What could possibly get you more amped up for spring than some sweet smellin flowers? Well, yes, baseball might....and yeah, warmer weather but then....flowers. Well, if nothing else the 2010 Gwangju Spring Flower Expo gave us something to check out on Saturday. We cabbed it over with a korean guy we work with and his girlfriend to see the floral "fantasmofest" in the afternoon which was in itself an experience. We got and quickly realized that the cabby was a war vet with some fairly impressive looking decoration that was once a part of his uniform proudly displayed on the dash of the cab. What's nice about traveling with a Korean friend that is bi-lingual is that we have a unique opportunity to understand completely what is being said to us without nodding nervously to everything. The cabby explained to us that he was given the cab after his service term ended from the government so that he could have a job which we thought was fantastic. He also explained to us how gratful he was to have the U.S. as an ally on the battlefield and as a country today. He actually worked on building the first set of highways in Korea that was funded by American dollars paid to Korea for their support in the Vietnam War. Needless to say, Nicole and I were moved just hearing the guy speak the way he did about our home country and history he had fighting alongside our troops long before us.
Ok, so after the uplifting cab ride we arrived at the Kim Dae-jung Convention Center for the expo. There was a pretty decent crowd on hand as it was the first day of the event and the weather was fantastic. The outside area had a long row of tents that featured some of the familiar fair that we've come to expect from most fests. Dried fruits, nuts, wooden silverware...a soju sampling.
We did see some honeycomb though that was frikin amazing tasting.
Once inside the center were more booths with an array of vendors selling more stuff, not all flower related. This lady had no choice but to pose for a shot as she got something treated inside that roller coaster car looking spa thingy. Not really sure exactly what was happening to her underneath but she was happy about it and that was plenty enough for me to know.
Inside the actual exhibition hall was actually less hectic. Half of the area was devoted to flower displays which were very nice and elaborate. As I am not a connoisseur of the floral arts, I was mainly drawn to the bright ones.
A few oddities were stroon about...like a huge high heel.....a camper....some sailboats, and screen golf.
We ate some very under "iced" ice cream which we both paid for later (sorry). We then watched a bit of Theatrical Tae-kwon-do which I can only assume is what the most discriminating flower lovers like to do.
After we had our fill of flowers and Nicole was finished signing autographs, we called it a day. It was a good time and nice to see all the fam's out with their kids for the afternoon. Tixx for those local and interested are 5000 won and the expo runs from 3/26-4/4 this year.
Thanks for readin,adam
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