Fireworks are not illegal

Wow. My New Year's Eve was awesome. I didn't know what to expect, because Koreans don't celebrate the December 31/January 1 New Year as much as they do for Chinese New Year (which falls at the end of January this year). Of course, we planned to go out anyway. To put the icing on the cake, I had a 3-day weekend. Perfect.

The regular group of foreign teachers, their Korean girlfriends, and my supervisor went to the city center to celebrate. On our walk there from the subway, there were people everywhere selling these long stick-like fireworks. We bought some, of course. They shoot up about 30-40 feet in the air and there is a small sparkle. They closed off the main street around 11 pm, and people started going crazy shooting their fireworks in the air for the next 2 hours. Nonstop. The air was thick with smoke and bright shooting fireworks. There was also a traditional Korean band dancing and playing their instruments in the street close to where we stood. At midnight, the city shot off big fireworks off the top of one of the taller buildings. We couldn't see them too well, but the street we were on was so amazing and filled with fireworks going off that it didn't matter. I took some pictures but it doesn't do it justice. I also took video with my camera. I wish I could share that with you...
Oh, by the way, it's also legal to drink in the streets of Seoul. Anytime. Even when shooting off fireworks. Weird.
It was an amazing site. Thousands and thousands of people were in the street, and there were big TV screens up on the buildings (like Times Square in NYC) so we could see the crowd. These are pictures of the crowd shooting off fireworks, and the backside of one of the Korean bandmembers.
I hope you all had a fabulous New Year's celebration and may 2006 bring many enriching experiences!