Bonfire and Makkoli in Seo Byen Dong

Thursday February 21st brought the first full moon of the Lunar New Year and a bonfire celebration in the Seo Byen Dong neighbourhood. This night was one of the best korean experiences I have had to date. Laura and I arrived at the bonfire before the guys, so we took a quick look around and settled by the heat of the fire. It wasn't too long before we were approached by a Korean man asking us to "come... drink". We rarely say 'no' to a drink, so we followed the man to a tent lined with tables of food and a drink we had never tried before called makkoli. We believe that we met some fairly important Daegu-ites that night and even collected a few business cards. When the guys finally arrived we made our way back to the fire and watched some of the fire spinning that was going on. I have seen a bit of fire spinning back home in Canada, but nothing like this. Obviously Koreans don't know the motto 'safety first' and were spinning around a thin wire attached to tin cans full of glowing ashes. Only once did a can break away from it's wire to fly meters in the air towards a group of people. Luckily it missed. By the end of the night had been given special gloves to help throw some of the outside logs into the flames and even came away with "staff" hats. What a great night!

Lunar New Year - Part Two

Day 3 of the trip took us to Bangdong Valley in Inge. We checked into our wilderness resort and then had the option to stay around our area to go 'ice fishing' or to go skating and play ice soccer. We didn't really feel like standing around on a frozen river hoping to catch a fish, so we decided to go play some games. As we left the resort on the bus we were glad we chose this option as the ice fishing looked pretty lame. We arrived at our destination and first had to get past the barbed wire fencing before we could join in any fun and games. Before seeing it we were very curious about the game of ice soccer. Was it really on ice? or just on a field of snow? Do we use a ball? Do we have special ice pick shoes? It was all a mystery until we arrived. The game of ice soccer was really on a rink of ice, there were no special shoes and we didn't use a ball at all - we used a tiny wooden puck. I found out that ice soccer was not really the sport for me, but a few of the waegooks (foreigners) really got into it. I think we even started to scare the Korean team a bit, as they actually had to start trying.

After I had had enough of ice soccer, Allison and I went over to the skate shack to lace em' up and go skating. Skating wasn't so fun on the old plastic figure skates and the speed skates sans ankle support, so we traded in our skates for plastic sleds with metal picks. We sat and played around on those for a while, until it was time to load back on the bus, home for the BBQ.

As soon as it started to get dark, we fired up the grill and the bonfire and brought out the soju and beer. All of the soju and beer led to lots of chatting, marshmallows and noraebanging, finally passing out early enough to wake up the next morning for our hike. The morning hike was a good way to fight off the hangover and a chance to get outside for some fresh air and silence. Even though there were 40 or so of us on the hike, I felt like it was a chance to get some alone time after being with sooo many people for the past three days. After we arrived back in Seoul, Keiran and I took the KTX back to Daegu. The 4 day trip was amazing, but at the end of it all it was nice to be back home.

Lunar New Year - Part One

This year I got the chance to celebrate two New Years within the same calendar year. Here in Korea, Lunar New Year (or Solnal) is the second most celebrated holiday next to Korean Thanksgiving. Lunar New Year's day fell on Thursday February 7th this year, so we ended up getting a 5 day weekend. For this 5 day weekend, me and 3 friends decided to check out a trip run by a tour company called Adventure Korea. This was a four day trip that included two days of snowboarding and two days of outdoor adventures at a mountain cottage.

The trip left out of Seoul early Wednesday morning, so the first step was for me and my friend Keiran to get to Seoul Tuesday night. We took the KTX (high speed train) from Daegu, arriving in Seoul just before midnight. We caught one of the last few subway runs to the area of the city where we were being picked up the next day and then went on a hunt for a 찜질방 (Jimjilbang). A Jimjilbang is sort of like a spa where you pay to go in, use the hot and cold baths, the saunas, and sometimes you can also spend the night. Neither Keiran nor I had stayed the night in a Jimjilbang yet, so we were not really sure what we were getting ourselves into. After being puzzled for a while by a mirage of the burning red flame (the sign for jimjilbang), we found the place, paid our 8,000 won and parted ways for the segregated male and female floors. I didn't take advantage of the spa facilities and tried to go to sleep right away. I probably ended up sleeping for about 45 minutes of the entire night. People kept coming in and out of the room, and it was next to impossible to sleep on the hard block pillow. In the morning I found out that my sleep was a bit better than Keiran's. He got to put up with the added bonus of drunk Korean men snoring and trying to snuggle up to him. I think the Korean men had the idea though, and the next time I try to sleep at a jimjilbang I will definatley have a couple of drinks first.

Since Allison and Ryan already live in the greater Seoul area, we had planned to meet up with them at the second pick-up spot. Because of tons of holiday traffic, we didn't end up seeing them until our lunch break. It took us a lot longer to get to Pheonix Park ski resort than anticipated, so our afternoon lift tickets got exchanged for night ones. There was no complaining from us, as we got a chance to settle into our hostel and relax a bit before we hit the slopes. This was my second time boarding, having gone for the first time only 4 days earlier, and I had a lot of fun that night. The slopes were pretty much deserted so it was the perfect opportunity to learn and practice my carving skills. The next day the sun was shining and it was the perfect day for boarding. We did some new runs, took the gondola to the top and had Beavertails for lunch. After having enough of falling hard on my tailbone and smashing my head pretty good a few times I called it quits. At the end of the day Ryan and Allison had done all the runs at the hill, and Keiran was very close to doing the same - they all even took a run down the half pipe.

That night we attempted to hold a guy vs. girl Olympics between Ryan/Keiran and Allison/myself. We got through a few events including: a Euchre game, air hockey, dance dance revolution, a basketball shootout, arcade horse racing and finally a game of pool. We were all pretty tired and called the night early, never really deciding on a winner.

The two days at Pheonix Park were amazing and we still had two days left on the trip. The next destination was Bangdong Valley. Stay tuned for Part Two to find out what we got up to.

Note: I'm going to try to link more outside pages to my blog entries, so be sure to check out the topics that are highlighted.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's day here in Korea is celebrated a little bit differently than at home. Actually, the 14th of every month is a recognized day for couples and sometimes for people who are single. Here's the lowdown on all of the days, as found in an English newspaper for Korean youth.

January 14th
Diary Day - A day in which couples exchange their diaries.

February 14th
Valentine's Day - A day in which women give their loved one chocolate and gifts.

March 14th
White Day - A day in which men give out candy to those who gave them chocolate on Valentine's Day.

April 14th
Black Day - A day in which bitter people who didn't receive any candy on either Valentine's Day or White Day celebrate by eating jjajangmyeon (noodles in black sauce).

May 14th
Rose Day - A day in which couples exchange roses and kisses.

June 14th
Kiss Day - A day in which couples kiss and declare their love for each other.

July 14th
Silver Day - A day in which couples introduce one another to their friends as well as exchange silver accessories.

August 14th
Green Day or Music Day - On Green Day, singles celebrate by drinking soju while couples take a walk in the woods. On Music Day, people go to clubs or music bars.

September 14th
Photo Day - A day in which couples take a memorable picture.

October 14th
Wine Day - A romantic day in which couples drink wine.

November 14th
Movie, Orange Day - A day in which couples watch a movie and drink orange juice.

December 14th
Hug Day - A day in which couples hug each other in the cold winter weather.


All I can say is that I'm looking forward to August 14th!

I just got back from my Lunar New Year trip. Stay tuned... a post should be up soon.