As many of you know, today is my birthday. Gotta love the mini-feed for alerting people to the day of my birth.
ANYWAYIn honor of...myself...I thought I would talk about birthdays in Korea, and how they're completely not like birthdays in the states.
100 Days and 60 Years
In Korea, the first important date celebrated for a newborn is their 100th day of birth, or the tol. Parents celebrate that their child has lived through the first 100 days without difficulty. It's basically a day of eating and celebrrating, and it's traditional that the child receives money for their birthday. Although what a 100 day old baby is going to buy is beyond me. But here's the catch: Everyone in Korea ages on the same day. I know. Let me say it again so you guys comprehend the weirdness, and move on. Everyone in Korea ages on the same day - New Year's Day to be exact. So on January 1st of every year, everyone in the country gets one year older. So if a baby is born on December 31st, the next day he turns one year old. Mind-blowing, I know.Other birthdays pass with small celebrations as people grow older, because the big one is on New Year's Day. Except for your 60th birthday. If any readers out there remember my last note, we know that Korea is a Confucian society, so old peeps are hella important. Well, once an 'old peep' turns 60, they get a huge ass party called a hwan-gap. It is their children and grandchildren's responsibility to throw them a blow out party with eating, dancing, and drinking. And get this - sometimes their children (who are clearly grown adults), are expected to dress up like little children and dance for their parents. So word to the wise - if you move here, never bring your parents. Also, everyone has to sit in age order at the table, and everyone must base their eating and drinking consumption off of the oldest family members. So if your grandfather is an alcoholic, you better hope he passed those genes on to you, because you need to keep up.
Fermented Cabbage
Of course on these celebrations much food is consumed, so I thought I would talk about the national dish of Korea - kimchi. Kimchi is fermeneted cabbage. Yeah, you read right. The cabbage gets fermented and boiled with hot peppers and other spices, and is served cold. I've had it, it's not half bad...if you like cabbage, and fermented food. And of course the city I'm in, Gwangju, holds the annual Kimchi festival. And at this festival, they not only ferment cabbage, but all sorts of vegetables and other foods - so when it happens, I will SO post pictures.
You want me to do WHAT with that?
I have learned that the Koreans are a multi-purpose people. They try to recycle and find new uses for everything. Here are two of my favorites:
Scissors - oh yeah of course you cut paper, boxes, packaging with scissors...you also cut your food. No lie. Korean restaurants supply you with chopsticks and a big spoon, and if you can't cut your food with a spoon, you use scissors. If that for any reason freaks you out..then you're shit out of luck and better be able to stick the whole thing in your mouth. I shit you not.
Toilet Paper - gotta go the bathroom? Gotta blow your nose? Gotta wipe something up? Toilet paper! There aren't even paper towels. I wish I was kidding.
Terry Fox
If any of you Americans are friendly with our neighbors in the north (Canadians), then you may have heard of Terry Fox. I, of course, am completely ignorant of what goes on up there, and had no idea who he was. However, I'm teaching a book called The Long Road about Terry Fox's life. Basically, he was a good runner who got cancer in his leg, had to have it amputated, and decided to run across Canada to raise money for children with cancer...with his one leg. Ok, of course he had a prosthetic, but this was 1980, and a real leg beats the hell out of a plastic one. Anyway, I'm teaching my kids about this Canadian hero, and his marathon called the "Marathon of Hope." First I ask if anyone knows what a marathon is, no one does of course so I tell them. Then I ask my students what hope is, and of course no one knows what that is either. So I say, "Hope is..." and then I stop. How can I define something like hope to 10 year olds with the English comprehension of a 6 or 7 year old? How do I define something like to all of you? I settle on something I think is kind of easy to remember, and the closest I can think of. I say, "Hope is never giving up." This man wanted to help children the only way he could - running, and he did it with one leg. He never gave up what he loved. Ever.
I dismissed the class and went to each lunch in the Teacher's Lounge. I came back to my classroom to grade papers and check Facebook, and I looked at the board and forgot to erase my definition, "Hope - never give up." People who know me best know that birthdays aren't my favorite time of year. And people who I've been talking to know that I'm just getting started here, and don't have a lot of friends yet. So today has been hard for me. But I saw that definition I wrote on the board, and I thought maybe that simplicity is what we need. People can use huge, great, powerful words to describe hope, and they're all true. But that simple hope that we all hold, that small candle burning, is just as great and powerful. Sometimes a big hope is too hard to grasp and hold on to. One thing I've learned since I moved here is that sometimes we have to hang on to the little things, never give those up. Maybe we could all do with a little simplicity.
