Happy Lunar New Year

This weekend was the Lunar New Year, or Chinese New Year as most people refer to it at home.  In Korea it is called Seollal and is celebrated as a very traditional holiday, much like the Chuseok (Thanksgiving) holiday in the fall.  Everyone returns to their hometown in the countryside, leaving Seoul much less busy than normal.  While with their families, Koreans wear the traditional clothing, hanbok, bow to the elders, eat a lot of food, and remember their ancestors.  They also take gifts with them when they go to their hometown.  Usually things like gift boxes of spam or shampoo, same as Chuseok.  We were hoping there would be some traditional celebrations to celebrate the holiday but there actually wasn't too much going on in the city since most people go to the countryside.  We heard that some of the more populated provinces and cities in the countryside will have big parades with the dragons like you see in pictures from China during this New Year, but in the city there wasn't really too much happening.  That was okay though because the best part of the Lunar New Year for us was an extra day off :)  Working in Korea means we don't get many days off outside of our two day weekend.  For some reason this extra day off has been especially welcoming to us and I'm pretty sure every weekend should be three days!  The national holidays in Korea seem to come in clumps, we will have another three day weekend the week after next, and then we will go a few months without any extra days off.  It has been so nice to be able to relax for the better part of three whole days this weekend.  Having a much more comfortable place to live has made our weekends much more relaxing and welcoming, though they also feel much shorter!  That's why our weekend consisted mostly of some crocheting for me, reading, video games and movies.  In honor of Valentine's Day this week we also went to a nice buffet restaurant we had been wanting to try, which was delicious (especially the waffle bar) and went for a walk in a snowy park to take some pictures (will be uploaded soon).  I even almost made it through an entire weekend of 3 days without baking anything.  Almost.  But then Eric left me alone to go see a movie with some friends this afternoon and I kept seeing some bananas that were starting to turn a bit brown in the fruit bowl.... So yes there's currently a loaf of banana oatmeal bread in the oven.  This weekend I finally got around to buying a mixer so I kind of needed to try it out anyway.  I also have plans for a Valentine's dessert to make for Eric this week since he insists on celebrating Valentine's Day the Korean way.  More to come on the way Koreans celebrate Valentine's Day later this week....

 Some of my students wearing hanbok at our Seollal party a couple weeks ago

Some students bowing in their traditional clothes.  Boys bow differently than girls.  On Seollal they bow to their elders and then receive money to represent good luck for the next year.

 We even found hanbok for dogs!!

                        
An example of Seollal gift set.  Twelve cans of spam for $50.  It did come in a nice wood box though...

And lastly some snow in the park.  Notice how there are no people in this picture.  We have found it to be pretty rare to get a picture with no people in it while in Seoul!