Seolnal

In Korea, Seolnal is the celebration of the lunar new year. More commonly known as the Chinese New Year to many in the West, this celebration contains considerably less fireworks and dragon-dancing. Instead, people visit their families (usually the oldest son in the family plays host), play games and make manduguk (meat dumpling soup). Visiting one's family is no small feat during this time. The traffic is horrible. A two hour trip can take six hours because of traffic congestion. If you ever find yourself in South Korea at this time, count yourself lucky if you have nowhere to go. Sitting in traffic is never fun.

We had a new year's celebration at my school. There was a lot of mandu making. I was told that the shape of the mandu one made was vital to one's future so I tried to make the best shapes possible. We had a couple of students make some really attractive mandu!

We then played games. I was particularly amused by the human yutnari game. Yutnari is a sort of dice game played with four wooden sticks. The sticks have symbols on them. They are rolled and if the sticks are rolled in a certain way then a stone marker is moved along circles on a board. This time around, human "markers" were used. A kind of hackey-sack was also played, along with a game of kong noli, a game of jackstones. I never got the hang of these games so I just stood back and took a few pictures. There were no sebae (special bows given to elders)this time around so subsequently there was no sebaeton (customary money given for satisfactory bows) handed out.

View the pictures here.

Now What?

The Canadian Conservatives (in name only) won a minority government, ending twelve years of (l)Liberal corruption. I don't expect anything to get better, really. The country is one or two steps away from being either the fifty-first state or belonging to North Korea's puppet-master, China. There is still no law and order, or national security, 0.6 % percent of the population have officially made marriage a laughing stock, the healthcare system is down the tubes, there are too many fat and ignorant people who still have no clue what is going on in their country or anyone else's but they are damn sure that the Americans are to blame. But at least we have another government to blame for running what is left of the country into the ground.
A few questions-
the Bloc Quebecois, a party existing solely for the purpose of tearing the country apart, still stands because....?
Why did Political Barbie- I mean- Belinda Stronach survive? Did the wealth and privelige of this college drop-out carry her through?
For those of you who voted Liberal, it is obvious that reason, common sense, overwhelming evidence and crayons could not sway you from the unspeakable evil that is the Liberal Party of Canada and Hitler's brain that runs it. Nothing more can be said to you. I mean, if Scott Reid can run up a beer tab at the expense of other "beerswillers" and Marc Garneau's gaff about grants to the handicapped doesn't disgust you (because AdScam hasn't), then what can one say?
I should probably throw in a question about the NDP but are they really a party?
Anyway, the next four years should prove....something.... I have no strength left to wonder how bad it can get.

Meh New Year's

I personally have never understood New Year's celebrations. People act as though they are on the cusp of something new when, in fact, when they wake up (hopefully in the shorts they left the house with) they are just repeating the same, old routine as the year before. You begin something new when there is a life-change, like marriage, family or a new job. These things can occur any time. And shouldn't resolutions be made throughout the year? Shouldn't we all strive to improve ourselves daily and not just once a year?
Just some thoughts.