I'm back from Korea. That was interesting.
Last Sunday, I went to this "Paper Lotus Lantern Making for Foreigners" thing with Morrin and Perrin. The Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism put on the affair which included many booths along the street. The lantern making was a major production. Aside from the lantern we made, there was a book and some other loot.
We sat down and each made a substantial lantern (about an 11-inch globe or so) by forming petals out of crepe paper and gluing them on the form. I'm reasonably happy with mine.
I also brought home an inspirational phrase having to do with books written in Hangul and a block print. One booth was for Tea Meditation -- something of interest to Brian and Maura. We sat down and took some tea there.
After the lantern making and judging, we had time to kill before the big parade. Saturday was Buddha's birthday; Sunday night was a lantern parade. Our badges from the lantern making workshop also got us access to reserved seating along the parade route.
We went to Brian and Maura's favorite tea shop in Insadong. Brian, in particular, is quite a tea geek. This tea shop is not aimed at the tourist trade. It's aimed at tea afficianados. Brian was of the opinion that he and Maura were the only regular visitors who were westerners and pretty much the youngest folks to go there on their own. The proprietress was (as usual) making tea -- quality green tea made right -- and passing it around. I got to drink some really fine tea. Yum!
I didn't last the whole parade; I had arrived in Korea the day before and was still fairly jet-lagged. Being outside most of the day probably helped reset the body clock.
I carted that lantern down to Daegu and back to Seoul before I was able to get it boxed up so I could mail it back to myself. It wasn't going to fit in my luggage, but I had APO privileges, so it was simple to mail it home. The lantern was quite the conversation-starter with Koreans.
While sitting there making the lantern, I was very popular with photographers. One, in particular, kept taking my picture over and over. I may have even appeared on TV. There were a couple of incidents of "I'm a Rock Star!". You know, young girls wanting their picture taken with me. The beard is a real attention getter in Korea.
Monday, I got my paperwork all in order and hied my butt down to Daegu on the bullet train. Once I was checked in to my hotel, I headed over to the office to get to work. Work got exciting (in the not-so-good way) when issues arose. Attempts to resolve it failed, so I was started on my way home. This meant heading back up to Seoul on Wednesday afternoon. I managed to get booked on a flight home Thursday morning, but that plan got scotched by a phone call just after midnight. Next plan: Mike plays coding hero in the field. Cancel the Thursday flight. Get to work. Good thing I have Oracle on my laptop. Late afternoon, time for Plan C. New way to work around the problem. We hope the colonel buys off on it. Friday morning, 0600. Phone call. You can go home. Call Delta. They can get me on a flight leaving that morning. Can I make it to the airport on time. Yes! Morning rush hour traffic did not suck big hairy ones at 0730.
The return flight to Atlanta was a Korean Airlines flight. Both meals had a Korean style food option, which I exercised both times. I chose wisely. I also got lucky in that the middle seat next to me was unoccupied. I didn't see any other empty seats near me. All in all, not so bad on the travel.
Update:
http://discoveringkorea.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/seouls-lotus-lantern-festival/ talks about the festival and stuff surrounding it.
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