Spring and cherry blossom ^^

Finally spring is really here~ it's already the middle of April and it's usually quite warm at this time. But this year it seems to be a bit colder. We also have a lot of rain. Back in my country, April is known as the 'wet month' because of the amount of rain. But here in Korea, April shouldn't be particularly wet. It's June/July when it should rain the most, because of the rainy season. But maybe Slovenian spring followed me to Korea. :)

Still, last weekend it was really sunny and warm and it would have been a shame not to go out and enjoy the nature a bit. Everything is in bloom and it's also the time for the famous cherry blossom. Cherry blossom usually doesn't last more than two weeks and they started more than a week ago already. However, it's been raining a lot and there's just no fun watching the cherry blossom in the rain. There were a couple of nice warm days last week, but my boyfriend works till late, so we didn't have time till the weekend. I was afraid a lot of it would be gone because of the rain, but luckily it still looked beautiful. ^^

There are so many places to see cherry blossom in Korea and a lot of university campuses have them too, so we decided to visit a university in Iksan. Iksan is a small city only about twenty or thirty minutes away from Jeonju and the university we visited is called WonKwang. There were a lot of couples and families with children walking around, sitting on benches and watching cherry blossom.

I really like how this university has so many benches everywhere. We also walked around a bit, took some photos and then found a nice place to sit beneath the cherry trees. It was so warm, more than 20°C and there was almost no wind either. Every now and then when the wind blew a bit, the white cherry leaves would fly around like snow. It was so nice that we didn't even want to move. I could have fallen asleep right there on that bench. :)

 
Later we decided to have some dinner near the university. Usually next to every university there is this one street that has lots of good restaurants, cafes, norebang (karaoke), dvd rooms etc., where the students hang out. So we were going to eat there. But parking is usually the problem in such areas. After driving around for a while we kind of gave up. It didn't look like we'd be able to park there, so we decided to go back to Jeonju and eat some curry.

It was such a nice Saturday. I was really glad that I was able to see cherry blossom this year after all. I know it's Japan that's most famous for cherry blossom. I mean, who hasn't heard of the word sakura? Hanami is another Japanese word associated with cherry blossom, literally meaning 'flower watching' and means having a picnic under the blooming cherry trees. But in truth, cherry blossom is just as popular in Korea, even though the Korean word for it (bbeotkott) might be much harder to pronounce. There is also a word like hanami, which is bbeotkkotnori, but here it doesn't literally mean 'watching the cherry blossoms' but having fun or playing beneath the cherry blossom. -nori means a game, amusement etc. and it is found in many other words such as bulkkeotnori (fire+flower+amusement = fireworks).

Last time someone on facebook posted this article about where cherry blossom really comes from originally. Apparently China and many other Asian countries enjoy cherry blossom too. And now they are arguing whether it's really Japan that's the real home of cherry blossom or whether they actually came from China. I thought the whole thing couldn't be more ridiculous. Why must people always argue about everything, even about something so beautiful as cherry blossom. I don't care where it comes from, I just want to enjoy it during those two weeks, whether I'm in Korea, Japan, China or any other place that has them.

Can you find cherry blossom in your country? If you can't, I'm sure there are plenty of other beautiful flowers blooming right now. Make sure you take some time to get away from all the stress and observe the nature in spring. Maybe do as Koreans do and open a bottle of soju (Korean alcohol) or beer while you're at it, too. :)

Also, you might enjoy this song from Busker Busker called Cherry Blossom Ending. It's nice and it's perfect for spring. ^^ The music video is cute too.