Children's Day

May 5th in Korea is Children's Day.  When I first ran across this holiday on my calendar, it meant absolutely nothing to me.  "I have no children of my own...what a silly holiday," I thought.  Then I found out that Children's Day is a national holiday, so I would get a day off of work.  I instantly became fond of Children's Day.  The more I think about it, it's a pretty cool holiday.  Korea is a society of hard workers.  People work a ridiculous amount of hours, and it is just the norm.  I think there are many Korean children who see their parents infrequently.  So on Children's Day, all these parents that work so many hours the rest of the year take the day off and totally spoil their kids.  I've heard it said that it is as good as or better than Christmas to Korean kids.  Lucky little children!

I didn't get loads of candy and toys from my parents, but my Children's Day was still pretty awesome!  I went to Namsan (Mt.), a famous mountain in the center of Seoul, with my friends, Monica and Nate.  I don't get to experience much nature on a daily basis, other than my bamboo plant and a half dead tree on my walk to work.  So we wanted to go somewhere full of plants and flowers and beautiful.  Namsan was just that.  At the top of Namsan is N Seoul Tower.  N Seoul Tower has an observation deck that allows you to see a panoramic view of Seoul, and I think it's the highest point in Seoul.  So once we got to the top of Namsan, we went up in the N Seoul Tower.  It was so pretty!!!  We grabbed a cup of coffee and chatted while we looked over the city that we are all growing to love. 

I think my favorite part of our day at Namsan was the "Lovers' Locks."  On the first observation deck of N Seoul Tower, there are fences all around the outside of the deck that are covered with every conceivable color, shape and type of lock.  Years ago, two lovers brought a lock with them on their visit to N Seoul Tower.  After they had spent the day there, they locked a lock onto the fence of the observation deck with a message written on it proclaiming their undying love for one another.  After they locked the lock, they threw the key over the edge of the observation deck, never to be retrieved again.  In this act, they committed themselves to each other until their lock was unlocked and removed from the fence at N Seoul Tower.  Ever since, couples have come to N Seoul Tower with locks to put on the fence, declare their love and commit to each other for as long as their lock remains on the fence.  Personally, I think the whole thing is ridiculous and funny and corny.  But the locks are beautiful.  It's breathtaking to see tens of thousands of locks covering every fence around the entire deck.  It was an all around really fun day!

Hope things are well in the States!

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KendallCooke