Catching Up

So, I have once again proven to you all that I am not so great at blogging. Thanks to the suggestions of Aunt Beverly and Gail ♥ I am finally getting around to telling you about Christmas and some other somewhat recent events.

So, everyone, 새해 복 많이 받으셨어요? Did you have a good New Years? (the Korean actually translates roughly to, "Did you receive a lot of New Years luck?").  New Years in Korea is celebrated twice, January 1 New Years and Lunar New Year.  I moved in with a new host family at the end of December, so it turned out that I spent Christmas with my first host family and both New Years with my second (current) family.

I was happy to be able to go to church on Christmas morning. I really, really enjoy going to church on Christmas Eve, but that wasn't possible at our church here. There was service in morning of the 25th, so my friends and I went. After that, I went home, had lunch, and went out with family for the day. We went shopping and to 노래방 (karaoke) and ate 호떡 (this) and saw a movie. And it seemed that the rest of the city had the same plan for the occasion. I got the impression from friends that most people here view Christmas as a day off school/work (we went to school as usual on the 24th and 26th) and that New Years is celebrated as more of a family holiday.

I left class early on New Years eve to have dinner with family (mom, dad, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, Grandma, and the exchange student who had lived in this house before me). We went to a rather fancy restaurant, ate a bunch of meat and kimchi (extremely delicious), and came home to play games. New Years was really, really fun. And in the new year, according to Korea, I'm 19 years old (still 17 according to the rest of the world, see Korean age system).

Today we ended "방학." "방학" means "school vacation," but it is not truly "school vacation" for most students. My school classmates had the opportunity (and several took it) go to school during vacation, which is still a "break"because they went for 5 hours, instead of 13. Other kids went to academies, did self-study, or got part-time jobs. I kept busy with Korean, Taekwondo, and Samulori (traditional drumming) classes (which are not held at our school) and played with the other exchange students. School started again for 2 weeks in February to end the school year and there was then another Spring vacation before we changed grades this past week. I missed my school friends during vacation, but it was really nice to have free time and the chance to explore the city.

We celebrated Lunar New Year (설날, Seollal) between February 9-11, which was an even bigger celebration than January 1st Lunar New Year. At that time there was another exchange student staying in our home for a few days because she was not able to travel with her host family to their celebration. In the morning the two of us dressed in our 한복 (hanbok, traditional clothes) and attended in the family's memorial ceremony for our father's parents. The women didn't actually do anything in that ceremony; we just waited until the men had carried it out. Then we disassembled the arrangement of foods that had been part of the ceremony and ate 떡국 (ddeok-guk, rice cake soup) because it is said that one must eat that at the Lunar New Year to age a year (this is where the Korean age system comes in). 

The children in our family then performed 세배 (saebae, Korean bowing). The tradition of saebae is that children bow to their elders and then the adults say some words to the children (like, "be happy and healthy in the new year") and then the children receive some 세뱃돈 (saebaet-don, bowing money). We also say "새해 복 많이 받으세요" as we bow. That means "Receive much good luck in the New Year." The exchange students all also had some chance to wear our hanbok and bow to our host Rotary clubs. Even though the New Year celebration days are over, we went to bow to a Rotary host club not long ago. We had to ride the bus from Taekwondo class and walk through a metro station while wearing hanbok to go to where we were bowing (the locker room at Taekwondo was the only logical place to change into our hanbok). That was funny and somewhat uncomfortable because the vast majority of Koreans don't usually wear hanbok (most kids our age don't even own one), so you can imagine the stares and surprised comments we (9 foreign teenagers) got while wearing ours. Not that we didn't look totally ridiculous trying to board a bus, climb metro station stairs, or even walk without tripping over our big poofy skirts. Nonetheless, I really do enjoy wearing my hanbok and this was a fun Seollal experience. 

So as far as what is happening really recently, school started again on Monday. I'm now in second grade high school (like 11th grade in America). It's good to be back in our school. School gives me something to do, forces me to study, provides a solid chance to speak Korean, and is just a really great place in general. So far, I like second grade much more than first grade. The classes are more interesting (perhaps because I can understand them more!!). We are learning, among other subjects, Japanese, Hanja (Chinese characters), and Korean literature (which has so far been sort of like history of Korean language/Linguistics and it's really fascinating to me).

Also, I got back from 서울 (Seoul, capital of S. Korea) a week ago. Some friends and I got the chance to spend a long weekend there. It was my first time in Seoul and I was amazed by the vastness of the city (suddenly Busan seems very small). We had a lovely time exploring Seoul and meeting up with people we know there. I got to see the Blue House (Korean equivalent of the White House), the Samsung Museum of Art, and the YG and SM buildings (for those familiar with K-Pop). We saw some (sort of) b-boys performing in Hongdae and we made a night trip to Namsan Tower. We also got to shop in Namdaemun and Myungdong. It was a great experience to go to Seoul, but we were very tired by Sunday afternoon. When we got back to Busan, we saying, "It's good to be home," "Isn't our metro system so simple?" and, "Wow, it's great to hear 사투리 (dialect) again." Seoul is fabulous, but Busan is home.

And thus marks half a year in Korea. I've been here for over six months, really almost seven. And I will return to America in just a few months. So much has happened, yet it still feels like there is so much left to do! The way I feel, the way a lot of exchange students feel right now, is a collection of emotions that is is hard to understand or explain. We miss our home countries and family and friends, but at the same time, our host countries and cities are also very much "home." We have family and friends and school and memories here. Actually, we kind of have totally separate lives in our host countries. I want to see my family and friends in America, but it is hard to think about leaving Busan and the family and friends I have here. I left America knowing I'd be back within a year. A return to Busan is a lot less predictable. It is hard to believe time could pass so quickly...It is hard to believe such an amazing year could ever even happen.

Me in my 한복 (hanbok, traditional Korean dress)
at 설날 (Seollal, Lunar New Year)