Chrysanthemum festival

Dear Mom and Dad,

   I thought I should tell you about a local festival that happened a couple of weekends ago.  My town had a flower festival in the main park.  My friend Sarah from England called me up to see if I wanted to go.  This was the week of my open/recorded class and I had a cold, but I was also very stressed out about the class.  So of course I said, sure I’ll go!   

We left about 6 PM and found our way to the park.  Our driver along the way held a long and drawn out conversation with us that took all three of us the entire drive to figure out.  It had something to do with subways, London pickpockets, and Manchester United Football Club.  

LED fountain

 Poor Sarah.  She doesn’t like football all that much.  Football being soccer in 99% of rest of the world.  Because the foot actually touches the ball - semantics-wise, it just makes sense. But, “I’m English.”  brings the response “Ah! Manchester United!  Good! David Beckham –handsome.  Park Ji Sung – Korean!”   But still it’s conversation. Conversations are great!  Soccer is big.  

“I’m American” Gets the response – “Oh! New York!  LA Dodgers?”   *Sigh*  Sorry!  I can’t help you there!

Piggy tail!

When we got to the park, we immediately got all excited to see the streets around the park lined with food and game tents.  We went past a dart balloon tent and of course had to try.  We split six darts and managed between the two of us, to hit not a single one.  So we wandered on, and came to the colored fountain which was on full display for the festival.  We ‘Ooohed’ and ‘Ahhed’ and got a few obligatory pictures before moving on.  

We came to the flower displays and the park was covered in different designs and colors of chrysanthemums.  At night it was especially beautiful with all of the lights strung throughout the flowers and the park itself.    There was a large cartoon-y pig statue, with the cutest little curly –q tail, and a baby piglet on its back.  We just had to rub the tail for good luck, you know!  That was what we said anyway!  

in the LED tunnel

Wandering on we came to a tent that had these really cool LED lights in the entrance tunnel, all lit up and pretty.  Then we got inside and it was a vendor tent selling industrial LED lights.  Yeah, we turned around and scurried out.  But it was so small and open spaced we couldn’t do it gracefully.  We weren’t the only ones doing that though, so that was better. 

handkerchief dance

We found  a concert in the park.  A couple girl groups were dancing routines to popular songs, before a couple of belly dancers came on stage.  The audience was enjoying the performances, but the men in the audience really became lively at that.  You could see a few wives/girlfriends getting a little huffy.  The male/female proportions became a little skewed for about 10 minutes or so.   I saw one young gentleman practicing in the back.  His girlfriend was not impressed.  

After that a traditional Korean handkerchief dancer came on, and that moment was over.  We left just as a Korean Oldies singer came on stage, and the audience, which was made up of mostly gentlemen and their wives in their 50’s and 60’s, began singing along. 

 We headed out to the stalls along the park.  But they were mostly closing by now, though we came across a couple still open.  Some stalls were selling flowers; I bought some dried Chrysanthemums for tea, Sarah got some handmade soap.  We had a discussion about some dried herbs we saw.   A young Korean man was almost appalled when we got excited about seeing cloves and said that we use it in food.  “No!  For smell! Don’t eat!”  Sarah tried to explain “Christmas ham!”  I chimed in “Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie!”  He laughed, but still said “No, only smell!”  Maybe they treated it with something, that couldn’t be eaten?  

We continued to wander and found the game booths again.  We tried our hand at the balloon darts for a second time and between us got 2 balloons this time.  I forget what prize we got, if we got anything at all.  Then we came to the air gun booth.  

Sarah got the bright idea, “You’re American, right?”  I’ve never shot a gun before in my life, so of course we had to try it.  My first round, I got two bulls-eyes and three in the next ring!  The other one was still on the target but not as good.  Of course the target isn’t that far away.  I won an arm/neck massager/clacker thingy.  Then a Korean man who was watching wanted to teach me how to shoot the air gun his way, so I did another round.  All men in Korea must serve in their military, or by giving some kind of service to the country, so of course, they all think they know guns quite well.  And here was a foreigner trying out a game, and it was a woman shooting, at that! 

It was one of those moments where we got ‘taken –in –hand” and taught by the entire crowd that quickly formed to watch.  For a few minutes we were THE entertainment of the evening.   Everyone had advice, none of which apparently matched, and some good natured discussion went on.  I, of course, understood none of it, and just continued to do what I was doing in the first place.  But Sarah thought it was hilarious to see an American taught how to use a gun by a Korean man.  

When they heard I was American, they of course thought it was funny too.  Perceptions are tricky things, you know?  Either way, I did better before my ‘instructions’.  I still managed to do well enough to get a prize, even though my ‘teacher’ was arguing with the vendor that I got three bulls-eyes.  I didn’t, but I have NO idea how to say I didn’t get a bulls-eye.’  I got three just around the center.  The rest were scattered around the target.  I think my ajussi ‘teacher’ wanted to teach me some more, but the crowd had gotten too big.  Time to go!

Moving on, we went to get something to eat at one of the lesser populated tents, and along the way a couple of younger guys came up to us to give us another prize from the air gun tent that they won. (It was a stuffed puppy finger puppet)  Sarah did a quick exchange and gave them the rubber ducky that we got.  I think they really didn’t want that either.  We certainly didn’t!  

All the flowers are lit up!

Kimchi pancakes and jook (soup)hit the spot on a chilly night and then it was time for ho-dak.  Twice.  We sat and munched on our sweets and chatted for a long time, sitting on the sidewalk.  It’s a great thing that two girls can safely sit and talk on the sidewalk at night, and not be disturbed, other than passers-by asking where we were from.   The night was chilly, and the ho-dak was hot enough to burn fingers, but it fit the festival mood.  All in all we had a great evening, just wandering, low-key.  

Chat again soon!