I celebrated my first 설날 the past few days. 설날 (Sulnal for the non-Hangul readers) is the beginning of the lunar year, so it is celebrated with a three-day holiday where families gather together for various activities. Having no Korean family to celebrate with, this could have posed a problem for me, but thankfully I had been invited to go to Seoul to join Yun Hye's family for a few days to celebrate. On Saturday I sojourned up to Seoul and met Yun Hye's parents and sister, and we went off to explore some shops around the area. We met up with her cousin Han Sol, who I from then on referred to as Han Solo (Harrison Ford's character in Star Wars, for my non-Star Warsy readers) to my constant bemusement. The three of us ate some Japanese food in honor of Yun Hye's recent birthday. My dish was a soup filled with ice, the first time I'd tried such a dish. It had the normal vegetables and beef and egg but the icy broth caused me constantly to pause as I ate. It was a strange experience. We then went to see "The Changeling" with Angelina Jolie, a movie that failed to impress or interest me much. I was far more pleased with the caramel popcorn purchased at the theater than the seemingly pointless story about the false restoration of a missing child, a story geared only at pulling emotions from the audience.
Sunday morning we woke up early to attend a 7:30am church service. When we arrived at 7:30, the auditorium was full, the service had started, and I fought to stay awake during the half-hour Korean sermon. Upon returning to the apartment, we ate brunch and loaded up in the vehicles to head off to Wonju, a city about three or four hours distant by car. Traffic was pretty awful so I ended up reading much of McCarthy's Blood Meridian stopping only to eat some nearly frozen glazed chicken at a rest stop. The ride was worth the wait, though, for we arrived at a beautiful (and largely empty) luxury complex that hosted a golf course, a ski resort, and numerous other diversions. That afternoon I met the family in full--there were several of Yun Hye's uncles, aunts, and cousins, plus her 90-year-old grandmother who looked fifteen years younger. I honestly thought they were lying to me when they told me her age, for she moved, spoke, ate, and participated in all activities with the aplomb of someone much younger. After introducing myself and listening to the introductions of the various gathered couples, we played GoStop, a Korean card game. This game is quite unlike any Western card games, it being perhaps a mix of rummy, poker, and uno. I had learned the rudimentary rules some weeks prior, but I was that day schooled on the finer aspects of strategy and skullduggery while playing. Upon finishing the game, we prepared to go skiing, the lift ticket being cheaper after 6:30p. So we bundled up and went out. I rented skis, poles, a jacket, and pants and with my lift ticket included the cost totaled around $40. Granted, we had a discount, but it still seemed to be a great price. After gearing up, we met the slopes and I had my first rounds of night skiing. It's really pretty similar, except you don't have the incessant problem of sun glare. I tried all the runs available, even their sole black diamond, and throughout the four hours I fell not once. Translation: it's not a real black diamond if I can ski it unharmed. Nevertheless, it was fun and I feel like I honed my skiing skills to the point where I need further challenges to stave off onsetting ennui. Which led me to try snowboarding on day two.
When we awoke, it was Monday morning, the official 설날 day. That morning I witnessed the traditional bowing and respect paid to elders. First, since I was with a Christian family, they sang a hymn twice through and then listened to a sermon recorded on tape. Following this, the grandmother sat on a couch while her adult children gathered, bowed (all the way to the floor), and then gave her envelopes full of money. Next, the grandchildren bowed, and they received from the grandmother different envelopes of money according to their job status, school year, or other factors. I also participated in the bowing at the urging of the family, and not being one to ever want to make a cultural offense, did the bow with the sharpest precision I could muster. Relatives then switched places with the adults now on the couch and their children (and me) now bowing, and again money was proffered to the children. Despite my wishes to the contrary, two envelopes were issued to me and I was extremely honored by their gifts. Following the ceremony the family gathered for a second traditional game, yunori. In this game there are four sticks that are tossed on each players turn, and depending on which side they land on, that players pieces can move around a board. The first player to move all four pieces into the final spot wins. This game is actually much like "Sorry!" with the notable exception of the thrown sticks. I played as a representative of Yun Hye's family against the children from the other families, and again money was involved. The first place person had to pay no money to the pot, but the second, third, and fourth place finishers needed to pay 3,000, 5,000, and 10,000 won, respectively. Thankfully I came in second place. We then ate a traditional lunch soup named dokku, and then headed out to the resort's leisure area. There we had the choice of either joining the sauna or the swimming pool. I chose the swimming pool mainly to avoid the naked men that would be in the sauna and to instead play around in the heated pool. Unfortunately, none of the family members that spoke English (there were four) went swimming, so it was a very quiet hour for me. After playing several games