Seoul for Seolnal

Happy New Year!

No, I'm not almost 2 months late with this post! I promise!... I'm only a week and a half late ;)
Korea, in accordance with the rest of Asia, celebrates the lunar new year more than the 'normal' new year.  Actual New Year was also celebrated with a countdown down town but Lunar New Year is considered a more important holiday and we got 5 days of work to celebrate!
But let's recount December 31st.
After work, my co-workers and I hoped in taxis and got down town for 11:30. We wove our way through the crowd of Koreans that were squeezed into a small square with a stage in the middle. There was a K-pop singer on the stage and you could write a message on a balloon to release into the sky at midnight.  We weren't overly interested in the singer and weren't overly enthusiastic about being shoved around by other people so we ducked out of the square before midnight. We slipped into a small mart and grabbed bottles of soju and had our own little celebration when we heard the cheering from the square. We then headed down to the bar area and hung out at the foreigner bar. I, in classic Keryll fashion, left the bar after a short stay and walked the hour home (starting off in the wrong direction, of course).  So, overall, not overly exciting or festive.  Koreans just don't know how to throw a party…
Lunar New Year ,설날,  was also pretty quiet, though it's possible I was just looking in the wrong places…I took at trip up to Seoul with some friends for the 5 days we had off. The bus ride to took about 3-4 hours, which wasn't too bad. We stopped for food halfway between point A and point B for a washroom break and food.  We had grabbed some roasted potatoes (which were not as exciting as we were hoping).  When we got back on the bus, an old couple sitting across the aisle from us pulled cobs of corn out of their bags and had a lovely little munch session as we continued on our journey.  This seemed like a strange travel food to me and my students have since confirmed that this was not normal.  However, on the return trip, I did buy a cob of corn at the rest stop… It was rubbery and cold and had very little flavour… Quite disappointing!
Seoul itself was awesome!  We got there Saturday afternoon and walked around Sincheon, a shopping area near two of the Universities.  The main goal of our trip was to eat as much 'foreign' food as possible while we were there since anything but Korean food, burgers and pizza are rare to find at a decent price anywhere else in this Country.  We started our gastronomically amazing trip with some Indian curry and naan bread.  The naan was strangely sweet, but I wasn't surprised about this in the least.  Koreans have an aversion to anything salty (except seaweed) and they casually drizzle everything in honey.  We also had Bingsu, which is the Korean equivalent to ice cream.  It's essentially shaved ice with condensed milk with fruit toppings.  It is generally served with a red bean paste for added sweetening and flavour (I know it sounds weird, and it is… Beans and ice cream… but you get used to it after having it a few times. Haha. You can also get bean-filled pastries and drinks!).
The next day was my birthday, so I decided to be a princess and spend a few hours walking around
Gyongbok palace.  We got there just in time to see the changing of the guard.  The palace grounds were less colourful than usual since it's February.  The usually green lawns and flowering gardens were brown, but it was still enjoyable to walk around and take a look at the old buildings.  We also saw many girls dressed in the traditional Korean hanbok dresses.  We later discovered that there was a promotion on where people in traditional dress could get their pictures taken inside one of the rooms on the palace grounds.
Once we had exhausted our photo walking options at the palace, we followed the sound of distant drums to a New Year celebration just outside of a museum.  We watched the dancing and listened for a bit, then moseyed on into the museum.  They had an exhibit devoted to the Japanese-Korean food trade.  Since Japan occupied Korean at one point, many foods and traditions were exchanged and adopted by the two countries.  It was interesting to see the differences in eating styles and general food preparations… though slightly strange… The rest of the museum was about Korean history respectively.
Once we were satisfied that there was nothing else left for us to do up at the palace, we went to Insadong to do some souvenir shopping :) We then went over to Itaewon for dinner.  Itaewon is THE foreigner food area in Seoul. We went on a mild scavenger hunt to find a Mexican restaurant which was in a make-shift location above a stripper joint (called big jugs).  It was amazing. I have never been happier to eat a burrito in my entire life.  After that, we followed our noses/carefully laid out map to a pie bakery where we carefully selected a nutritional breakfast for the next morning. Hehe.
Over the next few , we managed to have coffee in the Hello Kitty Café and the Nature Café which has sheep! Though not as exciting as the Dog and Cat Cafés, these were still interesting to see.
We also spent a good amount of an evening at a Canadian bar.  Situated in Itaewon (of course), we ate dinner at the Rocky Mountain Tavern. Not only did they have Moose Head, but it was wing night!! We got the classics; honey garlic (literally, honey and garlic), buffalo and BBQ, but we also went full out Canadian and also sampled one of their beaver sauces!  Maple mustard.  Heavenly.  We were surrounded by foreigners, they had pictures of the RCMP on the wall, they had a hockey game playing on the TV… It felt like home. We were so happy being there, we pulled a Scrabble board out of the bookcase in the corner and sat there for a few hours playing games :)We also went to the Trickeye museum which was not as exciting as I was hoping, though still pretty fun.
And, of course, an excursion with me wouldn't be complete without an incomprehensible meandering into uncharted territory… My lovely friend, who had been playing tour guide all week, allowed me to aimlessly wander after a stroll through the Ewha Women's University grounds.  Though we started in a well populated down town area, I some how managed to lead us into an… industrial… suburb… area with nothing of interest.  We found a station that got us onto a commuter train that lead us back onto the main subway route but my friend was amazed at how I had managed to get us lost so thoroughly.  Needless to say, after that I was no longer allowed to navigate… Haha
Overall, it was an awesome trip! Happy New Year(s)!