What a wickedly wonderful weekend!

The Lotus Lantern Festival with my new friend Jeremy. My friend from University; Zac, suggested that I add his friend from Kingston, who is also working just outside of Seoul in Incheon. It was great to meet someone from home and the coincidences just kept multiplying from there.

The 2nd annual childrens' charity art auction at Roofers Bar and Grill in Itaewon. It was a really interesting event. Although I don't think that my painting sold very well because they left it to one of the last lots and by that point everyone in the room had already bought at least 1 piece if not several.... Still a really great atmosphere and a rewarding cause.

I bought my family and myself a lantern to hang amongst the thousands of others at Bongeunsa Temple near Samseong stn. I also paid a visit to the special lantern exhibition they have on display "Hope Plane".

There were traditional folk dancers in all of their costumed glory rehersing for the big lantern festival on Sunday. They were so friendly. I spoke with a coupple who were keen to practice their English.

The stone Buddha is the most famous monument at Bongeunsa temple. It is maaaaasive! It is surrounded by high walls and gardens. In front is a large praer space where devotees can come and do their bow out of doors.


Of course there were ceilings of lanterns EVERYWHERE!!!! It is such a magical feeling and sight to walk beneath these temporary rooves of flowers. I also bathed the Baby Buddha. I remember when I was little this was one of my favorite things to do during the childrens services. It was a nice little jog down memorry lane.

What a wonderful weekend. This is the kind of weekend that i have been looking forward to and searching for, for quite a while. Last week was the World DJ Festival. And while that was a very good party, I feel as though this was a great weekend on so many levels. I really needed this boost.

This past week has been an emotional rollercoaster. Things at work have not been amazing. My co-teacher is acting like an immature spoilt brat, and while that might be acceptable for a lot of 22 year old Korean men, I do not wholly appreaciate it when it affect my life personally. I am really hoping that we can find some way to work together and to communicate more openly together because otherwise this is going to be a very long and stressful 3 months coming up.

I have also been having some health concerns. I found a lump in my left breast and trying to explain this to the school nurse in order to have her help me make an apointment with a specialist at the hospital was one of the most stressful and unamusing things I have had to do in a while. However, in the end we got there and the apointment was set.

On Saturday I left my house bring and early with the probable intension of not returning until the next day. I have become very very good at packing an essential purse full of goods that can take me comfortably from one day to the next when i go out on the weekends. The things we do in the name of socializing...

I met the school nurse (who had generously offered to accompany me as a translator) at the subway near the hospital. And thank goodness too, because there were no translators at the hospital that day. The doctor I saw was not a specialist. And although he thought that it was just a cyst due to stess and screwed up hormones, it was still a very stressful event. They made a bunch of other tests for later on this week and then sent me on my way. I am feeling extremely nervous about the whole thing, but I think that I would have had more pronounced or violent symptoms if it were really something very serious like a tumor. So I just have to keep my spirits up and hope for the best.

When I came out of the hospital I was right at COEX, and never having been to the giant shopping plaza before, I thought it was about time to do so. IT IS HUGGGGE! And increadibly overwhelming to be engulfed in so many shops and restaurants and galleries. I don't quite know why Koreans are so fond of the gigantic shopping complexes? I find them incredibly unsettling and confusing, but none the less I made a valliant effort of walking around and checking out all of the stores... (well some of the stores) I eventually gave up and went outside to read my book in one of the gardens around the centre. Much nicer. :) After checking out a map I discovered that i was very close to Bongeunsa temple. I have been meaning to make my way there for ages since it is probably the closest templestay program to where i live.

I was certainly not dissappointed when I got there. In preparation for Buddhas birthday next week, there were lanters absolutely EVERYWHERE!!! It was so colourful and beautiful. After such a nerva racking morning, i instantly felt calmer walking around the quiet and sunny grounds. I decided to purchase myself a lantern. I feel like I could use some help with my luck right now and I have always wanted to make a wish lantern. So I paid the W30,000 and i got to write all of my famillies names and birthdays on the card as well as my wishes for this new year. It was really nice to think that my wishes would be hanging alongside thousands of other lanterns during the birthday celebrations. My camera decided to die on me... great. But I have figured out that if I just look though the viewfinder instead of the screen, I can usually take one picture about every 5 minutes. lol! I was very taken with how peaceful the temple grounds were considering it is smack dab in the middle of the city!!! I will definiteloy be going back there another day. There was a lot more to explore than i had time to on Saturday.

