Our trip to Jenju - home of Hanji paper

So a whole slew of us foreign teachers went on an adventure recently that was more of a fiasco in the end. But it's worth telling you about the city of Jenju, because it is a huge source of pride for the Korean people. Any of you who have ever shopped the beautiful hand made papers at Blue dowtown Asheville or other places, may have been admiring Hanji paper; hand made Korean paper whose history goes back thousands of years and it's uses range screens for windows and doors to tables, to armor, to beautiful lighting. It can last up to 1,000 years. I am so in love with the paper that I'm into creating a variety of paper mache projects with it.

So Jenju, the city we visited, has the most famous paper of all. All Hanji paper is made from mulberry, and all is made in basically the same way, but the water in Jenju is said to be very pure and make the paper even more special.

So here's Johann (S. Africa), Mary (US), Maria (S. Africa) and me on the bus.

Nick and Sarah were also there (although clearly these are not pictures from the bus) and I want you to meet them because they are a really sweet couple from Canada.

The whole point of visiting Jenju is a trip to the 'traditional village' where all sorts of Korean made stuff is for sale. It was a quaint, very well done, touristy kind of place...................... the kind of place Korean families and couples go on a holiday weekend or Sat. Sun. jaunt.

We, unfortunately, chose to go on a National Holiday, and had no idea what we were getting in for. The traffic on the roads was horrible and I spent 7 hours on the bus traveling and 3 hours on the ground shopping. Not a good ratio! It was a cloudy day that eventually led to rain and that just added more melancholy to the situation. Ah well. Lesson learned. Either stay home or plan to spend the night!!

When we first entered the village they were doing a fashion show on a fairly large stage. That was fun!

And there was a Catholic cathedral there. A slightly rare sight in S. Korea.

I love the tiles everywhere; I think they're beautiful. I sooo want to do my roof like that.

My trip to Jenju gave me great appreciation for the Hanji paper and when we decided to do a special Hanji Project with our families one Saturday, I felt like I 'got it'Great fun - we went to a Hanji artist's studio very close to my school, and each family made a 'tea table' to take home. Yes, I got to make one too! What a great momento, eh? These are a sort of 'cardboard' form covered with Hanji paper.

Next............ my trip to another Buddist temple, but this time Buddha's sitting outside with the mountains as his backdrop!

love to all. p.

Buddha's birthday and the Lantern Festival

Welcome to Buddha's birthday celebration in Seoul. It's called the Lantern Festival and it was awesome!!!

This festival is, of itself, worthy of a trip to Korea! You have to get there early though. There is so much to do that it is difficult to fit it all in one day. There are over 100 booths of activity to keep you busy during the day and most of it is FREE. They provide materials to make your very own lotus lantern, wood carving paintings, clay work, small lotus buds and on and on. It was GREAT fun!

Here you pour water over a Baby Buddha to declare your intentions for the year.

Here we learn about 'traditional' tea ceremony.

And then there is the temple itself which is quite beautiful............

But the parade at night is the spectacular culmination of the day. Over 100,000 lanterns light the streets of Seoul. Since pictures are worth a 1,000 words........................ here's a few images from that magical night.

And this last image is the sweet face of a young monk. His mother (I am assuming) was close at hand and she was beaming with pride.

Big Buddha love to all!!!