Hanguo!!! (Korea)

I spent the 5 days surrounding New Years in Korea with my great friend Hwa Jeong. We met during grad school and she was a wonderful hostess in her home city of Seoul! I think this is a story best-told through pictures: enjoy!

I didn't have a thorough understanding of how cold it would be in Korea. Heh. It was REALLY cold. But to deal with that fact, the Koreans came up with this brilliant heating system a long time ago. All the heat, radiating from the floor, but none of the smoke. Genius! If only they could do it to the sidewalks too.
Awesome apotropaic stone figure. Didn't really scare me though.


Having fun with the giant plastic figure...

..and the giant stuffed figure.

Hwa Jeong took me to visit Korea's National Folklife Museum. It was really interesting (and they had a cool proximity triggered electronic self-guide). Their special exhibit was about the Chinese zodiac system, which obviously isn't just used in China, but also Chinese restaurants all over the world;) It focused on art including the rat-- this upcoming year and MY zodiac year! Outside the Museum, they had an arrangement of the zodiac figures! Here's me and the rat:)

Who says my sister should have all the fun trying on wedding dresses? Me in a Korean wedding dress:)
Hwa Jeong and I took an awesome Korean drumming lesson. We were really good at it. AND THEN, we clapped the same rhythm during the Nanta performance a few days later. How cool.

Me and the cute drummer guys. Right now they're not wearing their beanie hats with ribbon-dancer ribbons on them. But it was pretty awesome when they were dancing, drumming, and ribbon-dancing.

Korea has Outback. I couldn't have been happier.


For New Years Eve, Hwa Jeong and I went to Lotte World (any MEPs out there, you KNOW that's funny!). We ended up going on a rollercoaster at about 11 PM and then watching indoor fire works. (Side note: not us) What a great way to ring in the New Year-- at Asia's largest indoor theme park...



Ok... but not all of it was indoors. I almost turned into an icicle on the swing ride.
Cold + going fast = really cold.

It only snows on mountain tops in Taiwan. So I wanted to see some snow in Korea. It actually led me to get really excited when I saw about 5 snowflakes in a flurry one day. But the most snow I experienced was in an aquarium with a snow machine. I don't think there are polar bears in Korea.

Hwa Jeong got us tickets to the Must See performance in Korea-- Nanta! It's a percussion show based around the sounds and drum-able things in the kitchen. It was highly participatory; Hwa Jeong went on stage to make dumplings with the cast during the show. And my personal favorite part was when they quoted Street Fighter 3. And I understood it. (Brian, be proud)

Hwa Jeong was a reaaaaaally generous hostess.
She even gave me a departing gift--mousy goodies for the lunar new year!