Last weekend there was a lantern festival all weekend. On Sunday was the final day where there is a big parade at sundown. Before that, one of the major streets in front of the main temple was
closed off. Along the street there were all these tents set up that were offering anything you could imagine. There were tents that were offering free yoga, a tent for playing Korean games, a tent for Korean food, there was even a guy giving out free 
hugs. The best tents though were letting people make their own lanterns!!! As many people know I LOVE making crafts, I especially like making pretty crafts. So after much harassment and being really annoying,
I convinced Kiwi to make a lantern with me. After about 2 minutes though we realized we did not have the patience to make one so we joined forces and made one together. Kiwi was gracious enough to let me keep it (though this was probably because she knew I would wrestle her for it). We also went to the temple which was so crowded it was not really my oasis that I had written about earlier. It was still pretty though to see all the lanterns. After that we went to get dinner at a very traditional Korean restaurant. I ended up with this delicio
us soup. It was an 
entire chicken in a soup kettle. The chicken was stuffed with this really good rice and ginger. After dinner we headed to the parade. The nice thing about Korean parades is they set up chairs along the parade route! Not shitty chairs either, they were the really nice sturdy plastic chairs with arm rests. They have two rows of them so you can just sit and watch. And if you don't get a seat at least if you are 3 people deep you can still see since the people in front are sitting. It is pretty genius and enjoyable
The parade itself was beautiful. There were thousands of lanterns and probably that many people who were walking in it. Many people were dressed in traditional Korean wear but there
were also people dressed in normal clothes. There was actually one group of older women dressed in hiking gear, it was pretty funny. Also, as the people were walking they were handing out their lanterns! Jennifer got a lantern which I also somehow managed to keep (pretty excited about that too). One of the best parts about the parade were the actual people in it. They were so happy to be in it! We were towards the end of the route yet when they got to us there were still huge smiles and they were waving.
It was just so genuine and it made the parade that much more
enjoyable. I just love how proud Koreans are of what they do and how they put there w
hole selves into it.
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