on my own we returned to the room and prepared to return to the slopes. I was determined to try snowboarding given that the slopes were fairly uncrowded and minimally steep. It seemed like a good idea at the time. And it turned out it was. My first two attempts on the beginner's course were frustrating failures. The course sloped so gently that it was hard to maintain balance and I fell perhaps thirty times, landing on outstretched wrists most often. I then insisted to my teacher, Han Solo, who also was snowboarding, that we go to an intermediate course. There he told me the basic motions I needed to stay upright and moving at a reasonable speed, and on that course I grasped the concept and began to feel success. I refuse to believe that anything done well by millions of people is in any way out of my grasp, so armed with that determination I picked myself off the packed snow and kept trying until I could negotiate the entire course without falling. However, the belief that I was now fully competent in the basics was premature. I tried a different intermediate course by myself and near the bottom after having picked up speed I found myself going backwards down the hill. My attempts to slow myself or reorient my board resulted in a quick fall and the back of my skull colliding with the hard ground. I didn't black out, but I didn't get up quickly. It may have been concussive, but after having told myself I wasn't a quitter, I wasn't about to quit. I continued on with Han Solo on other courses and the only further injury I had was a small collision with a safety pole. Oddly enough, I consistently snowboarded better on the steeper terrain, and only when I reached the slow-going areas did I have difficulty staying upright. I returned that night battered, bruised, and with a pounding headache, but victorious nonetheless. I was really pleased with my courage to try snowboarding, because I'd avoided it in the past on the grounds that I am a good skier (which is true), but really I was afraid I'd be awful at it. Turns out I was pretty bad, but I did improve enough to not collide with other people or trees and I have that new experience under my belt.
Tuesday proved far more uneventful that 설날. We ate, packed up, and returned to Seoul, stopping at a restaurant for lunch. Yun Hye and I talked for nearly three hours in the van, which impressed me wen I stopped to think about it. When we arrived at Yun Hye's apartment we all ended up taking naps. That evening we ate a delicious bulgogi meal, and Yun Hye's sister Yun Gyeong and I went to get some Baskin Robbins ice cream for the family. We got a tub full of five flavors and returned to watch the latter half of "Casino Royale." Her sister and I had a good chat about destiny and living our dreams, and I'm hoping that it will have been beneficial to her. I also arranged for her to go on a blind date with a student from my school in Daegu, so we'll see how that works out.
Wednesday I woke up after an uncomfortable night's rest on the couch. The nap had ruined my sleepiness and made me restless. Yun Hye and her sister were off at work, leaving me with just her parents and an hour to kill before leaving for the train station. We shared an awkward bulgogi breakfast together (yes, leftovers from dinner can be eaten for breakfast here) and attempted to speak to one another. At one point her father took out a bowl of chocolate powder and a container of milk. By all appearances we were going to have chocolate milk, but after pouring my glass full of milk, I was instructed to eat a spoonful of the chocolate powder and then drink the milk. In any other situation I would have refused, thinking I was the butt of a silly joke. But I did as I was told by her eager parents knowing they weren't trying to humiliate me. I scooped a healthy portion of powder, dumped the dry stuff in my mouth, and then followed up with the milk. They sat watching me with amusement showing in their eyes and then her father scooped nearly twice the amount I had into his mouth and drank his milk the same as me. No joke, apparently. I'm still not exactly sure why they consume the powder in this way. It could be an idiosyncratic gesture of her father or a common Korean way or drinking milk. One may never find out. After the meal I was escorted to the subway station and I rode that to Yongsan Station and boarded my train bound for Gwangju. The ride was a bit uncomfortable because the fairly old woman that sat next to me in the aisle seat insisted on looking out the window over my body and stealing glances at me for about two hours. I tried to focus on the final pages of my book but found it difficult. Nevertheless I finished the epic novel and sat considering it pensively. The story concluded with a discourse on destiny and so I ruminated on that theme for the better part of the trip.
Upon reaching Gwangju I was accosted on the steps of the train station by a taxi driver who wanted to drive me wherever I was going. It was a bad choice. He insisted on being the stereotypical angry taxi driver that you see in movies, and he played his role well: yelling at elementary school vans, running red lights, intermittently cursing cars, flooring the pedal at lights he didn't run, etc. When I finally arrived at my destination I was glad to depart that wretched vehicle. I met up with Sharon and after work we chatted and then went downtown for dinner. We ended up talking for a long time and then met up with her boyfriend Dan. It was a good visit and it was nice to see an old friend.
So, basically this was the best trip I've taken thus far in Korea. I had some wonderful and unique cultural experiences, some fun on the slopes, and good times with my friends.
