firey works.

oooooh.ahhhhh.

Last night was another adventure in Busan.  The International Fireworks Festival was on this weekend, so we had planned to go to Gwangali Beach to watch the show.  We headed out around 6pm because we had heard that it was VERY crowded and we needed to get there early.  

The bus was the first taste of the crowd, wall to wall, no wiggle room.  Tim and I were talking loudly in English, saying things we probably wouldn't if we thought anyone could understand us, and then a Korean girl about our age and she said " Hello! How are you?". HA! We ended up becoming friends with her and exchanged some info when we parted ways on the subway. Min!

We were meant to meet  Christine at Suyeong subway station and were met with walls of people when we got off the train... so we were a bit late, but found her eventually.

We walked to Gwangali, stopping at a Family Mart for a drink on the way, where we met a Korean couple who have a son studying at York University in Toronto.

We didn't really know where we were going, but we just followed the giant crowds and eventually found our way to the beach, picking up a few pogos on the way, of course. All the best foods....

At the beach, were more people than I've probably ever seen in any place at one time.  I have no idea how to count people, but I want to say 100-200 thousand people.

We staked a spot on the road, and just sat like the Koreans who were having little picnics on their little mats. 

The fireworks started  - with a bang! - at 8, and went for about 50 minutes.  It was AMAZING.  I have never seen fireworks like that before. Just, non-stop amazingness.

From where we were we couldn't get the full effect, but seeing them from the beach with the bridge in the background must have been unreal.

Following the fireworks, we went to a bar called Thursday Party and ended up seeing a few of the teachers from our school. I also finally ran into Liz, a friend from Montreal who was the person who hooked me up with her recruiter for Corem.   

Funniest part of the night:  

I dared Christine to jump into the back of a pick-up truck that was driving by at about 10km/hour. She bolted out into the street, barrel-rolled into the bed of the truck, then threw up over the side of the truck. With about 100 people watching. 

Finally the driver noticed , stopped, and she got out.  She actually didn't throw up, but just spit out her drink because she was laughing, but a throw-up makes the story ten times funnier. 

Good work Cage.

After staying at Thursday Party for a while, and teaching some freeze dancing, I escorted Tim down the street to find a cab.  As we were waiting for one, a car pulled up, and let us in.  Tim told him where we live and he said he'd take us there ( in some Korean way ). I thought it was a little strange that he stopped for us but chalked it up to Korean hospitality ( warning #1).  As we started driving, I looked at the guy driving and noticed that he was wearing a grocery bag on his head (warning #2).  As I turned to Tim and told him I thought we should maybe not be in this guy's car, the driver, swerved around a corner and almost drove into a group of people crossing the street (warning #3).  I told the driver to stop and we made a swift exit from the death-mobile. Thank GOD!

Lesson of the night: don't take rides from men with bags on their heads.

We finally made it home in two pieces,  after about an hour of cab hailing.