My Second Korean Thanksgiving

My school had a great Thanksgiving party this year.  Since we worked Thanksgiving day, we planned a big dinner Friday evening.

Lots of great food, drinks and good company.  What more could you ask for?

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Seoul Lantern Festival

Tonight was the last night of the 2010 Seoul Lantern Festival.

It's a little difficult to explain in words a "Lantern Festival". (Fortunately, there are pictures!)  This one was located at Cheongyecheon (which is a stream that starts at City Hall in Seoul and continues for several kilometers.

While most people think of lanterns as small lights you hang, these come in all sizes and shapes. There are hundreds of them, some 15 feet tall (or taller), made in the images of people, animals, landmarks, mythological creatures, etc.  Some depict entire scenes or legends.  It's really amazing considering these are made from paper.

 

 

 

 

 

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The Anglican Cathedral, Seoul

This morning I visited the Anglican Cathedral here in Seoul.

It was a little difficult to pull up information since the website is in Korean, so I thought I'd list info here to help anyone else looking for it.

English services are held every Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m.  in the Crypt Chapel located under the main church.

The Rt. Reverend Mark Trollope is buried in the Crypt Chapel and his remains lie under a copperplate engraving of him by Francis Cooper which can be seen in the top photo above and the one below.

 Between 50 and 60 worshipers were present.  The vicar is a likable Irish gentleman with gray hair and a beard who has obviously enjoyed quite a few church potluck dinners, exactly what you would expect from an Anglican vicar.  The liturgy used was Rite I from the BCP and was fairly straightforward.  There was brief "children's lesson" added in immediately before the reading of the Gospel.

The Cathedral is located across the street from City Hall.  To get there, simply take subway line 1 to the City Hall station.  Exit via exit 3 and walk straight forward.  The church is only 50 meters or so from the subway stop and set about 50 meters back from the main road.  You'll see signs pointing the way.

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Upcoming G-20 Summit

Well, the G-20 Summit is this week.  I think this video probably does the best job of showing what's really going here right now as we lead up to it:

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Danyang

Since it's Fall, I went with a group of Korean friends to Danyang, a small town about 2 hours via bus from Seoul, this weekend to do some sightseeing.  We had a really nice, relaxing weekend enjoying the beautiful mountains and the autumn foliage.

After we arrived on Saturday, we visited a cave to see some pretty amazing rock formations.

 

 

We spent the night at a pension, which is kind of the Korean equivalent of a rental cabin.  Pensions usually are more like a hotel or condo, except without furniture so everyone sleeps on the floor... kind of a big slumber party. 

 

 We grilled out and played some kind of traditional Korean game.  Honestly, I have no idea the name of the game or the rules of the game.  All I know is you throw 4 wooden pieces and they way they land decides how many spaces you move around the board.

 

On Sunday, the weather was beautiful. I took a few pictures of the area around the pension. 

 

 

That afternoon, we went on a  scenic boat tour to see the mountains.

 

We followed that with a little skeet shooting.

 

And wrapped up the day with a visit to Dodam Sambong, also known as "The Three Peaks".

 

According to Korean legend, the three rock peaks here tell the story of a man, his wife, and his mistress.  The larger peak in the middle is the man.  Since his wife (on the left) was unable to bear him any children, he took a mistress.  However, the mistress became closer to the man than his wife which is why she is turned away from him.

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