Full Moon Festival

Sorry this entry is coming a bit after the fact, it's been getting really busy over here. The city of Ha Noi spent a whole week preparing for the Full Moon Festival. This included decorations, thousands of stores opening up to sell mooncake, and the emergence of numerous Lunar Markets. The markets prove a bit troublesome since they literally shut down traffic in most areas of the Old Quarter, making my commute from work a bit more intense than normal. If I had written this during the actual week of the festival, it would have included a lot more complaining about absurd traffic jams, but at this point I can reflect on how interesting it all was. The Lunar Festival is basically an excuse to give mooncakes to people, and for children to dress up in costumes, carrying around crazy light-up toys. It's technically a holiday for the children, so my school had an entire day devoted to Full Moon celebrations. This means that all the students arrived in various costumes (ranging from Spider man and white fluffly fairy dresses, to bird masks and strange capes). It was very cute, despite the level of student craziness the festival was paired with. We had a very energetic dragon dancer, some Vietnamese clowns (who definitely weren't funny), some blind people singing traditional songs, and a midget Michael Jackson dancer. All in all, a slightly strange mix of performers, but the students had a great time. As fun as it was, the traffic on the actual night of the Full Moon Festival (this past Wednesday) was horrific. It was basically people standing still on motorbikes for about 15 minutes per intersection. You can imagine how long it took me to get home...

The night after was Parent-Teacher night. I had to work from 7:30 AM to 4 PM, then host Art Club until 5 PM, cram in some dinner, and begin getting my classroom ready by 6 PM. A very hectic day, but since most of the parents don't speak English, my entire presentation was through the interperter, making it very easy for me. I did a lot of standing around, nodding, and smiling, which suited me just fine after a long day of work. By the time I was finally able to go home (nearing 8PM) I couldn't imagine my day improving at all, but en route back to my house, I found that all the 1,000 Year Anniversary lights on my street had finally been lit! The lights have been hanging but not turned on for almost 2 months now, so I have been waiting patiently for the night they were finally switched on. Luckily, it was on a night when I needed cheering up the most, so it was a really welcome event in my evening. Hanging lights, lotus lanterns, and lighted dove banners span the street of Dien Bien Phu, crossing my house, and continuing down the street. In addition to the lights, flowers have been placed everywhere, making it currently one of the most beautiful streets in Ha Noi. Obviously this makes me very proud to live here, as I am bombarded with decorations on a daily basis. I think I will go out tonight with my camera to take some pictures so some of you back home can get an idea of just how crazy all these lights are. Ha Noi has really outdone itself decorating for the 1,000 Year party, I've never seen the city so lit up, so clean, or with so many flowers. Every day someting new appears in honor of the celebration, and I know that once it finally hits, the whole city is going to be in chaos. I plan on not taking my motorbike out if I can help it, since traffic is sure to be at a standstill, but I have to work the whole week. This fact leaves me a bit apprehensive about my daily commute, but Son told me that the government is making people from the countryside park their bikes outside Ha Noi and take a bus in, in an effort to curb traffic. Even with this system in place, I still think it's going to be insane, but I guess I will just have to wait to find out.