"It Was A Very Good Year"

Happy 2010!

Koreans celebrate solar new year on January 1st - aslo called Yang-nyeok Seollal (양력설날) or more commonly: Seollal (설날)

Korean New Year is typically a family-oriented holiday. The three-day holiday is used by many to return to their home towns to visit their parents and other relatives where they perform the ancestral ritual known as charye (차례) (worshiping of ancestors). Many Koreans dress up in colorful hanbok. Tteokguk (떡국) (soup with rice cakes) is commonly served.

Many Koreans greet the New Year (both Western and lunar) by visiting East coast locations such as Gangneung and Donghae in Gangwon province, where they are most likely to see the first rays of the New Year's sun.

Near city hall, selected people in Seoul help to literally "ring in" the new year by ringing the toll bell at Bosingak. People from all over come to see and hear it as the clock ticks down the seconds until the New Year. It is similar to seeing the ball drop in Times Square. People in the streets shoot off roman candles and other fireworks too (which is now illegal to do so, but the police can't enforce it).

 

My New Years was relatively quiet. I originally wanted to go into Seoul, but then did some more research into what the experience would entail. It was going to be -13 degrees Celsius, windy, and wall-to-wall people cramming every nook and cranny within a half mile of the main event site.  Last year there were protests against the much disliked president Lee Myung-Bak, and riot police were called out creating a panic. (I didn't want to ring in the New Year by being cold, uncomfortable, and possibly trampled to death).

Instead, Hwayoung and I had dinner and watched a The Blind Side. Maybe next year we'll stake out a coffee shop closer to Bosingak to watch the festivities.

Here's a video I put together about 2009: A Year in Review

"Feels Like Today"

Happy Chuseok!

How's it going everyone? I miss you all back home, but I'm having a blast here! This is one amazing place to visit, and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to experience Asian culture but not pay an arm and a leg for a vacation (like Japan can be).

I feel as though I had rode the subway all day yesterday, but I had a great time in the neighborhood of Insadong in Seoul.
It's an ecclectic area, similar to that of Greenwich Village, NYC. (or so I'm told)

I accompanied Hwayoung, to pick up a traditional rice cake for her fathers birthday and just to look around the area.

We had a great time, ate some amazing food, and visited Jongro to see some palaces, and just have some overall fun.

I got to see how rice cakes called "tteok" are made - and now and pretty much dead set against eating them raw. They're very sticky and have little flavor, but are not bad when cooked in some spicy pepper sauces.

I also got to see how a traditional honey based string candy is made. I don't remember the name of it, but it was simply amazing to see (if what the guy says is true in the video). They make it out of a block of hardened honey, and separate it by hand (you can hear them counting) all the way up to over 16,000 separate strands.

Here are some photos I took of our little excursion, plus you can find all of them HERE, or by clicking the photo itself.

Hwayoung mixing the seafood and veggie bibimbap 

that is served on a hot plate rather than a stone bowl.

I'm guessing we should go right...

I'm pretty much speechless at this one...

Traditional board games played during Chuseok...

The famous tin man of Insadong...