Gwangju is like a box of chocolates... You never know what you are going to get!

Ah, I love this city. It is certainly never boring here!

Take today for instance. Jon and I decided to go downtown to catch a quick lunch before he headed off to school. We took the bus and our bus took a detour so we had to walk a long way. This isn't all that unusual. Our bus passes through the main "square" so to speak of the city and it is often closed to traffic for something or other. I have enjoyed many random festivals in this spot! Today we figured was another such festival.

Our afternoon progressed normally - we ate our lunch and began making our way back to the school. On our route we came across what appeared to be a protest/strike/sit in/demonstration or something of the sort. Finally we have the reason for our bus detour! Anyway it seemed a little serious and protest like - certainly not a festival, so we walked through it and to the school.

About a half an hour later I was heading to the bus stop to go home, having already forgotten about the protest. Ah, but friends - it had not forgotten about me.

All I wanted to do was cross the street, walk to the bus stop, catch my bus and go home. Oh if only things were ever that easy! I made it to the intersection to cross the road only to see that the sit-in protest had turned into a parade! We are talking about hundreds of people here, walking down the street where my bus is supposed to be! The police were directing traffic so it was still flowing in both directions just only on half of the width of the road. The other half was my parade. I finally made it across the street (walking through the protesters!) And then realized, my bus stop is in the middle of this parade, how does this work?

Long story short I saw every single protester walk by me, singing and pumping their fists. I still have no idea what they were protesting about nor will I likely ever know. At one point I wondered to myself - should I be nervous right now? Are they protesting about foreigners or something? But I looked around and saw little kids and old ladies waiting for the bus with me and everything seemed ok. I smiled and waved at the protester guys and they smiled back. They sang their protest song. I waited patiently for them to move on. Many busses came while the parade was going past and some brave Koreans ran through the protesters to the middle of the road to hail a bus (yes you hail busses here - otherwise they won't stop for you) luckily, my bus came just as the protest was ending.

I gratefully sank into my seat, glad to be off the road and out of the cold. It still took a ridiculously long time because we were following behind the protesters (we were going so slowly that the protesters kept passing us - maybe I should have just joined them!)

Anyway, I made it home in one piece! What an adventure. It was a little bit surreal but fun nonetheless!

Tonight Jon and I are going to opening night of the new Harry Potter movie. Harry Potter is unbelievably popular here, it is SO crazy! We already have our tickets for tonight and theaters here have assigned seats so that's nice. That should be fun.

Anyway thought I would fill you in on my adventures and misadventures! We love you all so much and happy December!

Emily