Freaking out a nice family while celebrating the Lunar New Year

So I felt kinda weird about taking pictures so I only have pictures of food...hope you enjoy this post anyway!

On February 18th, 19th, and 20th S.Korea shut down to celebrate the Lunar New Year, or Seollal (설날). A national holiday, it's considered one of the biggest holidays in Korea (according to a Korean Tourism Website). It's a time for families to not only pay their respect to their ancestors (by visiting their graves and performing ancestral rites), but to catch up with distant relatives. Seollal is notorious in Korea for terrible traffic since everyone is going to visit family. Normally Gwangju to Seoul takes 3.5 hours but during Seollal it was reported to take 7-12 hours. So absurd.

Obviously I'm not Korean. I definitely don't have family here so I didn't initially have plans for the holiday. Megan, David and I were originally thinking of traveling but realized it wouldn't be worth the pain with traffic. While we were still considering what to do, we were invited to our friend Will's house for Seollal (Will if you're reading this ~ Hi and thanks again!!).

Since I failed at taking pictures at Will's house, here are some nice pictures of us doing other things:

L to R: Will, David, Mike, Megan and MOI. 

David's closest to the bottom, Will's next to him, then Mike. On the girls side: Megan's closest, then Tessa, and then MOI. 

Blurry but me, David (glasses), Will, and Mike.

I asked David for all of these pictures and he included this one. So of course I'm gonna share it with everyone. Sorry Will. My friends everyone.

At a bright and early 7:45am we made our way to Will's grandparent's house. That's right, we were meeting not just his immediate family but also his extended family. His dad was waiting outside for us when we pulled up and was wearing a really awesome Hanbok (traditional Korean clothes). His mom and grandparents were also wearing Hanboks and they looked amazing. I really want one. They're so gorgeous.

I'm going to try to remember the exact order of things but I could get this wrong.

First we bowed to an ancestral shrine (table filled with food and possible more but I can't remember). The wonderfully awkward part of this is that neither Megan nor I noticed that it was only men who were bowing and just joined in. The only person who really saw us bowing with the men was Will's grandma who just giggled at us.

Second, Will's aunts and uncles bowed to his grandparents. This was followed by his grandparent's saying a few words about being healthy and successful in the new year and taking care of one another. After receiving a monetary gift, it was the grandkid's turn. They all bowed, their grandparents said a few words, and gifts were received. They gave out the gifts in order of age. David told me the grandkids may have been told additional lines about studying hard, watching over their siblings, and wishing good luck to the single kids about getting boyfriends/girlfriends.

Then the oldest brother and his wife took the place of the grandparents. The rest of the siblings bowed to them and he said a few lines (probably the same things that the grandparents said). The grandkids were up next and the same thing happened.

THEN IT WAS OUR TURN. Surprise! We didn't realize that we would also be bowing. We awkward bowed to Will's grandparents, they said a few lines and then they also gave us a gift. It was really nice of them and completely unexpected.

The rest of our time spent at his house was time spent eating. We ate lots of good food but the standout was Tteokguk, a soup traditionally eaten during Seollal consisting of broth and slices of rice cake. Eating the soup is believed to bring you good luck in the New Year and it's grant the consumer a year of age. My co-worker told me that when she was younger she would always try to eat multiple bowls to catch up with her older sister.

I got this picture from Google Images since I was to busy devouring my soup to take a picture. 

A picture of the table. Lots of yummy foods. 

One really interesting food that we ate was 홍어 or fermented skate. It has a really pungent ammonia smell and interesting aftertaste. It's fermented Skate (a type of fish) and is considered a delicacy. The 홍어  is the almost bright red dish at the bottom of the above picture. 

While it was really nice and relaxing to be around a family for the holidays, it was also hilarious. Everyone was afraid to speak to us. Will's really good at English and interned on a U.S. army base but no one else in his family is fluent in English (or at least that's what it seemed like). Will had multiple younger cousins and they refused to talk to us. Their parents kept trying to push them into the room with us and they would run away. One of the college aged cousins was forcibly dragged into the room by her dad. Her feet were sliding across the floor. The second she was released she ran from the room. I was told that parents were chastising their kids for not practicing their English with us. I felt kinda bad because I'm pretty sure Will's family would have talked to Megan and David if I wasn't there (they can both speak Korean...).

When we were finished eating it was time to go. Megan, David and I spent the rest of the morning wandering around a nearby park. It was a really good day. Really relaxing and interesting.

Peace!