Happy Year of the Rat!

Today, February 7, 2008, begins the first day of the lunar calendar and the Year of the Rat (or the Mouse, depending on who you talk to). Rats ain't all that bad. It's believed that people born in the Year of the Rate possess the animal's good qualities (?) They are thus considered to be clever, ambitious, hard- working, quick and sociable. And there you have it. These are shots from Beijing that I found on a Chinese news website. Festivities in Korea are much more about being with familiy. It's not such a public to-do here. But today I will be heading to an afternoon meal with my friend and lots of people here in Seoul. So...Saehae bo mani padusaeyo!

saehae bo mani badusaeyo

or, lots of good luck in the new year! tomorrow starts the three day lunar new year festival in Korea. lots of other Asian countries and peoples will be celebrating the new year as well, like, um, China, with like dragon parades and stuff. here in Korea it's called Seollal (설날 ). The holiday isn't as much of a parTAY as I've experienced with Chinese New Year in San Francisco. It's much more about being with family and hanging out and eating stuff and playing games.

The tradition involves being together as a family and staying up all night on new year's eve (February 6th this year, February 7th begins the lunar new year, the Year of the Rat). Kids are told that if they don't stay up all night, their eyebrows will turn white. Seriously. No one, and i mean no one, wants white eyebrows, yo. Recognize.

Everyone turns one year older on this day, and it is said that you must eat the traditional dak guk soup (a delicious soup with rice pasta) in order to actually earn that extra year in age. families play all sorts of traditional games and the kids get money from their relatives--the amounts of which were all over the map according to my students. some get the equivalent of about $5, others $100. dunno. and some kids insisted that all they'd do on seollal is play nintendo ds with their cousins. fascinatingly traditional, non?

we have three days off from school which i'll be spending with some friends in seoul. since we won't be around for the holiday, today was Seollal at our school. our morning kids dressed up in their traditional clothing (hanbok), and they bowed to me and my boss as we sat on the floor in front of them (the holiday involves a lot of bowing to your elders and such). i loved it! then, my boss proceeded to whip out a huge stack of 1,000 won bills (about $1). each kid came over to get one and bowed to my boss in the process. i was totally photo crazy today and made the kids have an inordinately long photo shoot. check out the pics below for the full experience!

Seollal (설날) 2008

priceless

this is barney. he has a friend named dino. every day barney comes to school dressed in this very puffy green coat that you see here. he is a green marshmallow, and when he is spotted in the hall, all you can see are cheeks squeezing through the sides of a puffy hood. it's especially funny when he does belly flops in the media room in the puffy green marshmallow coat. but not as funny when he does mean gorilla face. you don't even know. you don't even know.

i'm here with my choir from greenland

is what she said the last time i saw the icelandic queen at radio city music hall with dr. and mrs. tumnus. i don't think her shtick will be the choir this time. seems her posters have some uber-suess-like fiberglass headless, big-footed mascot. she's all about the multi-colored tribal stuff these days.
bjork will play seoul on february 16th, and after about 2 1/2 hours, i managed to: 1) register an account in the only online ticketing site in korea IN KOREAN (thanks to this amazing site about Interpark!); and 2) reserve two tickets, one at a 50% discount for some unknown reason (buy 1 get the 2nd 1/2 off, just like Wal-Mart, or something).

one helluva birthday rave

it was our dear friend badkitty's bday on monday. we took her out for some delicious food and dragged her off to a fish and grill place for coconut and kiwi soju juice and the very traditional korean birthday rave. it's truly spectacular, as you will see. we love our badkitty!

for more pics, check out my flickr site