Drinking makgeolli, meeting popstars... a day in the life....

The entrance to the festival

On Saturday we were invited to the Paju Flower Festival in nearby Paju Book City, a village of super-modern eco buildings, similar to Heyri Art Village, but with bookstores and publishers. Preparations have been going on for the Festival for the past 6 weeks, and when our bus drew up to the Village, the green hills that we usually see from the windows of the bus to Seoul drew gasps of admiration - they were blanketed with splashes of yellow, orange, red, blue, white... The gardeners had been hard at work.

There were 7 of us representing English Village, plus a few Korean administrators, and we all donned flags from various countries - I was given the Union Jack, which I at least have a connection to - Cait got Australia! Then we gathered behind the EV flag, borne aloft by one of our cartoon mascots (a poor Korean part-timer squeezed into a large-headed and very hot furry costume), and followed the brass band in front of us down the street. We were cheered on by people sitting under canvas tents along the sidewalk - mostly dignitaries in suits - as we waved our hands regally, and gave the peace sign to cameras and film crews. The route was short - we walked for around 10 minutes - then we were able to stand on the sidewalk and cheer on the other groups taking part. One attraction was the float carrying three gorgeous girls playing strings.

Schoolgirl floats

They were more than matched in attire, if not in talent, by the girls wandering around in teeny ladybird outfits and knee-high stiletto boots. The sexualisation of innocent storytime creatures... I read a great piece recently on Korean women and their strong need to be beautiful - "Korean Psychiatrists Discover Shocking New Mental Disorder" - which would have been funnier had it not been so true to life, I thought it was a real report for the first few paragraphs... One of the pop songs at the moment has a girl telling her boyfriend "I don't want you to tell me you like me because I'm nice... let's be honest... you like my legs... you like my butt..." and is, unfortunately, not ironic, as a Western equivalent might be.

After the parade was over, we were taken out for lunch. We chose a bibimbap stall where we sat down with our CEO. First up was the makgeolli - a milky rice wine. Tasted a little like a sour apple juice - mmm! Makgeolli is traditionally served with pajeon - traditional pancakes, stuffed with various fillings - a little like the Korean version of a pizza. Ours came with seafood - although I wasn't a huge fan of the tiny suckered legs poking out from some slices, I knew I loved pajeon from previous encounters, so just became very selective when choosing my slices!

However, lunch is never just lunch for us in Korea. Soon, our CEO, who had gone off to a nearby table in the VIP section, came back with a small unassuming gentleman: the mayor of Paju, wanting to buy us a few bowls of makgeolli. We were, of course, obliging. He was very sweet and welcoming and told us we were good for his province. Then, from the table next to us, a pretty young girl got up and came over to talk to Rick (our Korean administrator). He translated for us: she was a popstar, and she wanted us to pose for a picture with her. Now, to my mind, this was slightly topsy turvy to the way we would have done it in the west, but never mind. To the gasps of a group of boys who'd noticed her in the dark tent, we posed for a few photos with Bae Seul-gi - she of the "don't say you like me for my personality" video.

Strange times! We laugh in the teachers' room that it's going to be tough readjusting when we leave Korea - we're going to cry at strangers "But why don't you love me? Don't I have a small face? Adore me! Adore me!"