Yesterday, my man SeokMin and I had a beautiful day together. There has been a lantern festival going on near a famous stream in Seoul for a few weeks now so we decided to check it out yesterday. We walked up and down the stream in the afternoon, looking at the lanterns and taking an obnoxious amount of pictures while SeokMin explained what some of the lanterns were meant to represent.
One story that he told me really stuck with me. As I took a few pictures of girls jumping on the teeter totter (above), he explained that there was a sad meaning behind the seemingly fun scene. It used to be that women weren't allowed to leave their family compounds, so they would sometimes jump on teeter totters to get a look at what was going on outside. Can you imagine?
There were also scenes of a wedding, a processional for a man who had just passed the test to become a government official, women doing laundry, a kid and his mother buying candy, etc. There were so many cool scenes, plus some other sponsored lanterns, including an especially cute exhibit of traditional children's costumes (with descriptions) from countries all over the world. Desiree told me that one of the children was a Native American whose costume description said they wore their clothes for warmth and comfort. I saw a lantern depicting a girl from Finland that explained that there were so many different regional traditions around Finland that the only constant was a full pleated skirt. So, the descriptions were funny, but the lanterns were beautiful and super detailed!
After we were finished looking at the lanterns, we went to a nearby movie theater to watch Argo, the new Ben Affleck movie about the Iran hostage crisis. It was really good! I'm a sucker for a movie that starts with the words "based on a true story..."
After the movie, we had dinner at Dos Tacos (I had seen it when we were walking around earlier and I was so excited that SeokMin squeezed by hand and said, "DONE!"). It was SeokMin's first Mexican food experience and the dude was a trooper!
Post-dinner, we walked to the front of the festival and got into one of the longest lines in which I've ever stood to walk near the stream. But, it was also one of the most efficient lines in which I've ever stood too! We waited for maybe 45 minutes or so (during which, we randomly ran into Desiree, Thanh, David, Navy, Lanae and some of Navy's friends visiting from America! What a surprise for SeokMin, haha!) and then took about an hour to walk through the festival. The lanterns were so beautifully lit up, but it was difficult to get good pictures of them because of our close proximity and the vast array of people. It was really fun being in a crowd with SeokMin, though, because he would overhear funny Korean conversations and then translate them for me. Dude is a skillful people watcher! Some of my favorites:
Mom to her very excited child: If we get separated, you can find your own way home! I am NOT looking for you!And so, a beautiful day date commenced. I'm really enjoying this part of my Korean adventure :)
Same Mom in reaction to seeing a couple sitting on some rocks near the stream, sneaking a quick couple of kisses: Do NOT do that in public when you get older!
A Dad was trying to explain something to his young son about the lanterns and his son, said, "Dad! I already know about that!" Then, SeokMin said the father stopped talking to his son and pulled his daughter over to listen instead.
We saw a SpiderMan lantern, who was packing a little extra junk in his trunk and the man behind us said to his son, "Wow. SpiderMan is fat!"
