walk the 5 miles back and hop on a train to get back to base before curfew. The rest of us went in and listened to some relatively lame (pronounced L.A.M.E) Kpop and resigned ourselves to the fact that THIS lame lame concert was the much touted International DJ festival. Sigh. As we were leaving, we heard something that sounded like two turntables and a microphone coming from somewhere outside the main stage area...what....was....this....?????

The REAL DJ festival was happening right outside the main gates the WHOLE TIME...this was where all the other cool people were...and this was what we looked like when we discovered this little twist. oh, korea.The next day we took a mormon fieldtrip after stake conference... I wore my cute kenneth cole sandals and limped home with bloody feet. That's bloody in the red bodily fluids way and not the cute british swear word way.

more to come...