Cherry Blossoms

This past weekend, Jo took me to Cheongju - the central province of Korea - to see the cherry blossom festival as well as meet some of her friends. I had a really good time, and enjoyed immensely. We left on Saturday afternoon and came back on Sunday afternoon. Her friends are all very nice and showed a lot of hospitality. Jo showed me around her university and the art buildings that she went to while she attended. It was a very nice university, and I wouldn't mind studying there myself! We visited the unversity and then went and saw the cherry blossoms along the river. I have tons of pictures of it.

Afterwards, we went to Jo's friend's house, where we all had delicious sumgyupsal in her kitchen. It was a little crowded, but it was lots of fun. I couldn't understand much of what people were talking about, but I felt really comfortable and as if I were among friends. After a huge dinner, we drank and then played Go-Stop. I was ahead in the winnings until the last round, where the bets were doubled, and I lost it all in a ridiculously high-scoring game. Easy come, easy go! It was raining incredibly hard that night. It is a memory that I won't soon forget! At one point, I had a "take-a-step-back" moment, and saw myself playing Go-stop and eating sumgyupsal with a bunch of Koreans who didn't speak very much English, in a torrential rain, during a cherry blossom festival, and I thought to myself that "it really doesn't get much better than this". It felt idyllically Asian and it was really fantastic.

We spent the night at Jo's friend's house, then set out the next day top see the blossoms again before heading home (after a pizza buffet at Jo's old favorite pizza joint, near the university). Some people expected there to be no blossoms left after the torrential rain, but they were actually fuller in bloom and much more beautiful. All in all, I was incredibly lucky to have been able to witness it all, because the cherry blossoms really only bloom for about 5 days a year, and I caught 2 of those days. Truly magnificent.

Below are the photos from the trip as well as some photos taken from around Bundang over the past while. The flowers are in full bloom right now!