Lunar New Year

Lunar New Year is a national holiday in Korea so we only had to work a two day week last week. Woohoo!!

Chi He's relatives kindly invited me to join them for the holiday so I got to experience life in a Korean house for the first time, rice and kimchi for breakfast and all!! Their home is about an hour out of Seoul in the peaceful countryside. It had been snowing and so looked beautiful. It was great to sleep and experience real darkness for a change rather than the constant neon glow that no one can get away from in Seoul. I had a lovely, relaxing time and the family were really kind and welcoming.

With Chi He's cousin, for the first time we went to a Korean nightclub. Maybe it should be called 'ladies of the night'-club as it certainly felt that way. So far I'd mainly seen a very wholesome side to Korea, with most women, young and old, dressing incredibly conservatively and men being overly chivalrous. Soon after arriving, once our eyes had just about adjusted to the near total darkness, we got dragged by our wrists to a table of guys. It didn't matter that we could barely communicate with each other. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be matchmaking or what, but the 'matchmakers' got paid tips for this 'service'. Once we'd got fed up with the awkward attempts at conversation returned to our tables. This pattern repeated itself all night.

There were amusing boy bands and dancing djs to watch, complete with pvc outfits which had a tendency to disappear as part of their acts! The girls and guys dancing weren't meant to be funny but their attempts to dance sexily were hysterical!