Dinner with Yeo Jung

 I met Hye Sung for dinner this week.  We have been in Korea for three months and we finally were able to get together.  Yeo Jung has started school so it makes it harder to meet.  We went for abalone shabu shabu.  The shabu shabu was great and I passed on the abalone.  They were still moving!

 This is little sister Yeo-Ryeong.  The last time I saw her, she was a little baby.  They do grow fast and she was into everything.  I'm surprised I was able to get this photo of her sitting still.

 Yeo-Jung (which means Tinkerbell in Korean) was so excited to see me.  I always bring them something from the U.S. She is looking so grown up.  She told her mom she wants to learn English and she also wants to teach me Korean.

We had a great dinner and vowed to try and meet once a month.  Time is just flying by here in South Korea.

Chilbo (Korean Enameling) Class #9

 My chilbo piece was framed and is ready for the art show.  It is a juried show so it will be interesting to see if I am accepted.  I've never done anything like this so I'm pretty excited about it.  The deadline is May 27th and I will find out if I'm accepted the first week of June.
 She also had other pieces that had been framed.  This one is by her painting instructor.

 These next two were pieces done by students.

 This is Nan, my chilbo teacher, with a new apron made by a local artist.

 She also LOVES taking my camera and taking pictures of me.

This is my chilbo piece from this week. It's a cat. I love how it turned out.

Korean Chasu (Embroidery) and Bojagi - Class #6

 This week I continued with my new bojagi project which will incorporate a chasu piece too.  This is my teacher's finished tail.

 This is my homework.  It will look like my teacher's piece hopefully.  She didn't give me as much homework as usual and it was nice to have a little break.

 Here are my two finished chasu pieces.

 My teacher also brought some show and tell.

I did finish my first bojagi project.  It was a little crooked but not bad for a first.  It was all handstitched.

Rocketman returned from China with an interesting story.  He traveled there with a couple of Korean co-workers.  During break one day they were eating apples and one of the Koreans was peeling his with a knife.

The Chinese co-worker said to him, "You are not married."  The Korean replied that he was.  The Chinese worker was surprised with how poorly the Korean was peeling the apple (in his opinion).  In China, when you wish to marry, you must peel an apple or pear in front of your potential in-laws and try to get the peel as long as you can without the peel breaking.  A short piece is bad luck so Chinese men practice their peeling skills when they are single. 

Hanji (Korean Papercrafting) Class #5

 When I walked into hanji last Thursday, I was greeted by a bunch of women, many more than the usual two or three that are in class when I'm there.  No one was working on anything and they looked like they had been waiting for me.  My teacher asked me if I wanted to go to one of their houses for coffee.  What a wonderful surprise.

The home I was going to was a Japanese woman who has lived in Korea for 13 years with her Japanese husband.  They told me she was richee.  She denied this but I'm assuming it's because she owned her own  house.  I had no idea that there were single family homes along the Paldumum wall.  Six of us piled in my teacher's car and it was a tight fit.  This is the entrance to her home.

 This is the view from her front door.  I loved the different rooflines.

 She was embarrassed by the size of her home and I'm sure she was comparing it to those in the U.S.  She had a small room which was the kitchen and the living room.  Our couch would not have fit in the home.  Then I'm assuming a bedroom and bathroom.  She had gorgeous hanji pieces that she had made throughout the room.  It was a wonderful time and everyone was concerned that I had enough to drink and eat which I did.  We were there for about an hour and then it was back to the hanji shop. 

Since we had been gone so long, I did a simple project which was two hand mirrors.  I can't wait to see them next week.

 I also got to pick up my business card holder.  She said it was for Rocketman and when he saw it, he LOVED it.  I'm also proud to say that I cut out the entire top decoration myself.  I'm definitely improving.

Maedeup Monday!

 I had bought this cross in the States shortly before our move and wanted to use it in a maedeup project.  This time I went back to basics and created the necklace using dorae maedeups, purchased silver garakji maedeups and ending with garakji maedeups.  It's a simple chain of dorae maedeups and one that I love a lot.  I hadn't brought any maedeup jewelry to Korea for reasons I don't know.  I think the move happened so fast, I just forgot to pack much jewelry.

Yesterday, Rocketman had to get to Seoul for his last photography class and found that there was a marathon going on the street right in front of our building.  Buses were rerouted so he had to walk quite a ways to find a bus.  The marathon ran until 4 pm.  I went out to see what was going on too.  There was a band of drums which started playing when a runner came into the Sports Complex parking lot.  It looked like the Sports Comples was the end of the race.  There were also people cheering the runners on.  It was a beautiful day for a race.

2011 Cherry Blossom Time in South Korea

 After the festival, we were on the hunt for cherry blossoms.  All my Korean friends told me that this was the weekend to see the blossoms in full bloom.  On the way, we ran into a familiar Budda we had seen years ago. 

 

 A gentleman came over to us while we were taking pictures and really wanted us to visit inside.

 It was so beautiful and just how I had remembered it.

 The walls are filled with tiny lights to honor those who have passed.

 

                                                           The ceiling was so beautiful.

 He then directed us to the path that would take us to the cherry blossoms.  We found tons of Koreans also there to enjoy the scenery.

 I loved seeing this grandmother taking care of her grandson.  It reminded me how protective I feel about my own grandson, Noah.

 It was also a place for couples.  I can't think of a more romantic place.

                                                        The trees did not disappoint.

                                              Neither did the weather.  It was a perfect day.

 I love my camera too.  It's a point and shoot and just perfect for me.

                                                    We also got a good look at Suwon.

                                          A daughter was taking a picture of her mother.

                                           We saw lots of families.  It warmed my heart.

                             Plenty of vendors selling things for the children.

 As we were making our way to Suwon Station which was over a mile away, I caught this scene.  One I had seen many times that day.

                                                           We passed this bar.

 and this woman.  She carried this bag on her head without it falling.   We had wanted to take a taxi to Suwon Station because our feet and legs were tired but the traffic was horrible.  Nothing was moving anyway and the only thing we could figure out was that it was because of the festival and the cherry blossoms.  I think everyone in Suwon was out and about.

We had decided to eat at KrazeBurger and Suwon Station.  Luckily, it wasn't too crowded.  We were going to take a bus home but saw tons of people waiting for buses.  The traffic was so snarled, it wasn't moving.  I told Rocketman we should grab a cab and one magically appeared.  He understood where we lived and started for home.  He was talking about how horrible the traffic was even to the point of talking with other taxi drivers as we waited for a light.

A Korean couple waved him down and came over to our cab, frustrated that they couldn't catch a cab or the bus.  Our guy ended up taking backstreets and got us home quickly.  We gave him a huge tip (never done in Korea) grateful to be home.