The Best Easter Ever!

Weekends are the best!!

Another one for the books.... Friday was the Gay Sexxyz' last band practice ever! Kind of sad, but we dragged it out and played late into the night. While walking home, Jonathan took me on a "whore tour" of Jinju, winding through the red light district I never even knew existed. There were dozens of prostitutes, young and old, standing all over the place in varying states of undress, calling to us and laughing hysterically. It was an experience!

Here's a video of us performing at Jam Bar last weekend.

I woke up early on Saturday morning and took an hour long bus ride to Masan with my girlfriends, and another hour long bus ride to Jinhae for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. It was estimated that three million people were heading there on Saturday; the bus from Masan to Jinhae was absolutely, insanely, god-awfully packed. My face was smooshed directly into the stinking armpit of a big Pakistani man, but by golly we made it there, and breathed fresh country air. The weather was a dream, a perfect 70 degrees with a light breeze. The festival wasn't really what we expected; we kind of envisioned groves of pink flowers and a really rural kind of place. It was a town with Cherry Blossom lined streets, which were beautiful but really spread out. The Japanese planted these trees very methodically when they last invaded in the 1930s.

Caz on the sardine bus

Why wouldn't a cherry blossom festival feature a booth with a panda head?

deep fried baby chicks... delicious

the blossoms

There were tons of interesting things to look at and do, my favorite being a Korean "Lady Boy," performing racy songs in hideous make up out of a dilapidated van. We exhausted ourselves after walking around, headed back the hour to Masan, and went to an awesome restaurant called Mexico. We feasted on delicious authentic Mexican food and gulped Sangria, then headed back to Jinju.

Later on that night, the Gay Sexxyz had our last show ever. Despite the varying degrees of drunk that we were, we played really well and it went down as a fond farewell. We packed people into our practice space, drank and danced the night away. Still after everyone left, Jonathan, Sseann and I played late into the night. I ended up buying the keyboard from Jonathan, and there are plans to keep the band going (though, without a bassist or a drummer, it's probably going in a different direction....)

Easter Sunday, I peeled myself out of bed (a Sunday regularity) and headed to Jinju castle for a picnic and Easter egg hunt with my pals. We snacked on nuts and chicken and fruits, and then it was time to play. Jackie hollowed out 60 eggs and filled them with confetti (a Mexican tradition) and once we divided into teams, we spent all afternoon hunting. Once we found them, it was time for hide and seek/smashing the eggs over other people's heads (for good luck!). It was a complete riot, running around in the sunshine and laughing and being crazy; I left with egg shells and glitter peppered throughout my hair (not an abnormal afternoon).

a little sad to say goodbye to this

After I combed the debris out, I headed to Jonathan's goodbye dinner at a delicious pork barbeque place. The eight of us stuffed ourselves with food and drink and tried not to think about the obvious....

Today the sun is shining and so am I. My school even bought me an oven today, which I am far beyond excited about- I can't wait to bake my brains out. I feel so optimistic about the future, and I had so much fun this weekend, I know I can get through the week on top.
More soon!!
<3M