Chicago Korean Festival

About two weeks ago we spent the whole weekend in Chicago. We had a really great time despite the rainy, stormy weather on Saturday. Since it rained we ended up missing most of the performances that we wanted to see, but we made the best of it by meeting up with some friends, staying inside a great little Korean restaurant and eating lots and lots of good Korean food.

rain, rain go away!

Bulgogi,  jobchae, mandoo, gal-bi -it was all so good!

waiting for the rain to stop

Soon after we finished eating, the rain let up just long enough for us to hear the Korean anthem (and for Joel to get soaked running to the van while we huddled in a bus stop waiting for him).

Korean Anthem

The hats we bought for the girls came in handy with all the rain.

two cute girls

Sunday proved to be a better day. We started our day by meeting up with our friends and with some face painting for the kids.

face painting and a new friend

Played some traditional Korean games.

Can't remember the name of this game but it is similar to hacky sack.

Tuho- popular game with the rich. It is similar to horseshoe, which you try to get the stick into the pot.

Nol-Ttwigi -popular among females. It is played during holidays & festivals. Participants stand on their side, then jump up, forcing their partner into the air. 

Alaina and David giving it a try.

While the kids played games, Dane was happy to sit on the curb and watch, while drinking some kind of Korean kids drink.

Dane & his drink that he LOVED!

We ate some Korean street food.

smelled so good!

And watched two very good performances.

Gwanno Mask Drama- it is a speechless, musical drama.

Traditional Korean drumming

We bought a couple traditional Korean items for the kids and decided to call it a day. All in all we had a really good time soaking up all the culture. It was a good experience to be the minority and not understand what some were saying to us. It was definitely worth the trip!