Weekend excursion to Jeonju

This weekend is the second largest holiday weekend of the year. It being lunar New Year on Sunday, all Koreans head for their hometowns to pay their respects to their ancestors and spend time with family. I was told that Seoul becomes somewhat of a ghost town beginning Friday afternoon through about Sunday night. Since we were scheduled to be off from Friday-Monday, I decided to visit some friends that I'd promised to visit months ago.

Jeonju on a normal day, is located about 3 hours South of Seoul, and 1 hour North from where I used to live in Kwangju. Since it was a holiday weekend, it turned into a 6 hours trip due to traffic. I was going to visit my friends Vivian and Lillian - Lillian was in my orientation/training group when I first came to Korea, and Vivian I had met my 1st term here. Vivian is also a Coordinator so we often see each other at meetings and other get togethers.

When I arrived, I learned that another teacher would join us from Busan. This teacher Jamie, was also with my orientation group with both Lilly and I, so we were happy to see her once again. The four of us spent time hiking, visiting 2 Buddhist temples, and getting to know more about Jeonju - one of the oldest cities in Korea. It was really great getting out of Seoul and spending time with good friends. :o)

We hiked through the mountains to check out a Buddhist

temple and to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

Despite the cold of the day, I loved being in nature.

It's such a big change from the heavily poluted and overly populated city of Seoul.

The temple

The girls posing for me on the steps leading to the main temple.

These colorful balloon-looking things were made by the

monks especially for the lunar New Year.

They each contain special prayers and a candle

that will be lit on the eve of lunar New Year.

This neatly stacked pile of rocks are special prayers from a single person.

If someone disturbs the pile of pebbles or rocks,

it is said they will have bad luck or even be cursed.

Everywhere we turn, there is evidence of prayers from the people.