Amanda Takes Off...

Yesterday Master posted told me this on Facebook.

아만다 잘 자내죠? 한국은 오늘이 설날이에요. 떡국먹는날. 아만다[가] 떡국 맛있게 만들어줘요~

Amanda are you well? Today it's Korean New Year. It's the day we eat rice cake soup. Amanda make some delicious rice cake soup.

Of course, Korea's a half a day ahead, so today it's Lunar New Year Eve. But I didn't need Master to tell me what day it was! I had already bought some (brown!) rice cake disks for soup.

We were originally going to have some for lunch, but long story short, it ended up becoming an early dinner. Diana, Min Gi, and the baby came over. Mark was picking up his lover at the airport, and couldn't come over for lunch, but when the schedule got messed up, they were able to come over for dinner.

The Spread

We had rice cake soup, mushroom bibimbap, spicy tofu, king oyster mushrooms, cucumbers, Asian pears, and dried seaweed. In this picture the table was set for four, but when we added two place settings and some wine, it was a true Korean spread, with dishes completely covering the table.

Good Man and Mark

Good Man found an interesting article with historical information about the military/dictatorship government, US puppet government, and Japanese colonizers government trying to get rid of Seollal.

The cartoon below (from 1980) shows most people walking toward "modernization" and "solar new year" and only a few people walking toward "lunar new year."

As a piece of trivia, 2012 is the Year of the Dragon (specifically the water element), although in Kazakhstan it's the Year of the...Snail.

Happy new year!

Busan, South Korea

In early August, Sister and I went to Busan together. I finally put together an album of our trip. The complete album is at the link, but here are a few of my favorite photos.

At the Beach

Sister Tries Fennel

Making Wandang

Hard at Work

Sign Failure

On July 30th, Sister and I went to Olympic Park to see an exhibit about Joseph Beuys, a German artist who used images of rabbits (and rabbit's blood) in his artwork.

After we viewed the exhibit, we saw rabbits everywhere. It became a rabbit sort of day.

It had been raining a lot in the days before our visit, which was pretty obvious in some areas.

After the Rain

Rabbit

Fruit

There was a vegetable garden in one area, complete with a trellis covered in squash. I love this idea!

Hanging

Growing

Big Pumpkins

Marching Ants

Sculptures in the Pond

무궁화 (Hibiscus)

Spider!

He Is Our Hero!

Don't Grab the Rabbit by the Ears

"Oh my God! A 붕어 빵 thingy!"

Yes indeed, yesterday I bought an iron to make red bean paste fish pastries! Yes, I spent $20 on something completely ridiculous, and I don’t care!

Long time readers might remember this flash card. In Korean, when two people look alike (like a mother and daughter), you say they look like these cakes, because the cakes are made with a mold.

While I was fawning over the iron, an older white male, Korean female couple (I presume based on his Korea War Vet baseball cap, her accent, and the fact that we were in a Korean grocery store) stopped. The woman thanked me because she had been looking for an egg mold and my exclamations over the fish grill helped her find the egg mold. Then the man looked at Good Man said, “Do you generally let her buy what she wants?”

Good Man laughed and nodded, "Yes."

"That’s what I do, too," he said.

The wife laughed and said, "That is the key to a happy marriage!"

Today I made some fish pastries using banana waffle crusts and chocolate filling and cream cheese filling. Ooooh, so delicious.

Frowning Chocolate Fish

"Ahh! You're squishing me!" Cream Cheese Fish

Ant Village Seoul

On August 11th, Mother and I went to 개미 마을 (literally "Ant Village") in Seoul. Ant Village is one of the old "moon towns," build high in the hills in Seoul.

The area is poor and underdeveloped compared to other areas of Seoul, even compared to the immediate surrounding area. Development in the area has been restricted, and several years ago, art students painted murals in the area.

Mother didn't know about the area, nor did any of her friends. I was a bit uncomfortable walking around, taking photos, for reasons I can't quite put into words. But I really was interested in documenting what I saw.

Art Imitating Life

Grandfather

Sunflowers