I meet up with two ladies from my church over the Lunar New Year and we enjoyed the festivities at the traditional house located near Nam San Tower! We made tal (traditional masks) with this weird modern kinda clay, i will have to post a picture of mine soon. Bellow is part of the duk(rice cake) process, he is letting the kids take turns pounding on the large mound of very sticky rice :)
Here we enjoyed hearing quite a bit of English as we watched a live radio broadcast unfold before our eyes. It was kinda fun because i believe i have heard them on the radio as we go to work in the mornings. It is always nice to get a little English in!
After our Time at the Traditional house, where we also watched some traditional performances and music (picture not available) we walked around the base of Nam San(Mountain) and on our way down Julia took a few pictures of Grace and myself.
Overall I enjoyed the day, it was good to get some traditional stuff in and learn a little more about the culture. A few days before this I got another opportunity to learn about the Lunar New Year celebrations at Kuk's House where a number of ILF staff and family's gathered to celebrate and honor our elders. It was cute to watch all the young children in their traditional outfits bowing and asking for many blessings. My plan was to enjoy watching, eat the great food, participate in conversation when possible and be on my way. This was not to be. Kuk seemed intent on my experiencing this tradition first hand. I refused a few times with excuses all the while feeling it a little strange to strait up bow to anybody. Yet in the end my resistance broke they showed my how told me the words and with a friend I bowed, asked for blessings and ended the deal with about 50 bucks worth. I realized just why i was asked to bow so intensely, they just wanted an excuse to give me some money! Not really, but in the end it wasn't so bad and I learned one thing about the particular style of bow. It was a one knee bow, easy to go down and easy getting back up. I like that and cant help but feel their is some significance to that fact.
