I haven't had to work the last three days, thanks to Korean's celebration of Solar New Year! This is actually the most important of the Korean holidays; even bigger than Chuseok, which I didn't know until today! The 3 day holiday (5 days counting the weekend) is used as a time for many Koreans to return to their home towns and spend time with with their parents and other relatives... Many of them even dress in their traditional Hanboks! I spotted these girls walking down my street, wearing theirs, while I was out for a walk on Wednesday!
Aaron was even given a Solar New Years gift by the man who owns the convenient shop next to my new apartment! Both of us have made it a point to try to always buy stuff from only him, so we can build rapport with him! Apparently it's working, because as soon as he saw Aaron yesterday, he started looking through boxes, trying to find things to give him for the New Year! :) Incase you can't tell, it's 2 packs of laundry detergent, 2 boxes of plastic gloves, and a bottle of olive oil! hahaha!
I usually try to plan a vacation during a 5 day holiday, but with Thailand coming up this week, I decided to take the 5 days to stay in town, enjoy my new home and neighborhood, and relax... I basically just lounged around the apartment, read a book (LEFT TO TELL about the genocide in Rwanda), did some shopping, cooked yummy stuff, went out to dinner (downstairs with Aaron), went on walks along the harbor nearby, scooted around town, and went bowling with Aaron! :)
Aaron actually spotted the bowling alley a couple days ago! It's literally a 3 minute walk from my new place and has the feel of a small town midwestern bowling alley! It only had 8 lanes! At the mere price of $1.75 per game though, something tells me we're gonna be coming here a lot!
I think it's worth mentioning that I bowled 172!!! I even got 3 strikes in a row! I was on fire! I usually can't break 100, so this was very exciting, and I may have jumped and cheered for myself more than your average 29 year old would! :)
We've both had such a nice and relaxing break from work these past 3 days! Tomorrow, we are going to take the train to Daegu to see Jessica and Carlos! We're super excited!
Happy Solar New Year!
새해 복 많이 받으세요
(saehae bok man-hi ba-deu saeyo)