Korean Folk Village

In the weekend Woogi and I took a trip out to Suwon where there is a Korean Folk village. It was the first warm spring day that we have had and it was a really nice day. A lot of the village has been used as settings for Korean TV period dramas, watched and loved by many - not understood by me! There were planty of chickens in the backyards and activities going on which made you feel that you had stepped back in time and of course lots of overpriced souvenairs!

This woman was spinning cotton. Cotton balls are surprisingly soft.

There were special performances put on during the day. This guy did a lot of tightrope tricks. There is a Korean movie called the King and the clown that made this performance popular.

The peasants dance (farmers). A lot of noise on drums and other percussion instruments and some beutiful swinging of long ribbons atop hats.

Aside from the performances you could play traditional games. These girls are enjoying a swing.

This crazy woman was having fun on the seesaw. I had a go to but I didn't do very well. I think once you get the rhythm of it it must be fun.

One of the horses from the equestrian show. He had such a nice smile I had to get a snap.

A friend of ours, Sang Duk has a ceramics studio and he invited us over to make something. It was a lot of fun.

Mmm. I wonder who made this?

My unfired vase. We have to go back to glaze them.

In the weekend Woogi and I went to the prison where the Japanese held Korean Independence fighters. Like most prisons made in war it wasn't very nice.

While we were there a dance troupe gave a performance of the history of Japanese rule and final Korean Inderpence. They were very good. While I think what the Japanese did wasn't right I find it is a fine line between educating people in history and encouraging nationalism here.

And unfortunetely I'm going to post more spring flowers....

A curly variety of cherry blossom.

Cherry blossom time!

I like this blossom because of the dark ended stamens and deeper pink. But what exactly is cherry blossom? There seem to be a lot of different shades around - which one is the orginal?

A friend had some tickets to a motor show. Not the usual kind of thing I would go to but Woogi was keen (girls in short skirts being more of a motivating factor I'm sure) so off we went.

Me in a new bettle. It will probably be the closest I get to driving one.

This Jag was in my humble opinion the most beautiful car there. It seems crazy that 6 attractive women had to stand around it - it certainly didn't make it more beautiful, though I'm probably not coming at this from a male's point of view.

This was an interesting car from Hyundai. After nearly 3 hours of the show I had, had enough. the entertainment was interesting but I left feeling that all the glitz and glamour and girls in short skirts were trying to sell dreams that were empty and not satisfying.

Sunday was a little warmer so Woogi and I went to lie on the campus million dollar grass with books. This grass really did cost a million and was imported from Italy. The university look after it with great care and you're not meant to sit on it but people don't seem to be able to read the signs - us included! So strange to me that grass, that wouldn't give enough food for a sheep could be so expensive.

These are some very pretty light balls that Shannon gave me.

Another year passed ...mmmmm

It was great to spend time with friends over the weekend - thank you to So hee, Young su, Sueng me, Song ha, Ian, Shannon and Ken, friends from church and most of all Woogi for making my birthday special.

I took a lot of spring flower photo's last year and have been thinking about how I can take pictures of the same flowers (and often flowers from the same tree or bush or tree) in a different way. After days of rain I'm trying to take pictures with raindrops on them. I don't know how long it will interest me for though!

Forsythia

Magnolia