Prologue - Springville Folkfest

Saturday August 8th

Today was the last day of the Bountiful Summerfest and we had decided earlier in the week that we wanted to go. We had never been before and we wanted to see how it compared to Springville's Folkfest....but most of all we wanted to see "our girls" again. We left a wee bit early from my family reunion and headed North. There was Dennis and I, Alisha and her two boys, and Amanda & Steve and their 3 kids. Bountiful's Summerfest was different in two big ways that I could tell. The first was all the vendor booths they had. Close to 100, if not more (where as Springville only had about 20 or less). The second big difference was the stage where they had their program. It was set up much like a concert in the park and if you were not in the front, it was very difficult to see. Springville's is on a hill (like the Scera Shell) and is so much easier to see. I liked the vendor atmosphere in Bountiful, but really preferred Springville's amphitheater. The sound, view, basically everything was so much better.
Waiting for the performances to begin:





As soon as we got to the park we went in search of the Koreans. We found the area where the dancers go to get ready and hung around until we found someone from the Korean group. It was one of the boys and I asked him for "our girls" by name and in his very broken English he pointed to the pool and said "swimming". We thanked him and went to pick a place to sit for the evening. We decided to walk around the vendor booths and go back to the dancers entrance later to inquire about them. On our last row of vendors we run into one of the other Korean girls who was always hanging out with "our girls"....she was so excited to see us and told us to stay and ran off towards the dancers area. So we hung out there and pretty soon here comes "our darling girls". They were kind of surprised to see us, but almost as excited as we were to see them. It was a sweet reunion. We visited for a few minutes. I asked them what they had been doing all week and they said in unison "swimming". They were so excited that they had been able to swim everyday they had been in Bountiful. Then they had to leave to get ready for their performance. The highlight of the evening performances was see the Chinese do their "1000 Buddha Hands" again. It is just amazing.

The Koreans were the last on the program and since we had such poor seats, we went up front and sat on the grass so we could take pictures.



After they were done we went up to the stage and gave them all hugs and said goodbye for the second time in a week. Hye Jin was especially sad to say goodbye. Then they were gone. All the performers went back stage to get their stuff and go back to their host families, so we gathered up our stuff and headed for home. It was great seeing them one last time.

Another week has gone by and the Korean's are now all home. We have had several emails from Hye Jin Lee. We don't get much more than a lot of Thanks very much and I miss you (because of the language barrier), but we are thrilled that she even remembers us and wants to stay in touch. I will definitely do this again next year, and would encourage anyone else who wants to have a wonderfully unique experience to give it a try.