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love way they do

Have good new year days??? I have good new year as Korean Athlets won lot’s of gold medals in Vancouver Winter Olympics. Anyway what I’m going to tell you about is “Seollal” which is Korea New Year’s day. Seollal is one of the biggest holiday in Korea and we have 3 official dayoffs for Seollal, what a lucky I am. Chunjul which is China’s Seollal and the meaning of the word and origin is the same and we share some common traditions. Focus, as What I am going to tell is not the history of Seollal but the joy and special things we do in Seollal.

Hanbok is what we used to wear in seollal. It has been the tradional costume we wore before the 19 century. But today the beauty of Hanbok is evaluated differently.  Many designers around the globe was surprised by the variety of colors that it has and the texture that Hanbok has. I was surprised too. But to me I hesitate to wear Hanbok as it’s light so I feel coldness during the whether these days. But  to foreigners I bet sure that you should wear it once to make sure that you visited real Korea. Don’t miss the chance!

“Why Korean bow to their cousins and their fathers?” We have two reasons to do so. But I am sure that most of Korean teenagers bow because of the second reason. Okey the first reason is to say hellow to their grand fathers and ask how greand pa live healthy? But going inside of the bowing and showing respect to their relatives, there’s a hidden reason . It’s money. It’s hard to believe but After the bowing we get money from the relatives.  I show my deep respect,  smart and good boy image to my relatives so they could open their pocket bigger. After reciving the golden envelope. I show my longest appreciation so I can get the same amount the next year. And I and my cousins always compare eachother’s  the thickness of the envelops.

Don’t tell me that you didn’t understand it. For those of guys who don’t understand my language I made an equation. I hope everybody knows the great universal rule. Okey let’s go on to check foods we eat during the seollal.

“Hangwa” which means korean snack. Eum it’s hard thing that normal family people make those cute snacks. Those days people simply buy snacks at market like you know “wall mart” . But old days, m0st of Korean never thought that he or she will buy those foods at grocery. But things changing gast. We should accept the change.  It’s korean style but it’s not hot. Some of friends outside of Korea think every korean food are hot and hard to eat. But that’s not just true. It’s sweat and crispy. I don’t know how exactly it feels like to eat. But I can tell it’s as much as crispy as chetos. May be more.

It’s Korean style doughnut or you can say it’s cookie ” Yakwa” Eum I don’t know how to make the Yakwa but it’s made by sugar and some rice powders. Anyway it’s one of the food that I like most and it’s elastic as dunkin doughnuts. Again it’s much better so try it.

“Dduk guk” dduk guk means soup with Korean style rice cake. It may sound weird. It’s my fault that I couldn’t find the connection between Korean words and English. The taste is simillar to chicken noodle soup. But actually it’s much better. It’s more clean and healthy. Dduk you can see in the soup which is white and shaped like o one is very elastic when you eat it . It may be hard to swallow. But after trying it once or twice. It’s piece of cake. With Kimchi on the Dduk. Nothing more can be attractive than this. And there’s a  story with ddukguk so don’t miss it.

“chichae & sujunggwa” is the tradional Korean drinks we still love today. The first one tastes chic. You should try it it’s not soda or achole it’s smooth and tasty. Made by rice old day people loved it. The later one is a little bit bitter, but with today’s amazing technology, there’s no bitterness. But only sweatness. You can find those drinks on vending machine on the street. Wanna be chic? bang on the chichae. A better way to be a man.

“Do you know what are they doing? ” “I don’t know may be they are crazy. ” ” they use bat to crash something weird.” Yeah that maybe true. They are making dough for the rice cake. using big stick is a good way to make the cake much elastic and smooth. You can have this kind of experience during the three days of seollal. National tradition museum which is placed in kyungbokgung is a good place to visit. I went there once I saw b-boy’s performance too.

Oh looks great. Have some. There’s some adage related with eating Korean rice cakes. One of them is eating rice cakes lying on the floor. It means the piece of cake.  I know a fact that world shares similarities.

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Oh yeah I don’t know how it’s called but We korean call this bird “Ggachi”. It looks like raven but the only diffrence is the color. It symbols Korea’s new year and symbol of the great hope. 

There’s some chance that you still have. But I’m not sure whether small kids from other countries could get money but. I see women’s hand hold 50,000won bills. Dam! see? Korean gives bucks to people outside of Korea. We welcome foreigners so please come visit us. I was joking they are just pretending and learning bowing in Korean way. They will give money to kids but later I’m sure they will return it. But still Korean’s are good people :0

“What is this??” “Is it a dragon?? ” ” Nahnah it’s Kites.”  we enjoy flying kites too. we make  kites at seollal and flow it on the air. the number that a man flied kites in guiness book was recorded by Korean. I was amazed by the picture.

Korean shield shaped kite. which is called ” Bangpaeyeon” looks like rectangular shield.

“Yutnori” Yeah it’s korean snake and ladder game. Yut is traditional dice made by 4 sticks. do gae gul youk mo is the ascending order of number from 1.  There’s many traps so. Good luck. The origin of Yutnori is to wish good lucks in this year’s harvest.

We have big ones too.

Wow. Did you have good seollal? With Joon don’t worry you will not have difficulties. Have a good happy new year.

Lee Jung su

From left,  Lee seung hoon , Lee sang hwa,  Mo tae bum

From left, Lee eun Byual, Park seung hee

Mo’s gold medal

Lee’s gold medal

Lee’s gold medal
Another Lee’s gold medal

This is the print screen  modified after the mail sent from VANK. South Korean’s territory turns to be  dark yellow which used to be white. White means no medals. VANK think that it  should be told right considering 4 years efforts of medalists even if the mistake occured not intentionally. Like this VANK activates world wide to correct wrong and distorted information about Korea. That’s why we call VANK cyber diplomats. I’m proud to work as a partner in VANK. I hope I could work with VANK in lot’s of area

Gyu Hyuk Lee is the one of the best speed skating competitors in the world. He won gold medals in many skating world cups, unfortunately he hasn’t got medals in Winter olympics. 2010 Vancouver olympics was his last chance but the chance was a slip away from his effort. Many people thought he would get the medal but, instead other Korean competitor Mo- got the gold and silver.  We Korean and other people around the world was surprized by Mo-’s unexpected result. But we must consider Lee’s 12 years efforts. Olympics is the ground filled by both champion and the others. Though he was “the other” but we must think him as the champion. Both champion and the other tried their best to be the champion.So We must give applause to both of them.

Maybe it’s hard thing to remember “the other” who didn’t get the medal but. at least we should try as they made efforts as much as medalists. He has very warm hearts as his text message from Vancouver to his family was very impressive. Even if he was very tensed and upset because of the game but he hadn’t stopping thinking about his parents and families. I think difficulties is the thing make people become much stronger. He didn’t do well when it was 94′s olympics but after the feeling difficulties and the limit by himself, he finally become the unforgettable champion even though he didn’t win the gold medal. I always believe this theory. And the theory never betrays the one who believes it.

Fight  not because of the medals but to celebrate the efforts.