Picnic Day!

Seoul Day-13

May 25, 2013

I woke up feeling rather hyper today for we were going for  picnic and it had been quite a while since the last time I've been to one. So, the plan was we would go to a supermarket or some sort of and buy what we wanted to eat during our picnic and we would go picnic!

Therefore, we walked from our hostel to Lotte Mall and went to the basement floor where the groceries and cooked food were sold. Prof Ahn gave us some time so we could chose what we want and he would pay all of them all together. While I felt like there was not that many options were available for biscuits and other pre-packed food, It was certainly hard to chose food for the "cooked-food-section" or as in Malaysia I would called it "food court." I wasn't sure if that was the best word to describe it though. There was wide range of food such as breads, cakes, salads, japanese food, Chinese food and many more. Most of us ended up buying fruits and other healthier snacks while I bought tuna kimbap and chocolates biscuits for myself. I also bought some buns for myself. It took us a while to be done and we were then off to our picnic destination by subway.

Talk about diversity.. ^^

Professor Ahn chose a park located next to Banpo Bridge so we could see the beautiful Rainbow Bridge at night. When we arrived, apparently it wasn't really the kind of park that I had in my mind where there would be flat ground with green grasses and people lying down on mats. Instead, the earth was covered with some type of yellow-flowered plants which looked really, really pretty. The plant was pretty tall, so I could hardly see anything over it and when the wind was blowing, it danced to the wind and sent a sense of calmness and peacefulness to me. I don't really remember who did, but someone told us that it was canola and for a moment, I

was amazed how technology managed to squeeze vegetable oil out of that slim, slender plant.

Working on my cross-stitch

If we continued to walk, we would eventually arrived at the greenery field that I imagined but it was such a bright day and all we wanted was to find a shade somewhere. We ended up hanging out under three gazebos and started to munch on whatever we bought earlier. Then, some us took a bench each and slept while some just lie down on the floor and started chatting. I wasn't that sleepy and it was so hot that I preferred my body won't be in contact of anything which I thought would prevent the wind from cooling down my skin. Luckily I brought my cross-stitch project and continued to work on it. I wonder when would I be able to finish it off..Hmm..

Like a boss..He was sleeping while keeping the
kite in-check.. ^^

After about two hours,  Nadia decided to leave to buy some stuff while Christine went home as we still had couples of hours before sunset and the Rainbow Bridge begin. The rest of us then moved further closer to the bridge and finally found a perfect spot on a grassy land next to an almost bald tree. Prof Ahn bought a mat and a kite so we had something to do. He then fly the kite while Brandon and Aidan took turn "taking care" of it, making sure it stays in the air and not tangled to other kites. Some of us continued to

The kites..One of them somewhere was ours.. =]

take a nap while I continued my cross-stitch while observing the people around me. Looking around, it felt like picnic is really one of Koreans' favorite leisure activity either it is done with family, friends or even lovers. All of them has mats and some seems to even came prepared with tent as they usually picnic from morning to late evening or even until night. Some has has more convenient things like inflatable air bed and electrical hand fan.

Picnic site..or maybe camp site instead..

This is one of the sides that I got to know when I came to Korea and I really, really like it.  Usually during picnics adult would relax and chat among themselves while keeping an eye on their children who usually playing around their tent. Besides, I think the government had a done a really good job at ensuring recreational places are as convenient as possible by providing many facilities to the visitors. This was the second park that we went together, or the third park if Green Plugged Festival was counted as one, and I've seen many more while subways and as

A boy was trying to teach his
brother to use roller-skate

far as I was concerned, all of them seemed to have small mart, restroom, and exercising sites nearby. In addition, the parks also have bicycle and pedestrian lanes and most of the big parks offered bicycle rental. In fact, it was not only adult single bike, but also tandem bicycles and bicycles for children. It was really convenient and complemented with the beautiful view of the Han river, it was surely a big hit.

Pretty isn't it..? =]

Without we realizing it, it was almost sunset and unfortunately Kali had to go home as her allergic attack was getting worse and Nora agreed to accompany her. I felt really bad for her as there as only about an  hour and half left before sunset and she had endured for so long and yet she couldnt see the Banpo bridge. Nevertheless, that was the best choice as health condition should be anyone's first priority. We called for chicken and pizza delivery and it took really, really, really long before it arrived that it made me thinks that maybe they were not just cooking the chicken, maybe they had to catch the chicken first, just like what my mom used to say when my father took so long to buy a chicken at the market. When it finally arrived, all of us ate like we have not eaten for days and thankfully I still had my kimbap as my dinner.

The beautiful Banpo Bridge!

Revived, we gather our things and threw all the trash away including our uneaten watermelon as it turned bad thanks to the intense heat of sunshine. Such a waste. Maybe we should allocate some sort of budget or estimation of how much each of allowed to spend so we won't waste a lot of food. Then, we walked to the Banpo bridge and not surprisingly, there were already hundreds of people were waiting for the performance to start. Some even brought super expensive looking camera and wore an expressionless face. And when the show started, it really lived up as Guiness World Record as the longest fountain bridge. We took group photos and for once I actually thought my camera was worth to buy. Well, usually, my iPhone's camera seemed to produce better, clearer pictures than my camera so I used it more than my camera but finally, the investment had paid off. We then walked across the bridge to the other side of Han river and thankfully, took cabs to go back to the temple.