the lights lit the night like one great big moon

over the past month i haven't been blogging because there really hasn't been much to blog about. i have been spending the majority of my free time rehearsing for a condensed version of shakespeare's julius caesar. there's a shakespeare company here in seoul, actors without bard'ers, and we are going to be performing on the 29th of may at a festival. it's a really small venue, which i am a little nervous about, but our cast is good and our director, kevin is amazing. he's leaving to go back to canada in june (sob) but this opportunity to work with him as been so amazing. anyway, so that being said, i have been occupied with learning lines and rehearsing. but this past sunday was the latern parade to celebrate the upcoming birth of buddah and i made my way to enjoy the spectacle.

if you think you have been to a parade, you haven't. not unless you have been to the latern festival in seoul. i'm not really into parades, i think they are somewhat mundane, but as far as parades go, this one tops them all. first, seoul has over 10,000,000 people so you can imagine how many people turned up to BE IN the parade. hundreds and hundreds of peopled filled the streets carrying brightly colored lanterns with lit candles inside. beautiful women in traditional korean costumes wandered the streets waving and smiling. there were people dancing and playing drums. buddists monks carried bowls of light. there was even the man with the long white beard and eyebrows and the flowing white gown that i have seen in drawings. the floats were a spectacle themselves. enormous, glowing birds and dragons, taller than a house that moved and breathed fire. and beautiful lotus flowers with young korean women on the top sensually waving her arms and flirting with the crowd, looking like thumbelina. it was a very cool night.



the problem with attending an event like this, is everyone else is attending it to. so while there are hundreds of people in the parade, there are thousands of spectators straining their heads in every direction trying to see. i met up with a few of my coworkers (who were very patient and kind about giving me directions over and over again the masses.) we started off in a coffee shop on the second floor, but quickly the hum of the festivities drew us into the crowd. being a woman of 5'4, it makes it difficult to find any place to see, even in korea. i'm amazed at how dumb some people are. these enormous guys well over six feet tall would stand right at the front and block everyone else's view. HEY! TALL GUYS!!!! DON'T DO THAT!!! jerks.
we finally settled on a large stone block to enjoy the all the decadence and wonder! it was a really nice time. the weather was nice, the people were great, and the as far as parades go, it was marvelous. i of course took a million pictures, which i will put up in the next day or so. but for right now, i have to get ready for work.