Buddha's Birthday Lantern Festival

Hey there. Today's the Buddha's Birthday Lantern Festival in Jonggak.

If you live anywhere, ANYWHERE near Seoul, get your butt down to Jonggak (near Gwanghwamun) and check out the street festival. Build a Buddhist lantern, hang out with the peoples, take pictures, and all that cool stuff.

Seriously, the Lantern Festival is the best day of the year in Seoul, and casts Korea in about the most positive light you'lee ever see it. If you don't believe me, here's my glow-in-the-dark happy post from attending two years ago.

Even more: check out the parade in the evening, from Dongdaemun all the way down to Jogyesa Temple (basically the Westminster Abbey of Korean Buddhism), and after dark, poke your head into Tapgol Park, strung up with lanterns: one of the prettiest sights I've seen in Korea, and nice enough I'm actually bringing my tripod downtown to get better pictures of it this year.

Gaah! (Plus: Backhanded Compliment of the Day)

There's been so much bad writing this week about Korea and expats (mostly thanks to the Korea times) that I haven't had anything to write here, because if I touch on any of the articles that have been written, I'll go into a blithering rant. The worst two of the lot were published yesterday, one of which was an obvious prank, and one of which was by a columnist I've mentioned before, and who now deserves to be tuned out and ignored entirely.

I'm formulating a response that might involve trying to get all my readers to flood The Korea Times with either protest letters, or prank letters...but I haven't decided which yet.

I once wrote that The Korea Herald is crap...but they got nothin' on the times.

Instead, to feel better, read the next post, and come out and have tea with me.

Hang out with Roboseyo at Sparkledown the Third, this Saturday.

Hey there.

It's short notice, but if you have any free time this Saturday afternoon, it being the weekend before Buddha's birthday, and me being out of town that weekend, it's a good time to hang around Jongno, which is strung up with lanterns all over the place!

On Saturday afternoon, at 3PM, I'm going to be at a nice little traditional tea house near Changdeok Palace, with whichever friends come out, and you're welcome to join me. I really like this tea room, and after some sipping and chatting, I'm going to take a stroll around Bukcheon Hanok village, have dinner somewhere in Samchungdong (depending on the size of the group) strolling over to Jogye Temple (which will be gorgeous with glowing lamps by evening), and down to the lanterns hanging around Cheonggyecheon.

You are welcome to come along for as much or as little of that as you like, and I'd love to see you. So how do you get there?

Go to Anguk Station (line 3), and come out exit 2.

src="http://www.koreasparkle.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dscn5001.jpg"

don't trip on the old lady: I almost did.

when you come out of exit 2, you'll have a view something like this. Go straight, and look on your right. It's less than a five minute walk, and if you reach the three-way stoplight, you've gone too far.

There's a little place with plants in the window that looks like this, called "인...in Tea Drink Culture" (whatever that means) with a nice lady running it.You'll know you're in the right place if the raspberry tea tastes exactly like fresh raspberries.

Let me know if you're coming (you can reach me at roboseyo[at]gmail[dot]com or by searching Roboseyo on facebook), or just show up.

Take it easy, folks, and hope to see you there.

High School for North Korean Defectors: Field Trip to DMZ

I got an e-mail a little while ago about this video, and forgot about it until rechecking the Hub Of Sparkle e-mail account.

This nine-minute film gives a brief sketch of the young people who have escaped from North Korea, some of whom left their parents behind.

The more you know about North Korea, and the more you know about how North Koreans live in South Korea, the more tragic this story is... for one, the faces of all the students in the video except two, are blurred out, for fear that somebody will recognize their faces and their relatives still in North Korea will be punished.

Give it a watch.

Short but sweet: When a Mommy and a Daddy Love Each Other Very Much...

Yay the internet.
I don't think this is how Dad explained it to me back when I was a kid, but if the internet says this is how to make a baby, it must be true.

Hope your weekend was good.