I then headed to the Lotus Lantern street festival in Insa-dong. I ended up meeting up with a new friend, Jeremy, to go off and explore. It was, like many Korean events, slightly random and unorganized, but ultimately visually spectacular and very welcoming. I cursed my dead camera once again, because there were some truely spectacular images waiting to be snapped. Oh well, i shall have to remember them in my minds eye. Afterwards, we went for dinner and spent some time getting to know each other a little better. We ended up eating out way through a LARGE potato pizza AND a salade bar... I have no idea how.. lol, before heading over to Hongdae for this really cool concert.

The concept of the concert was; round robin, where 4 bands set up all of their gear at the same time, and then take turns each playing a song or two and playing in a continuous circle for the entire evening. It was really very cool. The club was the Free Bird, and I think I would definitely go back there for another show. It was full of this very hipster crowd of people. I felt like I was back in art school in Montreal. It was great!!!!! The music was great too, and we had a good time rocking out with the thrash punk and hard rock bands that were playing. We ended up being some of the firsts to arrive as well as some of the lasts to leave the show. I would call that a night well spent. But then we were on the hunt for a Jimjil bang where we would be able to crash for the rest of the evening. A hard feat when neither Jeremy nor I had any idea where we might find one. But in the end, with the help of some Korean, we found our way and I experienced my very first night in a Jimjil bang. SOOOOOOOOOO ODDDDDD!!!! OMG!

There were hundreds of Koreans and foreigners all in their uniforms (baggy shorts and Ts) sprawled on mats across the heated floors sleeping, talking, waltching TV, eating, talking on their phones... wow! What a visual! We each found a mat and went to bed for the night. I can't say that I slept remarkably well, but it was definitely better than staying out until the trains started and making my way back across town. The next morning i wasn't too sure whether i should try to find Jeremy, but I decided that I would just call later on. I had a great shower and soak and then got ready and left for Itaewon.

I got there early enough before the beginning of the auction to go for a coffee and read my book for a while. NICEUH! When I got to Roofers, i could tell that things would not be getting started quite on time, so I took the chace to talk to some of the organizers of the event. I went out for a quick lunch with one of the main executives for the Seoul Artists Collective -Zach Echelberger. I told him that i was very interested in joining the collective and that i could help with any events he needed my help with in the future. He seems like a really nice guy too. I could tell that this was more of the crowd that i was used to hanging out with in Montreal. a bit older, all fairly career oriented and best of all, mostly all university teachers. COOL! Definitely a crowd I would like to hang out with more often. The art auction itself was fun, although I ammm a bit peeved that they left my piece sooooooo long. It did not sell very well. Darn! But when you donate things, they are out of your hands. i ended up buying a small painting by Rita Crocker (the portrait artist that I really admired from the Creatures of Habit Exhibition. In terms of artists to collect, i think that she is extremely tallented and that her work will get more recognition in the future. I would not be surprised if she did really well in the contemporary scene in the next coupple years. Cool!

Afterwards, i headed back to Insa-dong to meet up with folks for the Lotus Lantern Parade. I was supposed to meet up with Silvia and Jeannie, but I couldn't get ahold of them, so when I got a text from Jeremy asking me to join his party, i jumped on that. When I got there I found out that the coincidences about to insue were hillllarious and absolutely random. So it turns out that Jeremy is friends with Jackies' boyfriend Kyle. And so, when I arrived there was Jeremy, but also, Jackie, Kyle, Steph, Tina, and a coupple of other people I didn't know. How funny is that? What is even funnier is that Jeremy and I had run into Steph and Tina the night before as well. We then proceeded to go to Mr. Pizza (AGAIN!! LOL!) for dinner. Oh, how funny. But the best part of the evening was the lantern festival.. Who would have ever thought you could do so much with a wire frame and paper??? Incredible. My favorite were the anamatronic 30 foot long fire breathing dragons!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeehaw.

By all acounts a vvvvveeeeerrrrryyyyy good weekend! I jam super de duper packed weekend, but who said that was a bad thing? So more news later, but hopefully things keep looking up for me and I can start to live my life in a more positive way here.