Sorry, this photo is a bit belated - I was in Seoul all weekend and didn't have access to a computer so I could update my blog.

My friend Melanie has a tradition on her blog where she posts a single photo every Friday with no words which illustrates a moment from the previous week. I felt inspired by the concept and decided to adopt it for my own blog. Each week I will post a single photo with no words from a moment in my life - either from the previous week or something or someone about which I've been thinking. A simple yet memorable image to share with everyone.

My friend Melanie has a tradition on her blog where she posts a single photo every Friday with no words which illustrates a moment from the previous week. I felt inspired by the concept and decided to adopt it for my own blog. Each week I will post a single photo with no words from a moment in my life - either from the previous week or something or someone about which I've been thinking. A simple yet memorable image to share with everyone.

Less than 2 weeks after they started to bloom the flowers have fallen to the ground creating a thin layer of pink petals on the ground and even in the river.

Last weekend I decided to venture down to the southern part of the peninsula to visit the city of Jinhae. This small city on the coast is famous for it's cherry blossoms and hosts a million  people over ten days when the blossoms are at their peak. My friend Youl and I decided to go down to Jinhae to enjoy the beautiful weather and admire the flowering trees. While the blossoms were in full bloom in Jeomchon they were closer to the end of their season in Jinhae so the trees were not nearly as full as they were a week prior. However, it was still a beautiful sight and I enjoyed the opportunity to do a bit of traveling around Korea.

My friend Melanie has a tradition on her blog where she posts a single photo every Friday with no words which illustrates a moment from the previous week. I felt inspired by the concept and decided to adopt it for my own blog. Each week I will post a single photo with no words from a moment in my life - either from the previous week or something or someone about which I've been thinking. A simple yet memorable image to share with everyone.

With spring finally here the cherry blossoms are blooming and towns throughout Korea are holding festivals. The trees were brought to Korea during its occupation by Japan where cherry blossoms are all but the national flower. In Japan 桜花見 (cherry blossom viewing) involves groups of friends, family or co-workers gathering under the trees for food and drink while admiring the blooms. The celebration in Korea is similar with people gathering to admire the blooms but also incorporates a more organized festival with food vendors selling a variety of greasy fare, natural remedies, treats in addition to performers in outlandish makeup serenading the attendees. The local waygook-in contingent got together to enjoy the blooms on a beautiful evening this week.

Click here to see more pictures of cherry blossom festivals around Korea and here for pictures of cherry blossoms.

With Wednesday being a holiday I decided to get out and enjoy the warm weather. As usual the weather didn't want to cooperate with me and the morning was overcast and drizzling. However, though still cloudy was a bit nicer and a friend and I enjoyed wandering around a mountain in Jinnam.

In less than 3 days the trees along the river went from closed buds in the first picture to beautiful white blooms as seen in the second picture. The cherry blossoms signify that the temperature is warming up and spring is finally here :) Sadly these flowers only bloom for a couple of weeks but I'm determined to enjoy them as much as possible

Just like the U.S. Korea is gearing up for a presidential election later in the year but before that election takes place in December people cast their votes for the national assembly in April. While it might be easy to miss the preparations for the current election season  in the U.S. if you don't watch the news or read  local or national newspaper it's nearly impossible to ignore in Korea. Every day for weeks preceding the election trucks with pictures and slogans parked on the four corners of a major intersection blaring loud music. Lined up in front of the trucks are a small group of women - in matching outfits - who bow at the cars passing by. On occasion the actual candidate would be there to shake hands and chat briefly with voters (or in my case, a non-voter). On a weekend jaunt to the traditional market I happened across a gathering where a candidate was giving a speech to a crowd of people.

From what I understand based on a few conversations with one of my co-teachers this is an important election season - she explained that the current president, Lee Myung-Bak is a bit unpopular in Korea due to a trade agreement with the United States (I witnessed the protests when I was in Seoul in December) and cutting off diplomatic relations with North Korea. He's also been criticized for his goal of seeing a native English teacher in every school - and backing up that wish with a significant amount of funding. I heard the election race ended up being quite close with Lee's party barely winning a majority of votes in the assembly.

Though I am not overly interested in politics I enjoyed a mid-week day off - because national elections are holidays in Korea. I'll post pictures a bit later from my afternoon in the nearby town of Jinnam followed by an evening at our local cherry blossom festival.

Jeomchon is lucky to have Jonno, a very civic-minded local waygook-in who organizes events for the Korean and foreign communities. In the fall he helped organize people for  a local international event and this spring he got a few foreigners and high school students to clean up the river that runs through Mojeon, a part of Jeomchon. Unfortunately it's not uncommon to throw their garbage into the grass along the river and into the river itself. Jonno decided that with the warm weather and upcoming cherry blossom festival this would be an ideal time to get together and clean up the area. On Easter Sunday around a dozen people gathered together and armed with bright red trash bags and gloves we began to pick up the trash alongside and in the river. We weren't along in this endeavor because we saw a few older women who also had small bags of garbage and were picking up trash here and there. It took a couple of hours and when we finished we got some snacks and drinks and spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and tossing around a football.

This seemed to be quite the spectacle for the local community who rarely see foreigners let alone ones wandering around picking up trash. Members from a church that overlooks the river brought out water for us and gave us rice cake to enjoy while we cleaned up. A few people even stopped to snap photos.

It was a beautiful day to spend outside and though there's already trash littering the grass along the river it still looked beautiful and somewhat clean for the start of the cherry blossom festival that weekend. There's already talk of a picnic next weekend by the river so we can enjoy the fleeting beauty of the blossoms.