Lotus Lantern Festival 2013 in Seoul

I visited the 2013 Lotus Lantern Festival (연등회 연등축제) in Seoul in May. It is a festival to honor Buddha's birthday. The one in Seoul lasts one whole week.

According to Buddhist beliefs, lanterns symbolize wisdom in that they bring light to the world. “Yeondeung,” which means lighting lantern, is an important ritual in Buddhism gives respect to Buddha.
Source: http://visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=1002416

One of the festivals' goals is to bring Koreans and international visitors together. There are a lot of stalls, where foreigners can experience traditional Korean arts, eat Korean temple food, etc. I made two lotus flowers myself, learned how to make a Hanbok Origami (traditional Korean clothing) and ate temple noodles. I also got to drink Matcha at the Japanese Buddhism stall and talked to a nice lady from Nagoya. There was also a stage, where they did games with foreigners and locals. Buddhists from Thailand or India performed a play in colorful costumes. I also got to see a traditional Korean rope dance performance (줄타기, Jultagi).

I visited the lantern exhibitions at Bongeunsa Temple (봉은사) and Jogyesa Temple (조계사). It is astonishing to see all these colorful lanterns next to each other on the temple premises. People can write their wishes on papers that hang on the lanterns (but I don't know what happens with them afterwards).
In the evening I went to see the lantern parade. Hundreds of people carried or moved thousands of brightly lit lanterns in the shape of Hangul (Korean alphabet) letters, lotus flowers, elephants, dragons, Buddhas, etc. The people waiting near the road were cheering and singing. It was a great atmosphere and the lanterns were truly magnificent. Everybody put in a lot of effort into making them.

Afterwards, there was a post-parade celebration, called Hoehyang Hanmadang (회향한마당). Korean traditional singers performed for the crowed and all ended in a circle dance (강강술래, Ganggangsullae), were locals danced enthusiastically with all foreigners. During the dance small pieces of papers were blown into the air and it looked like a huge flower petal rain. It was so beautiful!

I uploaded some photos and videos for you. Please enjoy!

Baseball in Daejeon

I took my chance and visited a baseball game in Korea. I've never been to one. As a German I mainly know about football. But Korea is a baseball loving country, so why not feel the atmosphere in a stadium?
When I was a supporter at my university, I took my buddy to a football game in Munich and he loved it ^_^

Two German major students asked me if I wanted to go with them; I said yes right away. My friends were really nice and organized the whole thing for me and 11 other exchange students.

One tradition about watching sports games in Korea is buying Chimaek (치멕, abbr. for chicken + maekju), which is fried chicken with beer. In front of the stadium you can find a lot of Chimaek-stalls. After getting fried chicken and drinks we went to the merchandise shop. I bought a baseball of the local team Hanwha Eagles and cheer sticks. These are two balloon like sticks that make noise once you hit them against each other.

Ready to watch the game!!!

On this day Hanwha Eagles played against the Samsung Lions, the team from Daegu. I didn't really expect much from the game, because Daejeon's baseball team is the worst in the league and the Samsung Lions are on first place. In the end the Eagles lost, but we had a lot of fun anyway!

Why? I don't know if this is normal in other countries, but at the stadium in Daejeon they did a lot to keep the crowed hyped. There was music, cheerleaders, songs, games, where they searched for candidates in the crowed with a camera and then the person had to dance, before he could play the game; an animator, drums, mascots in the crowd, etc... It was loud and fun.

The cheering took place during the baseball game, so sometimes I didn't watch the game but just the animator ^^;;;

Sometimes, a pitcher of Hanwha Eagles made a big entry. They were brought to the field with a VW car

 (⌒▽⌒)☆

What is similar to German football games? We did the wave and shouted the players' names. The wave was great; first it was normal, than a slow motion wave and the at high speed ^^

Oh, and a girl in the crowd got one baseball right on her nose and she started bleeding... This doesn't happen that easily with a football ^^;;

CNU Campus

One day before leaving CNU, I finally managed to take pictures of the beautiful campus of Chungnam National University, where I was staying. It is a really big campus, compared to my small university in Germany. I like that there is a lot of art on campus. As far as I know, everything was designed by Art students of CNU. I won't write too much. Just enjoy the pictures.

And I finally managed to make a video of the lock system in the dormitories ^^;;

Shuttle bus station near the campus entrance

Pan Dorothy coffee shop at Student Hall 2 (very good Tonkatsu, pork cutlet)

Sit down in the shadows.... The sun is really intensive -_-"

Makdong (Makgeolli dongsan; Makgeolli garden)

My favorite art piece <3

Post Office at Student Hall 3

At CNU, sidewalks were built around the trees. If there are a lot of people it gets on your nerves...

Dormitory for foreign professors

Student cafeteria at the dorms

Stationary store at the dorms, you can print your documents here

Convenience Store at the dorms

Dormitory with gym and restaurant

My dorm

Hand scanner at the entrance of the dorm