LARA IN KOREA!: JANUARY THE FIRST: FOUR MONTHS (HOLIDAYS (방학) + THE START OF A NEW TERM AND A NEW YEAR)

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Vier maanden zijn reeds voorbijgevlogen!

Today it's the first day of a New Year!

Four months have passed by so quickly. After a long time trying to write something on my blog, I don't know where to start...

After a three weeks holiday I'm now in second level of Korean language class. Next week I'll have midterms. I have been travelling and discovering more about Korea.

Some weeks ago we've seen our first snow here, winters are cold. We have had many Xmas parties and a memorable New Year's Eve...

The way Korean people celebrate Christmas and New Year is a kind of remarkable thing.

Although there are many Christians and Protestant people in Korea, Christmas is still just a 'couples day'. A day that you spend with your boy or girlfriend hanging around in Seoul doing romantic stuff, like for example ice skating or shopping (although I don't really see the romantic part in this)... Having dinner with your family is also a common thing to do, but it's far from being a must!

To not feel too lonely on a family or romantic day I celebrated Christmas with my foreign friends. We gave each other presents. For some of them it was their first Christmas, including presents! In their homecountries like India, Iran and Pakistan people usually don't celebrate this Josef-and-Maria-are-having-a-baby-day. After giving presents we went to eat some spicy Indian food (because we're always open for some new traditions, right?!;)) and went for ice skating. But unfortunately it was really busy and we couldn't get tickets to get on the ice skating ring, because the place was filled with romantic couples! :0

Well, and solar New Year isn't that important here either, as Korean people follow the lunar calender. So together with many Asians they will celebrate Lunar New Year (설날) on the 23rd of January. On the 31st of December I went out eating in a Turkish buffet (kwestie van niet altijd Koreaans te moeten eten he, want dat kan al eens tot Belgisch gemis leiden) and after that we went to a countdown.

Well, for the countdown we went to a place in the center of Seoul, where people would gather together to give a warmly welcome to the New Year by ringing a big gong/bell. It was not that interesting - read: kind of boring- so we left early, just after midnight. Streets were filled with peole. The amount of people attending this show made leaving the big countdown square a weird experience. People were pushing us in a stream towards the subway entrances. It was so extremely busy that I could not see where I was going and inside the subway station was totally crowded as well... So we had to wait a long queue to finally be able to catch a ride on the subway. Somehow it was a little bit scary as the metro went slower and faster frequently because of the overflowing amount of people on it. Mingling with the crowd trying to find our way back home we lost track of some of our companions. They got home by catching a cab. After that we bought some Korean style ricewine (소주) and celebrated New Year's at Umer's place. Before going to bed in the early morning I also saved July while she was kissing the toilets! ;) Happy New Year, mi hermana! :D

I have heard that on Lunar New year people Seoul will be empty and deserted because many Seoulers will go back to their 고향 (hometown). I still remember my times in Hanoi, during Vietnamese/Chinese New Year: while other people are getting themselve ready for a yearly exodus to their hometownes, we were paying neverending visits to family and friends for more than one week, eating and passing old banh trung.

Let's see how boring a bustling city as Seoul can get during Lunar New Year!...

EEN GELUKKIG NIEUWJAAR 2012

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A HAPPY NEW YEAR

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