Happy New Year!

This blog just went into it's 3rd calendar year!

** Again some picture and hopefully video are missing and will be added later **

I wasn't sure what I was going to do on New Year's Eve. Last year I went to Busan with Anna and Liezle, but this year New Year's day was on a Tuesday and I had to work on Monday, so going somewhere was really not an option. A few people posted random things on the Jinju facebook page, and one of them was that some sort of event would happen at Jinju castle from 11pm on.

I decided I would try that out and see what it was about. I didn't want to go alone, so I asked Kyeong Hee and Krista if they wanted to join me. I'm glad they did! They had the day off, so they met me after I finished at 9:30 at a coffee shop. We chatted and drank coffee (and I tasted a blueberry latte - better than you'd think, but not something I would order often) until just after 11. We caught a cab to the castle after walking for a bit. Kyeong Hee showed us how to pull each other over the ice on the sidewalk. Krista and I told her how that was hard for Americans because we can't squat the same way Koreans do.

Dragging people on the ice is "fun"

When we arrived at the castle it was very busy. There were lines all over the place. One line was for balloons. They are "hope" balloons and you are supposed to release it at midnight. The lines for balloons was really long, so we just borrowed some from a group of people to take a picture, then gave them back. They thought we were funny.

Me, Krista and strangers' balloons

Then we waited in a double line. The first part of the line was to fill out a wish slip. They handed you a thin strip of fabric and you wrote something on it with a marker. The second part of the line was for tea or coffee. After we got drinks, we took our slips over to a rope and tied them onto the rope.

Tying my wish on a rope

Then we walked over to the main area where they had some lantern type things set up. There was a make-shift stage with some dancers on it. Then they did a flash-mob dance to "Gangnam style" but changed it to Jinju style. It was very cute. We were toward the side of the stage and there were a fair amount of people, so we couldn't really see. Luckily, we were close to a big screen tv so we were able to watch everything that was happening. At that point we ran into some other foreigners. Then my camera died, so I asked them and Kyeong Hee to take pictures for me.

Me and Krista and a traditional outfit person (aka shell player - which made Kyeong Hee laugh when I called her that)

Some guy painted a wish for 2013 on a giant piece of paper with a mop, then the mayor of Jinju came out and signed it. Then they had a bunch of people dressed in traditional attire come out and they had a mock sword fight. Then the mayor said a few words and a count down started at 25. Everyone started counting at 10 and on 1 hundreds of balloons were released. As soon as the balloons were let go, they started ringing the giant bell. They rang it 33 times, which is apparently because of a sacrifice of people from years ago.

After the bell ringing, some really nice fireworks were set off. We watched those, then there was a mass exodus to surrounding areas. We didn't really know what was happening, so we went to the bell area to take pictures. Then a group of traditional people started dancing and playing instruments and Krista and I were dragged into the center. I got out quickly, but Krista got pulled back in by a lady and had to dance for like 5 minutes while Kyeong Hee and I laughed.

In front of the bell - the flash melted off my face :)

In the center of a crowd of dancing people

Then we went towards the tents where everyone had run to. One tent was handing out baked eggs, but they ran out before we got there. Another tent was handing out dduk guk (rice cake soup) which is the traditional food to eat on New Year's day. The line was crazy long (plus this version smelled kind of fishy) so we decided to skip it and eat it later during the day. The last line gave us rice cakes with red beans and peas in it. I don't really like it, but I got some and ate a few bites.

Dragon lantern thing - apparently a guardian of the 4 corners of the world. Not sure which direction this one is supposed to cover. Or if it's actually a dragon.

Phoenix. Another guardian. Or "giant chicken" as we called it.

Then we walked home in the cold. I am very glad that I decided to go to this event inside of staying inside. It was very neat to experience the traditional Korean events for 1-1 (even though they really celebrate lunar New year). I'm also glad I asked Kyeong Hee and Krista to go with me and I have a feeling I will be seeing much more of them in 2013. I hope all of you had wonderful New Year's (New Years'?) and that 2013 brings you every happiness.