February Holidays: Valentine's Day, Lunar New Year, and my 23rd Birthday!

Another 3 weeks have passed since I've blogged, but nothing too exciting has happened. For Valentine's Day, I put together a big box with chocolate and other snacks for Danny. I might have mentioned before, but Valentine's Day in Korea is only for girls to give their boyfriends chocolate. On March 14, the guys reciprocate for "White Day." So I will wait until White Day to get my gift! Valentine's Day this year happened to fall on the Lunar New Year. Most of us in America know this as the Chinese New Year. It is the biggest holiday in Korea, and most businesses close down Saturday-Monday. Koreans traditionally spend the holiday visiting family in the country or in smaller cities outside Seoul. They eat a special soup on New Year's day that is believed to make every person age one year. Danny and I did not eat the soup, so I guess we stayed the same age. Families also play traditional games together and children are given pouches with money. Some of my students told me that they even wore the traditional hanbok dress to do a special bow to their elders. Since most restaurants were closed on the holiday, Danny and I had our Valentine's Day dinner at a chain buffet restaurant called VIPS. It's actually a steakhouse with a "salad bar" buffet option, and it's quite pricey for a chain restaurant. Danny was lucky enough to have off from work the day after New Year's, but I had to work (and naturally most of my students did not show up that day!) Danny was kind enough to clean the whole apartment on his day off....that's better than any Valentine's Day gift for me! My mom sent me some American Valentine's Day supplies to put together little gifts for my students. I gave each student one of those little cartoon character Valentine cards and a heart-shaped lollipop in a little gift bag with hearts on it. They loved them, because Koreans don't exchange cards with friends on Valentine's Day.

This weekend was my 23rd birthday, which makes me 24 in Korean years. One of my students was thoughtful enough to give me a hand lotion set for my birthday, and another student felt bad that she didn't have a gift and offered me her used pencil! One of my Korean desk teachers knows that I love Hello Kitty and she surprised me with a bag of Hello Kitty goodies on my desk. On Friday night we went back to VIPS restaurant for dinner with Danny's coworkers. Two of his Korean teachers and one of his American teachers are leaving next Friday, so we went out for an early goodbye celebration. After we stopped at a bar, batting cages, and finally spent nearly 3 hours at a norebang (private karaoke room). I sang so much that I nearly lost my voice afterwards. To finish the night, we went to a DVD-bang (private room for watching DVD's with friends) to play Nintendo Wii. I only wish we could have so much cheap entertainment available in New York!

On Sunday we went to Sanchon, a buddhist temple style vegetarian restaurant in Insadong. The food is served in the traditional Korean style, and we sat on the ondol heated floor. A traditional dance and music performance accompanies the dinner. The price is a bit steep at Sanchon, but it was my birthday gift!