Korean Baduk Competition in Suwon!

 There was a baduk competition along with a festival at the Hwaseong Fortress this past Saturday.  Nan, my chilbo teacher had told me about it and we are always excited to attend anything going on at the fortress.  Baduk is a game of skill.  It looks like a simple game consisting of a board with white and black stones but it is a game full of strategy and skill much like chess.  There is even a television station that only shows this game and how to play it.

                      There were many games going on with many looks of concentration. 

 It seemed to even be a spectator sport.  We found many games surrounded by people just there to watch the action.

 These also had an area where you could play masters.  They walked around from board to board placing stones with only a moment's glance.  I took a video of this which you will find at the end of this post.

 There were even children playing.  It reminded me of playing chess with my dad when I was young.

                                           We saw a bunch of kids with trophies.

                                                         Ahhh, that's where they came from.

 They also gave tickets tot he winners and you could trade them in for all sorts of crafts like getting a painted fan.  Dang, I wanted one.

                        There was also a fesival on Nan's street and we stopped by to say hi.

                                I made some new friends.  I always feel like a rock star over here.

            This guy was a popular dude.  His feet were even bigger than Rocketman's!

 I also got rangled to make a pot.  I was really scared but Bodyguard (you can see him behind me) grabbed me and plopped me into the stool.  You should have seen the crowd taking pictures.

                                       This is what I made or should I say, she made and I helped.

                                          We saw this drum corps resting and eating lunch.

 I was also looking at Bodyguard's woodworking.  He really is talented and you can see I was squatting because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get up.

I'm not sure why we always draw a crowd but it seems to happen at these events.  You would think that I would be used to it after all this time but I'm not.  We had a blast and the weather right now is just perfect. 

Here is that video: