Tuesday, April 12

Spring Fever Korea Style :)

Warm, sunny weather, flowers in bloom - Spring has officially arrived in Pohang! :) To take advantage of the beautiful warm weather a few of us got together this past weekend to take a scooter ride to Gyeongju, where the annual Cherry Blossom festival was taking place.  Turns out we were 5 foreign guests on a pretty serious motorcycle ride.  There were 22 bikes in all winding through the backroads of South Korea.  Upon arriving in Gyeongju we rode through a park to take in all the blossoms, and then after weaving through traffic jammed streets we made it to the popular family destination Bomun Lake.  Pictures of the day and some information on the significance of Cherry Blossoms in Korea.

On Friday, I had a meeting with my co-workers to discuss me staying to teach for another year, and as we were waiting for lunch to begin, my director and friend Rim, explained that the Cherry Blossom trees are a reminder of Korea's painful past. Korea was formerly a colony of Japan, and its colonial enterprises, imperial Japan often planted cherry trees as a means of "claiming occupied territory as Japanese space". To some Koreans the cherry blossom trees, though only in bloom for 2 weeks, are a not so happy reminder of the time when Japan ruled Korea.  With that being said, it's still a celebratory time where friends and families enjoy taking in the beautiful blossoms.

Cherry Blossoms as we were scooting through the park
Pohang Riders :)

Waygook crew for the day :) Kory, Megan, Jenn, Me, and Leigh



Open Road :) leigh's helmet in bottom left



 There were about 120 pictures, I only chose a few, but click the link above to see the entire album of April in Korea, so far :) Thanks for reading!


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