2x the fun at the festival

I got up about 7:20 to see what time it was. I went back to bed and put a heating pad on my stomach. It was just after 8 when I started my day. I drank water and read e-mail. I got dressed for my skype call. Then I looked up Burkina Faso because Chris saw a job opening there with the Peace Corps.
My tapping buddy called a little early. We worked on her issues and she seemed to find resolution.
I saw that Amber had texted me last night asking if I had ribbon in pink, green or blue. She wanted it for tying up baked goods for the bake sale tomorrow. I offered her the pink because I got it locally. She said then that she would go buy some for herself.
I called Myra to get Kim's number. I wanted to pick up trash on base in anticipation of Open Base day, and Kim had offered to help me. Myra said Kim had to work today and invited me to come over for a hair cut. So I went over, taking my tote bag and fanny pack just in case. She rolled up her rug and set out a chair. She put a cape on me and trimmed my locks, but not by much. She called it shaping. Then she got out the vacuum and cleaned up the hair.
She wanted to walk in town so we headed out. People were coming back from the parade and said it was going onto the ROK base. So we headed over there. We walked down the main street. City buses were bringing tourists in to take pictures. It was hard to believe that for the festival they were letting just anyone on their base. There were guards stationed along the road to make sure that people did not walk into off-limits areas. We walked as far as we were allowed, and then walked back to our base. We stopped at the FFTC center to use the restroom, and then went out our front gate.
We walked to Admiral Yi circle and up, then over to the Rotary circle. I wanted stuffed squid and Terri had said one tent restaurant had good food. They all looked alike, but just one was across the street from a pantyhose vendor. I asked how much the squid were. I think she said 2 for $15, but I could not eat two. So she wanted $10 for one. A different place had quoted me $7 earlier in the week, so I offered her 7 and she accepted. Myra wanted no part of stuffed squid or any food prepared in the festival by people who were not washing their hands often. That described most of them. I ate the squid, relishing every bite. She even brought me some broth to go with it.

Myra got a Chilsing to drink. Then we looked at the vendor booths. I got another coconut, drinking the water and saving the shell for later. Eventually we found ourselves by the stadium. Something was going on, but we could not tell what and not many people were there, so we just headed back to the base. Along the way, we walked to the center of Admiral Yi circle to see all the new stuff they built there. Walking up the mountain toward home, we picked up trash along the route the Koreans will walk tomorrow. We threw it in trashcans along the way. It wasn't quite as thorough a job as I wanted, but we did not have bags to put stuff in. I went home and laid down.
Myra called to say we had walked 6.75 miles. I restarted my practice nap. I was not able to fall asleep before the 20 minute alarm rang.
I checked the latest kombucha batch. For some reason it tasted faintly of coffee. The scoby was very large and very frilly on top. I tore the scoby apart, put the best parts back in the jar, put the worst parts in the jar of previous kombucha, and ate the moderate parts.
I listened to some interviews while making breakfast. Chris came home.
I had just finished eating breakfast and was listening to a video by Norm Shealy on pain management when Myra called. She said she and Scott were going walking in town to see the festival at night and would we like to go along? I asked Chris and he said yes, so we got ready and walked down to their parking lot. The four of us headed out the front gate. Chris and Scott talked shop for awhile. They were so good together that I had the feeling that between them they could solve any problem. We walked down to the canal and headed left. We looked at the light displays on the road and in the canal. The entrances to the canal itself were closed. All the bridges over the canal had been hastily reinforced due to the weight of all the people trying to take pictures. When we got to the end of the lighted displays, we headed back. We saw a store full of handmade items, that was only open for the festival. A lady there would make a custom necklace for me if I brought a picture of the dress. Myra bought a necklace and earrings there. I got a lighted cherry blossom headband at one stand. I had seen many variations of the headbands and liked this one the best. Myra took our pic by one of the lighted arches. I took their pic in return. Scott looked for the drink-in-a-bag man.

(He sells drinks in a ziplock bag so you can put it in your pocket until you are ready to drink it.) But we could not find him. He must have sold out.
Then we passed a place roasting a pig. The men bought a portion of pork. We sat on a bench and they shared it. An older Korean man (who might have been tipsy) sat nearby and spoke to us. When the men had finished, we walked some more, ending up at the tower. But the tram wasn't working and I did not feel like going up all the steps.
On the way back, we passed near the massage place. I stopped to take pics for Terri. Then we walked down the main street to the big circle and turned right toward the base. We passed a place called We Love Shrimp. I had heard other people rave about it. So for 9,000 won, I got 8 pieces of big shrimp and 4 pieces of toasted bread. We had a nice chat with the shrimp man. As we walked home, I ate some shrimp and gave the bread to Chris.
When we got home, I finished the shrimp. I turned off my lighted cherry blossom headband. I downloaded all my pics, and deleted all the not-so-good ones. I recreated my day, trying to remember what all I did and in what order. I paused to give the broccoli seeds their evening soak. Chris was on his laptop. I finished writing up my blog post and went to bed.
* a plate of sliced stuffed squid, Admiral Yi in his new habitat, Chris and me with a lighted cherry blossom headband. *