Allie's Got Seoul: The Year of the Snake ~ Happy Seollal!

Happy Seollal! It’s Lunar New Year in Korea (and Asia) and perhaps the biggest holiday of the year. Sunday is the official holiday but it is celebrated as a three-day affair. Seollal is a family holiday. People head to their hometowns to visit their families and worship their ancestors. Children adorn the traditional hanbok clothing. Folk games are played. Ddeokguk (rice cake soup) must be eaten. Most Koreans use Seollal as the date when their age officially increases so the tradition goes that you increase your age by eating a bowl of ddeokguk. If you want to stay young, better not ask for seconds. The kids get excited for Seollal because bowing to their elders results in respectable sums of money. Who do I need to bow to…?

I know Seollal is not my holiday, but it still makes me nostalgic about being with family. Have I really been here for 5.5 months? One of these days a Korean friend will invite me along for a celebration.

All my life I thought I was born in the Year of the Horse. Hours of studying paper placemats at Chinese restaurants…wasted. I never thought to calculate when my birthday falls in the lunar year. As it turns out, I was born in the Year of the Snake! My new personality now includes traits such as ambition, hard work ethic, perfectionism, self-doubt, sympathy, intensity, jealousy, suspicion, courteousness and more depending on the source you read. Apparently my fellow snakes and I are in for a year of bad luck. Well…I guess that settles it. This year I have to celebrate Birthday Year (okay, okay, last birthday joke…maybe.)

Just like Chuseok, Korea is a transportation nightmare during the holiday. Everyone is trading places to visit family and hometowns. Booking tickets must be done in advance and doesn’t come without a price hike. Traffic blows. Lunar New Year is a chaotic time to travel in Asia and not quiet long enough to make it worth it for me. And yes, I also just simply failed to plan ahead.

The long weekend (my second longest vacation of the year!) kicked off with a dinner gathering at my place. A couple coworkers and a couple Korean friends came over for the evening. My chingu (friend) prepared ddeokguk with seafood and haemul pajeon (green onion pancake with seafood.) How simple it is to host a party when you’re not in charge in the kitchen! However, I did make a sweet potato casserole for dessert, by request. The same chingu has been obsessed with it since Christmas and insisted I teach him how to make it. I don’t think he was as impressed the second time around since I very loosely followed the recipe…and the result was less sweet than the first casserole. But then there weren’t any leftovers so it must have been just fine.

Our landlord gifted Bethany and I with another spam gift set. No further comment.

Want to get bit by an ostrich? Or meet squirrels with rabbit ears? Head to Nami Island! Bright and early on a crisp and clear Saturday morning I began a two-hour subway trek to a quaint micronation called Namimara. Little did I know I would be taking my first international trip since arriving in Korea. Namimara Republic is an independent country with its own flag and currency! Transportation to the island is limited to ferry or zipline. Nami is also the set of a popular Korean television drama and is symbolized by snowmen due to a famous first kiss scene on the show.

Nami was a bit like being in Narnia, particularly with a charming covering of snow that hadn’t instantly transformed into the grey slush of the city. Imagine beautiful tree-lined paths, the smell of campfires emanating throughout the entire island, peaceful music echoing down every dirt path. Shops, restaurants, and art galleries are located in the town center. And yes, Nami is home to three curious ostriches. Stick your thumb too close and you might learn what an ostrich beak feels like.

On Sunday, the official day of Seollal, I met up with my Nami buddies again in Insadong, an area that is both touristy and traditional. Thought we didn’t know what would be open on the holiday, this area was probably our best bet for the day. Soondubu jjigae (spicy soft tofu soup) and dolcet bibimbap (hot pot mixed vegetables and rice) with plenty of banchan (side dishes) filled our bellies. Following lunch, we settled into a traditional tea house in side alley. Barefoot and seated on the heated ondel floor, we drank varieties of tea including quince, plum ginger, and double harmony. Traditional food and tea was the perfect way to celebrate Seollal.

In the evening I headed over to SPACE for their ‘Wake the Snake’ mandu-making potluck. Mandu (dumplings) are usually made with pork but we made two vegan types: mushroom-onion and tofu-pumpkin-carrot. It was much simpler and way more fun than I imagined. We pan-fried some and put the rest into the ddeokguk. If you’ve been reading closely, you might notice that I have had two bowls of ddeokguk this new year…I’m losing track of how old I am at this point. Sharing mandu and other potluck offerings with warm familiar faces and a few awesome new ones (that I hope become familiar) was a fabulous way to ring in the new year. The evening ended with an outdoor wall painting for 2013 but I had to catch the last train home before long.

My four-day weekend has nearly come and gone…but I feel rejuvenated! The week ahead will fly by. I loved having extra time to try out some new recipes (smashed chickpea/avocado sandwich, chocolate avocado mousse, bruléed grapefruit, honey-vanilla-almond granola, baked spiced chickpeas, millet-blueberry pancakes) while also enjoying many of my favorite Korean dishes. To wrap up a reviving break I treated my skin to Korean face mask, complementary with cosmetic purchases from one of the gazillion cosmetic shops. I was going to post a picture, but thought I’d spare you the nightmare filled with masked murderers.