Christmas and Ringing in the New Year in Hanguk

"Say-hay bok mahni badeu sayo!", which means "I hope you receive many new year blessings!" in Korean.

Erik and I have been busy celebrating here in Ganseong. Our Christmas was calm and quiet, but lovely. We basically chilled in our pj's in front of the TV watching Christmas movies. Christmas morning we slept in, made a big brunch, and opened up presents. I got Erik "Gumption" (comedian Nick Offerman's second book) and a Parks and Recreation themed mug. Erik got me an orchid and my first Korean children's book:바다에 가요 ["Trip to the Beach"]. We've been reading a little bit of the book together almost every day. I'm proud to say I'm on page 13 out of 28 - not too shabby!

Our Christmas tree(s) and presents!

Our Christmas tree topper!
(It's supposed to be Zack...)

Erik and I on Christmas Eve :)

Erik's Parks & Rec mug!

Erik delightfully opening up "Gumption"
(Insert Ron Swanson's giggle of glee here.)

Me and my new orchid
(which is still mostly alive!)

Me holding my first ever Korean book! Whoopee!

On Boxing Day Erik went on his first trip to Sokcho while I nursed a headache/sore stomach (the excitement of Christmas was clearly too much for my fragile disposition!). Sokcho is a city about 25 minutes away from Ganseong. Like every good boyfriend should, Erik ran some errands for me while he was there (including getting me fresh prawns to eat!). He also enjoyed lunch at an Italian restaurant owned by Woongsik's (spelled his name wrong in the last post, whoops!) friend. Then he came right home to check on me before heading up to Woongsik's for a fresh crab dinner, an invitation which I politely declined.

On Sunday I was feeling better so we went back to Sokcho, together. First we stopped by Sokcho's traditional fish market, which was teeming with people. The market includes both vendors and restaurants (often vendors sell goods and well as prepare their goods for people to eat on the spot). Being surrounded by fresh fish, we made the only wise decision there was - purchase everything deep-fried and crispy. So we ate a "twisted potato" and deep-fried prawns. Yummy at the time, but definitely came back to haunt me later on - especially the potato, which we discovered had been fried in duck fat.

Erik checking out the live seafood on offer.

One of the many crabs aggressively gesturing at us

Twisted potatoes!

Similar to the deep-fried prawns we ate
(yes, those bad boys are whole in there - shell and all!)

We also tried to go to e-Mart, which is a box store chain here that offers both Korean and western goods but just our luck - it was closed for a store holiday! So was Lotte Mart (the other box store in town) so we were SOL on that one. It's okay though, we ended up going back to Sokcho later that week to stock up on goods! After our failed trip to e-Mart we went for dinner at Yonamja, an "Italian" place (everything is relative here) where I was able to access a delicious smoked salmon salad and Erik got a steak burrito. We then headed to MEGABOX to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It was in English with Korean subtitles (phew!) and it was AWESOME. (Don't even care about the bad reviews it's getting online. If you can't fill in the plot holes using common sense or your imagination, maybe you shouldn't be watching Star Wars to begin with! End rant.)

The rest of the week was boring - so skip to New Year's Eve! We started our "eve" with a beautiful run into Gajin, the neighbouring town. We came upon a beach, local fish market, and pier (complete with lighthouse) that was incredibly beautiful. Back home, I worked a bit while Erik handy-manned and made some japchae for dinner (really yummy dish, you should try it!). That night we both dressed up a bit and headed out to the Orange Boy, a local bar, for some drinks. It ended up being really nice. We drank beer, soju cocktail (wayyyy too sweet!), and bekseiju while the women that owns the joint fed us free snacks including fresh fruit, fruit chips, and fried eggs (typical bar food here, I'm not even kidding). I think she was worried we were going to get annihilated on her watch. We played card games and watched the Korean TV and movie awards ceremony. At midnight we celebrated a bit with the other patrons - young adults, some home for the holidays from college. A table of young men offered Erik and I melon popsicles (they had dairy in them, so I just tried a bite of Erik's) and then asked Erik to rank them based on level of handsome-ness, which he proceeded to do. Not only that, he basically ranked them higher based on how American they looked. What a guy! In spite of ranking people based on their looks, Erik and I left the bar with warm wishes and a couple dudes interested in learning to play Catan. We had brought the game with us and surreptitiously left it in plain eyesight to catch others' attention. Our mission was a success!

Home. Post-japchae. Pre-drunk.

Orange Boy... Drunk.

We got home around 1:30 AM and then settled in for a solid four hours' sleep before our 5:30 AM wake up call. Why were we up at 5:30 in the morning on New Year's Day, you ask? Well, here in Korea they have a lunar new year tradition that has been transposed onto the western new year, called "greeting the new year sun". So, as newcomers, we had to try it out.

At 6 AM we drove with Woonsik and his wife, Jinyeong, to the beach. We made a fire and hunkered down with some tea and espresso. We were some of the first people to arrive. As time passed others arrived, including a group of men setting off fireworks and shooting sparkler arrows into the ocean. Also families with rice paper lanterns that were lit and floated off into the sky. The sky slowly came awash with deep blue, lighter blue, pinks, and oranges. Then, just after 7:30, the new year sun made its appearance - a glowing deep magenta orb that steadily rose up over the ocean and into the sky. It was absolutely beautiful.

Jinyeong, Woonsik, and Erik huddled around the fire.

Erik keeping me warm, as my Salomon headband glows in the firelight.

Local men shooting sparkler-tipped arrows into the ocean.

People greeting the new year's sun.

As the new year sun rises you're supposed to make a wish. I wished for a happy and healthy year with my chosen person, Erik. I wish all of you and your chosen people a happy and health new year, too! May each sun of this year bring you love, growth, and prosperity! :)

It's Christmukkah in Korea!

