Le Weekend.

Man-oh-man our weekend was splendid. We had this little getaway planned for a few weeks and it was nice to get out of Dodge er... Pohang for a few days. The boy and I have literally explored every inch of our city and now that we have our international drivers licenses our boundaries are limitless!

So on Saturday we rented a car. This one was the same price and still considered a "small car" but it was significantly bigger than the tin can we had last time. Apparently cars aren't measured by their size here, but by their horsepower. So a 1500cc car is placed in the "small" category regardless of how much space it has. (That really means nothing to me. I'm just glad this car had more space.) We met up with our good friends Corey and Paul who hail from Wales and England, and drove the two and a half hours up to the city of Andong. The renowned Andong Mask Festival was taking place and we were able to meet up with Kate, an Andong resident, who was more than happy to show us around (and let us sleep on her floor).

The festival was amazing and the boy was able to finally purchase a Korean mask. Masks are one of the many things he collects. We were also able to make our own masks.

The story behind the Andong mask festival goes a little something like this...

"The restless spirits wanted appeasing so a plan was struck. One night one of them entered the dream of a young member of the Ho clan and instructed him to make wooden masks to be used in a ritual dance for the spirits' pleasure.

"But you must keep the process secret upon the penalty of immediate death," warned the spirit's voice.

Leaving his family and lover behind Ho headed for the solitude of the nearby mountains where deep inside a cave he began his decreed task, and there he worked until the hundredth day when his yearning lover searched out his hideaway.

The instant that she peeked at Ho and the masks, he began to spit up blood and died." http://www.2camels.com/andong-mask-dance-festival.php

Or so the story goes.

They also featured an array of delicious food along with some mysterious woman in a trance-like state frolicking around with a pitchfork and knife gutting dead pigs left and right. Like how I through that in there like it's normal?