The public buses run every 10-15 minutes or so, different numbers for different destinations, of course.  Today we hopped on the 401, headed for a “food celebration of some kind” according to the local coffee shop owner’s estimation.  Nick, a Canadian, has lived in Korea for 15 years and has had his wonderful little shop for 18 months.  I had the most delectable iced cafe au lait, a significant detour from the instant coffee I’ve been enjoying (really, quite good also!)

In true ‘adventure’ fashion, we missed our stop (because no one was getting on there and we didn’t move fast enough or know how to say “stop, please!”) This ended up being awesome, because we got to walk along the riverbanks, which was gorgeous.  We discovered a newly constructed walking bridge to get us to the side of the river where, in the distance, we could see 10-12 white tents and gigantic floating multi-colored balloons, clearly, the festival!

As we neared the site, it became clear that it was more like 80-100 small vendor tents, with every kind of delicious food you would want, as well as some you may not, and a huge stage with enormous speakers set up for the crowd’s enjoyment of karaoke.  The reason for the festival?  The celebration of Liquor.  And there were numerous tents full of the stuff, for sure.  But, much more interesting to us were the offerings of steamed bugs, larvae, hotdogs wrapped in waffles, corndogs with french fries fried right into the batter, two dozen types of mushrooms, dried fish rolled to look like wraps and oh, yeah, the ganja tent.  Adjacent to the tent where our beloved innocent offspring sat painting masks for about a dollar each, was a tent where those with something that ailed them could go find out if marijuana might just cure it.

No, nobody smoked it.  They first put a tiny ceramic suction cup on the place on their body that hurt.  I saw one on a shoulder, one on a calf, one on the bottom of a foot…then, the vendor sprinkled a little of the green stuff into the cup and lit it.  It was worse than any 80’s concert you might have gone to and left sick from.  It got so strong I had to walk away and spend some time perusing the Prada bag knockoffs to get my head together.

To protect the identities of the folks inside, I offer you this picture.  You can just barely see the drug dealer’s, I mean, vendor’s — tiny cup in his hand, preaching the wonders of the treatment.  The stacks you see are all full to the brim with the tiny cups.  The tent was always, always full.

To end, I’ll add a few other pics of some of the foods we tried today.  But it’s worth mentioning how friendly and warm the people at the celebration were toward us.  One man shook all five our our hands, and then, folding his like with a prayer, said, “don’t worry, don’t worry, all kinds.”  He meant, you are welcome here.

I don’t know about this blog thing.  I guess I ran out of space back there?  In any case, here’s a few pics of our trek while walking through a little shopping spot. 

These are actually whole fish, I think, and I’m all about ‘when in Rome’ but I will not. be. eating. that. 

In other news, classes start tomorrow.  I am ready and excited to get going.  (Hey, that reminds me, did you know the World Championship Track and Field Event is coming up?  In Daegu!  This is THE year to be here!  We’ll see if we can’t catch a fleeting glimpse of Usain Bolt – this tiny camera might not be up for the challenge.)

Today we took a little hike through beautiful lolling hills which were lush, green and slightly wet after an early rain.  But the sun had returned, and near the summit of our walk, we had stunning views of our city, which looked serene from way up there.

 Turns out, the “lolling” part, literally mounds of hillside maybe 12-15 feet high, are family burial plots of powerful people who ruled during the 5th and 6th centuries.  I wasn’t counting, but I saw the #20 on one of them – it could have been more.  In their well-chosen,  acreage on the hill they still ruled.  Of course, there was probably not a city below as there is now, but it did make me wonder, what was there and how many people were a part of it?  Also, did they mean for the Korean military to use this land as a training facility?  Because right out there on this little hike were, say 10-12 soldiers setting up tents, laying down wire, you know, army stuff- all in full gear, rifles included.  At first, they smiled and said “hello, how are you, good vacation, good time” and those kinds of nice things.  We asked to take pictures but they declined.  No biggy.

However…in a little bit, four of them came up to us to ask if we would pose with them and have our pictures taken.  This took awhile to figure out, but when we finally did, Guy and I stood pretending to chit chat while they posed around us.  Wah-eird!  Then, Guy went ahead and snapped a picture of one of them while he tried to sort of hide his weapon of small destruction.  And on their merry way they went.  Oops, nope, back they came, wanting to see the picture Guy took and asking him (telling him, really, but ever so nicely) not to “Tweet” the picture or otherwise put it online because their work is “secret.”  So, my friends, you’re just going to have to take my word for it that we had a cool run-in with the Korean army today. 

Here’s a pic of the rolling hillside just to prove we were there! 

Isn’t it pretty?

And the view from the top.

Also, we made our way into a part of the city where there are shops and homes.  Here’s a couple of those pics for you.