Black Belts and Cherry Blossoms

Hey- so spring has finally arrived. In literally one week Korea went from brown and barren to green and cherry blossoms. I went to check out the cherry blossom festival in Seoul- its a street lined with over a thousand cherry blossom trees that are 30-40 years old. Beautiful- and next to the Han River- I miss being close to the water a lot so it was great to hang out there for a bit. Here are pics of the Cherry Blossoms, crowds in the subway- I've never been spooned by so many strangers, and more. . .

On a walk in my town- the mountains are green again. The red building here is a school and most of the others are apartment buildings.
This is the central park outside of my building, now completely encompassed in flowering trees.
Purty.

This ribbon simple states its desire for peace- they were being hung at the festival to advocate peace between North and South Korea.
This is the biggest smile from Yoon-Soo (he works at my academy) that I've been able to catch on camera- he's harder to get to smile on camera than a certain family member, which I didn't think was possible- Turns out 'said person', Korea is a country where your camera- smile- challenged ways would fit right in- though your general avoidance of pictures would not. . .

This photo doesn't do the crowds justice-There are a lot of people you can't see in the photo because they are a bit height challenged (I'm one of them) - just imagine another person or two between each head actually visible- then you'll have the general idea.
The past few weeks were also marked by my black belt test. Yep, I'm a black belt. That's right, you should be shaking in your boots. Anyways, here are a coupla pics.


Hey check it out- that's my black belt with my name in Korean- Kind of comical because full Korean names are only three syllables- whereas mine here is four syllables- and that's only my first name (kih-ree-sih-teen, aka, Kristin) These are the fellow foreigners I practice with and tested with. Here we are sporting our newly black-belted selves.