Halloween Highlander

Yet another great weekend has come and gone! This place is made for weekends.

Friday afternoon I jumped in Black Betty and cruised on over to Suncheon, city of beautiful people and current home of my friend Virginia (among others). The afternoon was a blast, as we jumped on Virginia's little red scooter and zipped off into the country side. Virginia even let me ride, with her on the back. Oh to be behind the handle-bars of something a bit faster than a bycicle.

As most of you people of the North American persuasion (and some from other parts) know, October 31st is Halloween. As most of my friends here are Canadian (or American) I thought I should probably get into the spirit and see what all this Halloween fuss was about.

So after a ride on a scooter, Virginia introduced me to the fun that is pumpkin carving. I'm not really sure if my pumpkin designs were quite up to Jack-O-Lantern standards, but I had fun.


Jakob checking out my Jack-o-lantern



That night we were joined by a motley crew of folks from Mokpo, Wando, Gwangyang, and of course other Suncheon-ites. We headed off to the first Halloween party of the weekend at Julianna's. Now I should mention, this is not the party I came for... it was just a taster for the big party later to come. But it was fun to see some of the costumes people had come up with for this event.



The next day I was up early and went for another spin on Virginia's scooter. This time I was by myself and got to see some beautiful scenery as the sun was rising up in the valley. Beautiful.





After some shopping, looking around, a test ride on a motorbike (FUN!) and eating amazing Indian curries (thanks Virginia) we were finally ready to head off to the main event of the weekend:

The World Famous 6th Yeosu Halloween Party Extravaganza!

This thing is talked about in every town and country.... well... in Jeollanamdo at least. Each year it is apparently bigger and better, and people go all out on their costumes.

Now I thought long and hard about my costume and went through a few different ideas, including Dharma Stu, the bug-eyed buddha dud from one of my previous posts. But after a long and fruitless search, no Buddhist surplus clothing store was to be found, so I fell back on a tried and tested costume.

The Highlander.

Some of you may have seen me dressed like this before. If not, go check out my walkabout wombat website.

This time however, I'm not living in Scottland, so it was a little more difficult to walk down to the nearest kilt shop and buy a kilt, sporran, long socks and all the other bits and pieces needed to look the part. Instead, I headed to the nearest school uniform making shop and bought 3 meters of tartan there. Now here's the amazing thing. In Scotland I paid about 150 Pounds Stirling for my tartan. That's about $300. Over here, I paid about 32,000 Korean Won. That's about $32. And it's only a tad lighter than the original material I bought in Scotland. Where do you think I'll be going next time I want a Kilt made?



Ok. I now have my material. All I need to do is hem the edge so it doesnt frey on me. Oh wait... I don't have a sewing machine. But the school does. Would you believe, when I explained to my co-teacher I was trying to make a halloween costume, not only did she organise for me to be able to use the sewing machine, she also gave me the day off to make my costume. How cool is that?

Now my 3 meters of material has a seam. Not bad considering I've not used a sewing machine since I was 13 (and even then I failed my class). Now for the hard part. Where do I get a sporran? After a trip into Gwangju to look for some leather, and finding out it costs almost as much as buying a whole cow back in Australia, I resorted to my second option of trying to find an old lounge chair that I could cut up. In the end I found a vinal seat that I was able to cut up and make into a sporran.



I didn't do a bad job either, if I do say so myself.

After a number of hours spent happily cutting and stitching leather, putting on face paint and making jewelry, I was finally set. My Highlander Costume complete.



We arrived in Yeosu booked into our hotel and headed off to the party. Well, it was a sight to behold. People from every part of Jeollanamdo and in every kind of costume you could think of... and some you probably wouldn't. Who was that in the Milk carton?

Nicola even managed to win 2nd prize for best costume with her rendition of "Fan Death".


"Fan Death" For those of you who don't know,
Koreans believe that if you sleep with a
fan on and the windows closed, you will die.
This is not a superstition. They truely believe it!

It was another amazing night of meeting new friends,



catching up with old friends,



drinking



and the obligatory end of the night Nori bang.



What fun to be had.

Anyway, enough of my ranting, go check out my flickr site for all the pics.