Moon Festival

Ok, I just posted, so I'll keep this short. I wanted to share a few pics of the moon festival festivities in the square outside the cultural center.  

Here is one of the flower arrangements during the daytime

Here's a Chinese car in front of another arrangement.  Those big red things are all covered with silk flowers.

Here's a huge earthworm!

This is at night.  There were these pieces of paper hanging on lines, and people would stand around reading them, and occasionally tear one down and go somewhere.  We found out later that they were sort of riddles, and people could get prizes for solving them.

One of the dance exhibitions in the amphitheater.

The reason for the festival: the moon was beautiful that night.

Another cool flower arrangement.

Nothing much else to report.  We had some drinks outside a bar on a pedestrian street close to my apartment last night.  At the place next door, some guy performed a long ritual blessing the place by burning incense and intricately folded packets of paper.  Just another interesting thing that happened that I've never seen before.

I had an awesome conversation with mom and the Kingsley tribe this morning.  It was really great to talk to those cousins again. It's been a long time.  My air conditioning and microwave got fixed this afternoon, so even though I had nothing to do with that, I'm getting a sense of accomplishment from it, and using it as an excuse to procrastinate and watch some TV!  Yeah!

Peace All,
Jon