A Seoul-ful New Year: part 3

For Lunar New Year's Eve, a group of cousin Breda's friends and I rented a chateau/cabin/pension out the in South Korean countryside. We grilled meat/veg skewers and played Scrabble, and then because we're old, we were basically in bed by 10:30. Arpit and I rang in the New Year by watching an episode of Seinfeld. This was moderately more exciting than my Western New Year's Eve where I fell asleep on the couch until 12:05 while Tanu and Mengchen watched Pirates of the Caribbean in 3D. I'm pretty much a rock star.

Self pity aside, the cabin was really fantastic. We slept on the floor--which is apparently the way Koreans do slumber--but the floor was heated, so any discomfort on my part was overshadowed by the feline-like method of curling up on the warm floor.

 One phrase I heard quite a bit was "blah blah blah It's good for your health!" Included in these admonitions was to sleep on a marble mattress. yep, you heard right. stone.

Sleep Number: infinity.

 After our country excursion, Breda and I visited a lil village museum that houses traditional structures from around Korea. For New Years activities, they hosted quite a few folk games.

the STICK GAME!

the father would get the top spinning and his daughter would just start whacking
at it relentlessly.  She may have enjoyed making her dad re-start the top more than
actually playing with the toy.

tying New Year's wishes to be read by the wind.

KIMCHI POTZ.

 We found the main stage where several young men in traditional attire were banging drums and twirling streamers from their hats. Admittedly, it looked a little silly but must've taken quite a bit of coordination.

Then a group of break dancers rushed the stage and I anticipated a battle of the boy bands. But, alas, they worked together in an odd anachronistic mash-up.

The time came for demonstrations! Being one of the few white people in the crowd, we stood out easily. To Breda's delight, she was chosen to do a plate-spinny-thing.

so much glee. 

magical Breda is magical.

They appreciated her help so much that she got hugs and lots of attention. She loved it.

Quite a few food stands sold snacks outside the village. My favorite: red bean-filled fish-shaped waffles.

My least favorite: boiled silk worms that smelled like musky dust.

"good for your health." yeah, right.

Our bones started chattering with the setting of the sun, so we headed over to a BATH HOUSE (no pictures allowed). The hour preceding pajama attire consisted of lounging about nude in different saunas. I made the mistake of dipping into an extremely hot bath, so I turned quite a few heads as the hairy pink blob as I walked by. I may like attention, but even that was a bit too much.

A Seoul-ful New Year: part 2

A mere one year after the pseudo-military dictatorship ended in South Korea, Seoul hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics. In fact, "the desire not to taint the Olympic Games with military dictatorship and riots served as an impetus for Korea’s transition to democracy." Thank you, Olympics.

If my primary title is Mister Christmas, then a secondary title would be Connoisseur of the Olympiads, so seeing the Olympic venues was an absolute must during my stay in Seoul. Breda was kind enough to accompany me in the sub-zero weather.

funky art piece in the courtyard. 

a hall to honor and house the best sport evar.

We found workout equipment in the shadows of buildings where the world's best athaletes competed. I'm pretty sure that it's for "golden-aged" citizens to use in their daily exercises, but that didn't stop us from playing on it.

inspired by the Olympic spirit, Breda works her... um,
I actually have no clue what half of these machines work.

look mom, an Olympic rabbit!

In case you didn't know, Korea has been awarded another Olympics for 2018 (sheesh, why hasn't the US won a bid recently? Chicago tried going for 2016, but Rio nabbed it). So Seoul built a World Peace Gate adjacent to the 1988 sites.

Koreans skating under the World Peace Gate while dreaming of beating Apollo Anton Ohno.

After taking in our fill of Olympic Dreams, we headed to a huge museum in Korea. We mainly looked at pottery. fancy.

Breda has lived in Korea for over two years now, and one of her friends invited us to their place for dinner! by then my palate had adjusted to kimchi, but my legs/feet hadn't adjusted to sitting on the floor (I'm such an old man).

yes, even grandma (<3!) sits on the floor like a pro.

 after a delicious dinner, the uncles insisted on us playing a traditional game or two. We picked up on the first one, which basically consisted of throwing four sticks onto the ground. Your piece moves on a board depending on what position the sticks land.

It was made especially exciting by the non-sober uncles who danced around with the sticks and yelled out with gusto the number of moves your piece got.

"do!" "gen!" "gal!" "yuk!" "mo!"

Just as soon as I finally got the hang of the stick game, they pulled out a card game that twisted mah jong and poker. Actually, I have very little clue as to how the game was run. I just played along and held cards while someone told me what to do.

I do know that to play a card, you had to flick your wrist so that it would land with a satisfying fwap on it's paired card. I did that real well.

Then after dinner we got to play with hedgehogs!!!! I'd never held one, but it was kinda like cuddling a hamster that had overdosed with very stiff hair gel. And they have adorable noses.

hedgehog whisperer 

hi.

The only thing that topped dinner, games, and hedgehogs was getting to see the family's kimchi refrigerator (yes, you read that right) and pots in which soy and other sauces are made! I was probably a little too excited to see real-life kimchi pots, but I figure that if they could jump around with sticks and plastic playing cards, then it was ok for me to take a bajillion pictures of the pots and fridge.

A Seoul-ful New Year: part 1

The semester at PKU ends just before Lunar New Year - it's like their Christmas/New Year holiday. This year Lunar New Year began in late January, and nearly everyone in China--including my lab mates--go home for the holiday (they say it's the largest annual mass migration) so I flew to South Korea to spend the holiday with cousin Breda! As children, we'd seen each other about once a year at Christmas, but that regularity ended with the death of our shared grandpappy in '98, so it was a fun, long-awaited reunion.

As might be expected with any other Asian country, there were many similarities between China and South Korea, but also quite a few differences due to several factors. I think I'll turn this into a brief foto gallery and fill in with commentary.

Structures had similar styles to Chinese counterparts, but often the colors were a bit more muted or "earthy." As an Oregonian, I can appreciate the organic approach.

Token shot juxtaposing the ancient with contemporary.

prepping a tree at a temple for Lunar New Year!

temple ceiling

We went to LotteWorld, which is Korea's version of Disneyland. fun and wild times were had by all.

oh yeah, I turned 28. nbd.

fiendfyre!

Inspired by Tanu's panda hat, I went on a cat-themed spree in Korea.

I do what I want.