Right now I am sitting watching the sun go down over the mountains. It's Christmas Eve and I'm in Ganseong-eup, a small coastal city in eastern South Korea.

I arrived in South Korea on December 15. The past two weeks have been a blur. I spent the first week in Unseo (a suburb of Seoul) with my cousin Meghan and her boyfriend Dongwon. I ate some traditional Korean dishes, packed myself into overfilled subway cars, practiced some rudimentary Korean, and got a Japanese encephalitis vaccine. On the weekend, Erik arrived (yay!). We spent Saturday with his imo (aunt), imobu (uncle), and cousin. They took us to a delicious Japanese restaurant in Gangnam (yep, like in "Gangnam Style") and then out for coffee on Saebit Dungdungseom, a series of three floating islands on the Han River where part of "Avengers: Age of Ultron" was filmed! You can learn more about these islands and their design here.

Erik, me, and the hippie van in front of Dr. Helen Cho's lab on
Island Viva!

That night, we stayed up late watching "Trainwreck" (with Korean subtitles) and playing the Korean version of Settlers of Catan (it looks wayyyy different!) with Meghan and Dongwon while drinking soju, black beer, wine, and stuffing our faces with chicken, pizza, fries, and nachos (I clearly stuck to the nacho chips and fries). American fast food is really popular here, especially fried chicken and pizza. Every third restaurant is selling fried chicken. Fortunately for me, every fourth store is selling kope (coffee)!

Me playing Korean "Catan". I did not have the cards I needed apparently.
You'll notice the road, settlement, and city pieces are shaped plastic (not
wood blocks) and the resource tiles look different!

On Sunday Erik and I said goodbye to Seoul and started our (long!) journey to Ganseong-eup. The subway to the bus terminal was two hours, and then the bus ride to Ganseong-eup was three hours. During the trip we stopped and got some Korean fast food called "gimbap", which is basically a sushi roll minus the raw fish (they use egg, ham, pork, veggies, etc.). When we arrived home we received our first shipment of goods. It was the small one, with some basic household items like cookware and towels, and some non-essentials Erik packed during a panic moment. We unpacked these and then tried to catch some shut eye on the rock hard mattress we have (we'll be buying a mattress topper ASAP!).

"Gimbap"

Monday was a cleaning day. Unlike in North America where you have to clean up before you move out, in South Korea it's the new tenant that cleans up after the old tenant. Sometimes it can be nasty (just YouTube search dirty korean apartments). Fortunately ours was in decent shape. The worst part was the grey film on everything (I think at some point there must have been a smoker living here) and the sporadic spatterings of stickers on furniture, windows, etc. Koreans LOVE stickers and laminates. They put sticker covers on their windows, furniture, countertops - you name it. In all sorts of ridiculous patterns (we even saw a "Frozen"-themed window covering sticker at the market!). They also put instruction stickers on things. In our bathroom we had two instruction stickers for how to properly brush your teeth. One on the cabinet and one in the shower. I can now say I have developed my sticker-scraping muscles in my hands and forearm - they look awesome. That night Erik took me out for some grilled shrimp at a small restaurant on a back street. It was just okay. The banchan (side dishes) weren't great, there was no rice (WTF?! aren't I in Korea?), and the seafood and meat Erik ordered wasn't the tastiest. Plus it cost like $30! Needless to say I got to pick the next restaurant we ate at and it was wayyy better (and cheaper!). #winning

This is what a good selection of "banchan" looks like.
At the shrimp place we only got three - pickled radish,
garlic stems, and terrible, freshly-made kimchi (just FYI -
kimchi is supposed to be fermented for a long while to be good).

Our second shipment arrived Tuesday, and man was that a nightmare. 65% of the things Erik had in his American home (which was 50% larger than our current apartment) were shipped over, plus a few of my things. Erik described the task of trying to fit everything inside our apartment as "jenga-ing" things into place (super accurate description). We also found out we can't get rid of any of the furniture that came with the apartment, so we have to get creative and repurpose things (e.g. using a TV stand as part of a new bed frame in the guest room). After two days of intense unpacking and sorting and organizing, the space is starting to feel liveable. For those of you familiar with Erik's "room of shame", he now has a "balcony of shame" where all his unorganized military and sporting gear will live for the next year (I just block it out with curtains...).

Last night Erik and I were invited upstairs for tea by Wungshik, whom Erik aptly describes as Ganseong's resident socialite. Wungshik speaks English very well and, since he lives in the same building the US soldiers are housed in, he has taken it upon himself to familiarize the soldiers with the region and its people (including the grumpy ajoo-ma [old woman] on the second floor, whom we have yet to meet!). Wungshik is married to a very nice woman who also knows some English, but is soft-spoken. Today he took us out for gimbap for lunch and on Saturday (Boxing Day in Canada) he is going to take us to Sokcho, the biggest city nearby (about a 20 minute drive south of us). Wungshik's parents are going to have us over on Saturday night for steamed crab (yum!).

Tonight Erik and I will be setting up our Christmas tree (he brought one over - woohoo!), playing board games, and indulging in the pomegranate soju I picked up at the market today. Note: I do not like regular soju (it tastes too much like vodka to me) but I love the fruit-flavoured soju. So if you're ever in Korea, don't despair if you don't like the traditional stuff - there are other options!

Fruit flavoured soju! Blue is blueberry, red is pomegranate,
and yellow is lemon. I've also seen peach and orange flavours!

I'll post a picture of our Christmas tree and Christmas presents and Christmassy us sometime soon, along with a video tour of our apartment! I'm also working on posts about all the feelings I've been processing in regards to leaving Ottawa and about my adventures on the west coast prior to coming to Korea - so stay tuned, folks!