Monthly Archives: January 2007

It’s taken me several days to process the awesomeness of everything that happened this weekend, and I also suffered the immense trauma of losing and then finding my notebook again, so apologies for the late start to the new year.

Actually, I’m not sorry at all, because this past weekend, the fourth New Year I’ve spent with my number one best husband, was probably the best new year holiday I’ve ever had. It all started with real live genuine hamburger and margarita for dinner Friday night at TGIFridays in Seoul, and there’s nothing like American food to get me in the mood to party.

Saturday after running with the Seoul chapter of our running club, we discovered that “Hedwig” was playing that very night.

The show was in a tiny, intimate venue with excellent acoustics, and was made even more awesome by the fact that the entire thing (even the songs) were in Hangul. All the people in the audience were singing along, even me, to the parts I could remember, and the funniest part of the show was when Hedwig talks about her first band, the Korean housewives. This was the first time Christopher and I have really seen good live music since moving to Korea and I was surprised at how desperately I’d missed it. I did get my dance on, though. I’ve now seen “Hedwig” live three times in three different parts of the world.

Sunday we went to the Seoul Museum of Art for an amazing Magritte exhibit that put even my favorite museum in Houston, the Menil, to shame. (Sorry, Menil, you know I love you). SEMA’s exhibit had family photos, artwork he’d done on advertising commission, much earlier works that were more Cubism than Surrealism and even some experimental Super 8 home movies he’d made. Sigh. I love Rene Magritte.

Sunday night we walked to downtown Seoul to see the lights around city hall. We ended up at a placed called Ska Bar, which in true Korean style had absolutely nothing to do with the genre of music. Christopher ran through every ska band we could think of, from The English Beat to Prince Buster, but finally when I mentioned No Doubt the bartenders’ eyes lit up. Oh well — they both gave us free drinks and taught us how to say “Happy New Year” in Korean.

A whole bunch of other stuff happened too. We walked through crowds of people on the street setting off fireworks (which are apparently standard issue to all Koreans on any major holiday) and ate some pork stew since 2007 is the year of the Pig. We watched some news on TV at the restaurant and saw some drummers perform on the street and then about 11:30 p.m. we decided to head down towards the temple to see the Boshingak Bell.

Every year at midnight it is rung 33 times (because the number 33,000 is lucky in Korea) and then everyone sings a song that is a prayer for the reunification of the peninsula. As we made our way through the crowd we were greeted by dozens of Koreans wishing us a happy new year. Hearing the bell’s low tones over the screams of people and explosions of fireworks and the ringing in my ears — it was awesome. There are 10 million people in Seoul, and the number of them out on New Year’s Eve was the largest, thickest, most friendly crowd I’ve ever been stuck in, and I’m a pretty claustrophobic person. No one even pushed, which is something you can’t even get on a normal everyday street in Seoul. Just look at how happy these guys are:

I vaguely remember kissing a few strangers on the street in celebration. I remember seeing golden piggy banks everywhere, and somehow made it home with two, because not only is 2007 the Year of the Pig, it’s also believed to be the Year of the Golden Pig, a lucky year that only comes around once every six centuries. Couples are encouraged to have babies this year and everyone is encouraged to save money because it’s supposed to be the most prosperous of signs.

Monday was a shopping day. We went to Goblin Market, where Christopher came across the motherload of 2-dollar record shops, buying me copies of both “The Nutcracker” and a Sylvie Vartan record which we later discovered had never been opened (plus about 20 records for himself). After we got home Monday night we stayed up until about 2 a.m. listening to records.

Halfway through this year I will turn 27. I remember thinking at 16 that in the year 2000 I’d be 20 years old, and how old and how far away that seemed to me. In just a few short years it will be 2010, and then 2020, and by then I’ll likely be a mother and who knows where I’ll live or what my life will be like.

The first few days of this year have already been awesome and promising. Last year was very hard for me in many ways but it was also a year filled with travel and adventure and inconceivable bliss and happiness. I find myself looking forward to 2007 — I can’t remember ever feeling this optimistic about the start of a new year, ever.