Danoje Festival May 25th

There was this festival, and foreign teachers across Korea were invited. We could take part in a Tuesday tour, Wednesday tour, Thursday tour, or Tuesday and Wednesday tour or Wednesday and Thursday tour. Well, Thursday is my easiest day, Tuesday is a difficult day, so hell, why not!! You don't often get to leave for 2 days in the middle of the week and it be ok :).

So, I went on the Tuesday and Wednesday tour of this festival called Danoje, and it was in a city about 2 hours away from me. It was in Gangneung.

Yaay, mid weed weekend is here :)

On the bus saying bye bye to Geojin for 2 days

Gangneung eating some nutritious food

Lisa joining in and having some nutritious food too.

As we are waiting for our orientation, we check out this little clothing exhibition. It's made of wood and wood shavings and seashells. Strangeeee

Beautiful.

One of the many performances at the Danoje Festival.

Little cute carvings. I didn't get one in the end :(

Lisa making a seashell thingy.

She got filmed by KBS.

Wrestlers, yummy.

Yaay, it's sunny and warm.

Mmmmmmmm
Mmmmmmmmm

He's making noodles.

We had to run to catch this guy.

And it wouldn't be a festival without a dragqueen selling sweets.

Just before the big parade. The men were dressed in Korean traditional clothes. These were the disposable kind tho. They are holding the lanterns that will later be lit and set floating on the local river.

This guy was drunk and making faces as he was walking and dancing with the dressed up people.

I found a cow, I had to milk it, even though it wasn't real.

Me and soju. Soju is the Korean version of Japanese Sake, or Russian Vodka, or Romanian Palinca.

Me and Lisa and soju.



Pretty lanterns.

There were so many lanterns on the river. This was after the parade.

Made new friends. This is Gari.

This is Ray.

And this is Kishmir. She's a balanced mom.

A super cute dog that was guarding our accomodations.

This is where we stayed overnight.

It was sooooo peaceful. I haven't slept that good in a long time.

Crazy morning hair.

I'm not awake yet. It was 7:30am and we had to wake up to go and eat some crappy breakfast. I would have slept some more, seriously!

Pretty flower :). I love my new camera.

This crow was the weirdest crow I've ever heard.
They usually sound like this: Moa! Moa! Moa!
This one sounded like this: Moaaaaaaaaaa... Moaaaaaaaaa...

She didn't smile. I smiled at her 2 times but she was very stern.

There's a doggy in the grass. Can you see him??

Magical path leading to a magical place.

I'm trying to look like a dinosaur fitting in with all the fern around.

This is at the top somewhere looking out over somewhere else. Pretty no?

Big size model of the little ducky carvings.

Grain... closeup.

Grain, and lots of it.

Pretty flowers.

This was truly a delicious lunch. I don't know if it's just cuz I was starving, or cuz the breakfast was crap, or cuz the food was actually good. I was stuffed.

This was a Russian group performing at the Danoje festival.

Everyone is concentrating hard on their master pieces.

I made 3. They turned out really pretty.

My mom

Last week I was so incredibly sad. I missed my mom so much. It never felt so good to miss someone though.

I love you mom.

What happened?

I used to be happy.

I found myself looking in the mirror today.

I am bitter and angry and anoyed and unhappy so often.

Is it Korea? Is it the language? Is it the students?

Or is it me, not being happy with where I am in my life?

I don't know.

But I know I'm not like I used to be.

I used to be happy, and smiling all the time.

I don't know what happened...

Hair

I cut my hair. I've got short straight hair again. It's weird to have short hair again, but it feels more like me.

Looks good too :).

Hope

It's done.

We are done.

Save the friendship.

And hope we can do better in the future.

Addiction

I'm addicted to pizza. I don't think it's the pizza perse, but I'm addicted to the texture, the chewiness of the dough... oh my god!!! I want to order pizza right now. It's so bad! It's not healthy... I have food in the fridge, plenty of cooked food, but I just want something chewy... mmmmm. OK, I'm gonna order some food.

Yuuuuum

Glad to be home

Well, I went to Seoul for the weekend. Ended up staying only 1 day. I was so glad to be on my way back home to Geojin, where it's quiet and peaceful and people are nice and friendly.

I have gotten used to the isolation and the lack of true friends here. I thought I had a few good friends that I could talk to and share stuff with... I think I have a very different idea of what friends really are. I think friendship for many people means having someone who has something to offer, something that can be gained from them. The sharing and caring and interest isn't really always there.

I thought I had chosen a bit better but again and again I am disappointed by the reality around me.

I have become a lot more focused in the last few weeks. I'm being healthier, more active, spending less money, sending more money home and well, I've come to terms with the sacrifices I have to make at this point in order to get my life back on track and moving forward.

Friends are important but when they don't pull through for you, remembering that my family is always there and that they love me is what matters in the end. For me, friends become family at one point in the relationship, but like I said before, most people do not take a friendship as something serious or as important as I do. It's something that has to be worked at, effort put into sustaining that relationship. If not, it'll just disappear and then you are left wondering what happened... how did we drift away.

So, I'm glad to be back in my little town where nothing happens and there's nothing to do. At least I know there's Abby here and she'll always make time for me and want to spend even 30 minutes in a day with me. It's wonderful to know that.