Fireworks Competition

One of the nice things about living here in a huge city like Seoul is that they have cool things like this. I didn't get any pictures of it because they all look the same. It's one of those things you see when you're there. We walked down the Gangbeyon Expressway to the Dongjak Bridge by our place and saw a decent show for about an hour but the kids were cold because it was over the Hangang River. It's funny in a place like this- people just pull onto the bridge and park their cars so they can watch the fireworks. Nevermind the thousands of cars they're holding up that can't cross the bridge. That's what is so funny about Korea. I think a lot of people are in the 'small town' mentality and forget that there's a lot of people around here. Certainly 15 years ago before more people had cars, it was probably OK to park your car in the middle of the road because no one would care and the 14 cops in the whole town couldn't find you, let alone bust you for it. There's still 14 cops and none of them came by to tell people to move. I think we saw one on the way to Seoul Tower - asleep in his car.
I took the 3 girls to Seoul Tower and had to call for backup in Korean because the old cabbie didn't think he could get me to the tower. I called Major Ji Duck Hong to tell the cabbie to get me to the entrance to the park and I'd walk the rest of the way, but boy it was a long ways up there. We paid the 2000 won to get in and he was able to drive us up to Seoul Tower- I think he was trying to ask if we needed him to take us home, but then an old couple wanted to take the cab, so that solved that one. There's actually a bus that goes up there, but it's not marked very well as to where it stops. So now we know. You can see quite a ways up there. As usual, Violet was a huge hit, they love the red hair on that kid. It would be funny if she actually did learn Korean and people would see another American kid that speaks Korean.
A comment on this part of the world. In the last 5,000 years of people being here, I'd be willing to bet that this last period of 55 years is the longest this area has gone without a war. Granted, it's just a stalemate, but at least the Japanese aren't out making war, the Russians aren't trying to expand (around here anyway) and the Chinese are staying put. There's a lot of economics at play as well, but I dare say the American presence is a good thing around here with the potential for things to get much worse without us around. So there's that, but you'll never get a peace-nik to say thanks for that. They just hate war and those of us trained to make it. But that's why they're wrong- and free to be that way.