My first thought was "What are gradeschoolers going to get out of a makeup expo?"
The expo is outdoors in a series of huge plastic tents. The first tent we went in answered my questions. It started out with the story of Narcissus (in Korean and English! woohoo!) and then went into historical views and concepts of beauty. They had prints of famous paintings of beautiful women! Very cool.
The expo had a lot of interactive things for all ages. There were cameras that took your picture and aged you. There were places to try on products. The kids' tent had different things you could do like pick out scents and put them on a wrist band to wear, style mannequins' hair, get makeup done and such. Pretty cool.
There was even a place where they projected poetry on the walls. *_*
Waiting in line.
Beautiful things from Korea's cultural heritage: these are hairpins worn ...probably during the Joseon dynasty... don't quote me on it.. they've been wearing these pins for at least a thousand years. They're very big and full of jewels. The aristocracy would have worn these.
The poem I liked the most.
They had a hall of photography including photographs of beautiful people. Many of these were Korean, no surprise. But I saw Yoo Ah In and HAD to take a picture. Sadly, it is blurry! And I couldn't retake the photo because my group was moving on and leaving me behind.
This is a "spot the foreigner" photo. (she was very pretty. but yeah. everytime you see a foreign person, it's strange... and then you remember your face is strange too.. unless you're my friends jongsoo, khoi or tian... Asian faces that blend in everywhere but native English speakers).
At first I thought these two guys were some variety of clown. It turns out they're professional beggars. The photographer guy was telling me that beggars aren't totally looked down upon. There's some story of honor among beggars - how though they have nothing, they share what they get with all the others. It was an interesting story.. I should look it up for you all sometime.
A selca (self-cam = self camera) picture of me in "full makeup" with the Osong Expo mascot statues in the background. It wouldn't be Korean if it didn't have adorable mascots. (i should say, "full makeup" is a term Koreans use, and it means what you'd think. Koreans take beauty and appearance very seriously, so many women constantly wear full makeup. I know when something important is going on at school because most of the teachers will be dressed up more than their pretty clothes, and have full makeup on.)
The next day I went to Jeonju with the first grade teacher. I was in Jeonju last February, and it was beautiful, but Jeonju in May is even more beautiful. All the flowers were in bloom and the trees were green! It's much more worth it to go to Jeonju in spring!
The first grade teacher has a grandson in 1st grade. His English name is Kevin. We went to visit him at his house and stayed the night (jeonju is a 3 hr trip from here). The idea is I have English conversations with him to help him improve and practice his English. The kid is a genius, as far as I'm concerned. He speaks English at high level, and the things he doesn't know he picks up pretty quickly. After meeting up with him and his parents, we went to the hanok village to get bibimbap. We came across a university's dance recital and stayed for a few performances.
"Look at all the grandmas!" Kevin's mom exclaimed.
After dinner, Kevin, his grandma and I walked around the hanok village a little and went to the "castle" - a remaining gate from the wall (the same wall i mentioned in an eariler post).
I love all the colorful and ornate paintings!
Well, it's after midnight so I need to call it a night. I only stayed up because I was a little weirded out because I mixed lemon and bleach in water without thinking and realized "oh yeah, acid will release the chlorine... shoot!" and so I opened all the windows and cracked the door open. So now it's really cold in here, but hopefully if there was any gas, it's gone and I can sleep in peace.
I think I'm fine - I didn't feel any burning when breathing. I see clearly, have no choking or coughing, or any of the other symptoms. Life lesson learned. Goodnight all!
No comments:
Post a Comment