2008 September Gangwon University Festival

A co-worker called me last night and invited me to come and check out the festival at Gangwon University. I was in a taxi going right by the university when he called and I could see some cool fireworks, so I asked Julianne if she wanted to go and we did . . .

Arriving on campus we saw this,

I got to see some authentic Russian cooking done by these three ladies who are graduate students at the university . . . I ate a little (I was too full from dinner and wished I hadn't been).

If I remember correctly this is called something like "Bolotny"--it was really good.

Shane and Brendan eating some of the awesome food . . .

Julianne and I weren't drinking, and were too full to eat anything, so we went outside and walked around. We ran into Winnie the Pooh's long lost cousin . . .

We also ran into some rather scary (or at least they were trying to look intimidating) guys in uniform. I asked a student why they were there and was told that they were there to stop any fights that might break out. I thought this was hilarious as most of them didn't look like they could stop two high school boys from fighting let alone the kind of brawl that could happen if things got out of hand in the 20 or so beer tents that circled this field. Their haircuts were also very 'interesting' as I've never really seen too many people in uniform with hair that goes below the neckline . . .

Funky light decorations . . .

Sexy dancing?

Hmmmm . . . might want to practice a little more, lol.

After the 'sexy dancing' this drumming group came out and performed for about 20 minutes.

This drummer did a solo for about 5 minutes. She had a lot of enthusiasm, and was pretty good, but FIVE MINUTES???

Apparently hair-tossing is mandatory when drumming. Synchronized hair-tossing is preferable . . . lol.

There were a lot of people at the festival . . .

A LOT OF PEOPLE . . .

Near the end the fire canons and smoke machine started going nuts--the problem is that there was no real connection to the performance that I could see. I think the fire canons were in sync with the beat, but it didn't really do much to add to their performance . . . if they had had a good lighting director, and special effects guy, the performance would have been a lot better.

Hmmmm, YUM! Nothing says "FESTIVAL" like roast pig!!!


Walking home I saw, yes, a SPIDER.

This guy (girl?) is in the top 3 now for biggest spider I've seen in Korea.

J