Blogs from Seoul, South Korea, Asia - page 126

This weekend was Lunar New Years in Korea and all over Asia. During these three days, Seoul comes to a grinding halt as most Koreans leave the city to visit their relatives in the country. On this holiday the grandchildren preform a ceremony paying respect to their elders. This nice little ceremony pays off, as they get fat envelopes stuffed with cash in return. One kid at my friends school got 1 Million Won last year ($1,000). Now thats a Happy New Year! The New Year is also alot more than that. The Urbanites get to visit their roots outside the big city, visit with family and eat traditional food. I went with some friends to a palace to soak up some culture. Alot of Korean families dress they're little girls up in the han-bok, a ... read more

So as I said I arrived in America yesterday and have been having a little bit of culture shock here. Wait a second, where am I? I thought I was supposed to be in Seoul. Well, complicated comes to complicated and it turns out that when you live on a base you really do live in the middle of that other country. They don't joke around when they say it's American land in the middle of another country. I went to a high school talent show with Chris last night because he had to do a report on it for the newspaper. There was not a single Korean anywhere to be seen nor was there anything that even remotely looked like anything Korean. American food, architecture, people, and English. For the intermission they were selling things ... read more

Well Happy Chinese New Year to those of you who celebrate it or even know what it is. I'm sure Dalian is completely lit with fireworks today as the number of fireworks has definitely been increasing over the past couple of days. Also the amount of red one sees has been increasing (and no, I'm not a bull). Yesterday I had a really awesome day. I woke up to Michael calling me and asking me to open the door for him. He moved the last of his stuff into the extra bedroom in my apartment. Then the two of us went over to Starbucks (yes, the American one) for breakfast where we met one of his friends who is Chinese but goes to school in Australia. Michael and I have been hanging out with each other ... read more

Here are some pictures from Mom visiting (Dec. 23-Jan.7) as well as some pictures from our school Christmas party back in December. ... read more

We left Singapore to return to Seoul for a day and a half and this time we stayed with Lindsay’s relatives, Ken and Mary. They showed us a great time in Seoul. We saw some fun neighborhoods, a few temples and palaces, went hiking in Bukhansan National Park near their home, and ate some delicious Korean food. After Seoul, we hopped back on Korean Airlines for our flight back to San Francisco. ... read more