Lite Brite City

This weekend was the lantern festival, and it was beautiful. To kick things off, my friends and I ate dinner together at a Shabu Shabu restaurant (the big soup pot) and stuffed our faces full of meat and vegetables. We made our way down to the water around 7:00. For a trip that normally takes 5-10 minutes by bus, it took 45..... and there were 80% more people on the bus. It was crazy! We finally arrived and while we were getting drinks, the fireworks began. The four of us from the states sang the national anthem, I began a "USA! USA!" chant, Koreans were confused, I liked it though.


Then we walked around the festival. It was cart after cart of hot delicious street food, drinks, and crafts for sale, which was awesome. My friend Sarah and I went to go to the bathroom, and while we were waiting we got our Chi realigned by some volunteer monks who were healing people. It was kind of weird and cool, they just moved their hands around our heads and backs and made a weird whooshing sound the whole time. I liked it.

The same dragons? Yes

You may be asking yourself: is Santa really holding a cross? Yes, yes he is.

Anyway, the lanterns! There was a floating bridge that you could walk across the river on, that's how people were able to take good pictures of the lanterns. It's going on until next Saturday, so I'll definitely be going back. Here's some more pics:

The best ones were definitely the interactive lanterns- with moving parts, etc. I loved this one!!! 

A view from one bridge

Interactive mixing bunnies? Ok!

Handmade prayer lanterns underneath the walkway

Leaping winged tiger!

Anyway, you kinda get the idea. It was great! It was kind of cold so we left around 1.
Yesterday CR hosted a dinner & movie party for us- he made jambalaya, I made cornbread, Gareth & Aine made delicious nachos, and Sarah and Jess brought ice cream cake!!! We drank wine and watched A Streetcar Named Desire (the movie version this time) and all in all had a wonderful time together.
Yay for a great weekend!!!

Here Come the Lanterns

This Saturday kicks off the Annual Jinju Namgang Lantern Festival. Basically, what this is, is a WHOLE lot of huge, brilliant lighted floats shaped like dragons, drums, teletubbies (haha... seriously!), etc, that are set in the river.

When the festival kicks off on Saturday, it will last about 10 days. The lanterns will be lit at night, together with a ton of fireworks, awesome street food, lantern making, dancing, drinking, etc. Jinju is set to be packed this weekend; people stream in from all over Korea to celebrate the awesome defeat of Japan*.

The floats are already in the river!!! I got so excited when I saw them, looking like a giant fleet of gay pirate ships. There are hundreds of floats in the river, dozens at each bridge and even more waiting on the shores. I snapped a few pictures of the floats tied to the bridge nearest to my house. (I assure you.... it will look MUCH more impressive this weekend!)

Amazing fleet of mini-gay pirate ships on the river, stretching a very long way!

A HUGE dragon float.... Probably 40-50 feet long!

More floats waiting to be put in the river :)

*A little history on the festival: The tradition of floating lanterns on the Namgang in Jinju City dates back to the 1592 war between Korea and Japan. By October 1592, the Japanese had brutally taken pretty much every other city in Korea (including Seoul and Pyong-yang). They destroyed whatever was in their path and lopped off over 20,000 noses and ears of Korean people, taking them back to Japan to make "nose tombs" (seriously) and other trophies of war. Soon, however, the Japanese soldiers had run very low on supplies and needed to cross through Jinju to access the plentiful rice fields to the south. They met in battle at Jinju Castle in the cover of night. The people of Jinju flew lanterns high up in the sky as a military signal and communication tool with soldiers outside the fortress, while floating lanterns and torches along Namgang River. Over 30,000 Japanese soldiers died during this battle and they were forced to retreat. Yay Jinju!

Notice the orange covered walkway

All lanterns!!!

I can't wait to see them all lit up!! It will be such an amazing celebration. Pictures to SURELY come :)


In other news, today I got an apology via facebook from the guy who was mean to me and hit Francois a few weeks ago. The air is now clear!