Celebrating Sol-nal,

the lunar New Year

It says above: "say hay boke-mahn he pah du say oh".

"Please receive many New year's blessings"

Like many other Asian countries, Korea has two different New Year's days according to solar and lunar calendars. The more widely preferred one is the lunar New Year's day, called Sol-nal. Sol-nal is a day for the whole family's reunion and for refreshing everyone's common life at the very beginning of a year. The day has many special meanings and events.

On Sol-nal's Eve, people prepare Bok-jori (made with straw) and hang them outdoors to protect their family from evil and bad luck. Often, kids try to keep awake all that night because they believe that if they sleep, their eyebrows will turn white.

wearing a Sol-bim
isn't she adorable? :o)

On the morning of Sol-nal, everyone dresses in specially prepared, traditional clothes (usually brand new) called Sol-bim. Generally, these clothes are decorated with five colors. Every family gathers at their eldest male member's home to perform Cha-rye(meal ceremony), ancestral memorial rites. They offer food for their ancestors because they believe that the deceased ancestors must be well nourished so they have enough energy to give many blessings to their descendants

After the big, very special breakfast, the younger people bow to the their elders, wishing them health and long life, good luck, and prosperity through the whole year. At the end of the day, friends and relatives join together for dinner to renew their friendship. Sol is a celebration of family and good friends.

Happy lunar New Year!! :o)

Weekend excursion to Jeonju

This weekend is the second largest holiday weekend of the year. It being lunar New Year on Sunday, all Koreans head for their hometowns to pay their respects to their ancestors and spend time with family. I was told that Seoul becomes somewhat of a ghost town beginning Friday afternoon through about Sunday night. Since we were scheduled to be off from Friday-Monday, I decided to visit some friends that I'd promised to visit months ago.

Jeonju on a normal day, is located about 3 hours South of Seoul, and 1 hour North from where I used to live in Kwangju. Since it was a holiday weekend, it turned into a 6 hours trip due to traffic. I was going to visit my friends Vivian and Lillian - Lillian was in my orientation/training group when I first came to Korea, and Vivian I had met my 1st term here. Vivian is also a Coordinator so we often see each other at meetings and other get togethers.

When I arrived, I learned that another teacher would join us from Busan. This teacher Jamie, was also with my orientation group with both Lilly and I, so we were happy to see her once again. The four of us spent time hiking, visiting 2 Buddhist temples, and getting to know more about Jeonju - one of the oldest cities in Korea. It was really great getting out of Seoul and spending time with good friends. :o)

We hiked through the mountains to check out a Buddhist

temple and to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

Despite the cold of the day, I loved being in nature.

It's such a big change from the heavily poluted and overly populated city of Seoul.

The temple

The girls posing for me on the steps leading to the main temple.

These colorful balloon-looking things were made by the

monks especially for the lunar New Year.

They each contain special prayers and a candle

that will be lit on the eve of lunar New Year.

This neatly stacked pile of rocks are special prayers from a single person.

If someone disturbs the pile of pebbles or rocks,

it is said they will have bad luck or even be cursed.

Everywhere we turn, there is evidence of prayers from the people.

Vivi took us to a small, modern, yet traditional looking cafe to try some Korean traditional tea. These teas were made of various fruits, and special herbs only found in Korea.

I've always been fascinated with churches, temples, and cathedrals so when I saw this one standing so tall and beautiful, I couldn't resist the urge to take its picture. :o)


This is the oldest Catholic church in Jeonju.

Tapsa Temple located at the base of Mt. Maison.

This temple is famous for its more than 80 stone towers

that were built by hand over a period of ten years by a

dedicated monk 100 years ago.

Standing behind the Tapsa Temple

Me, Jamie, and Vivi(top row) & Lilly - ya like my Elmer Fudd hat? :o)

So this morning, I gave a holler out to my sister whom I haven't spoken to in a few days, and was pleasantly surprised to hear some news that she gave me. I learned that Chile elected it's first female president into office last week. Although this news doesn't affect me directly, it certainly does for my family in Chile. However, being the feminist that I am, I was SO excited to hear this news! Who would've thought 5 or 10 years ago that this would be possible? It was made possible because the people wanted it and democracy permitted it. Michelle Bachelet, a socialist, won 53.5% of the votes against her rival Sabastian Pinera. Bachelet is the first woman in South America to be elected president on her own merits, not as a relative of a deceased male leader.

What does this mean for Chile and its future? Well, that only time will tell. But she is being hailed as a symbol of change for Chile - hopefully a change not just for the women in Chile, but for women around the world to see that anything is possible. :o)

Hmn... Esther for President? WHAT?!! Bush won, why can't I?
hee hee... :o)

Quaneta, Onyx, Monica and I Saturday night. The other 2 had already gone home so are not included in the pic.

I've had such a busy weekend that took off on Friday night with our TGIF program, then on to Saturday morning with our Signs club meeting, and lastly ending with church. We(the other 2 foreign teachers and I) decided to invite our Junior teaching staff to join us at our apartment for dinner and a movie. We wanted to have some down time together since we're always rushing around to our various classes, that we barely have time to breathe and greet each other!

Sunday, I was delighted when my alarm woke me up promptly at 6:30am - just kidding! I wanted to cry when I heard that terrible noise that forced me out of my warm bed to turn it off! But I had to get up early for my Coordinator meeting at the Main Institute beginning at 8am. The trip from my apartment to the institute is about 50 min. total, so I wanted to be sure to be ON TIME!! The last Coordinator meeting in the previous term, was my first meeting and unfortunately, I miscalculated the travel time, and arrived 20 minutes late! I was SO embarrassed since I was supposed to be officially introduced to the other Coordinators. So I vowed not to ever be tardy again - 6:30am it is. :o)

It's been a difficult transition going from teaching 5 days a week in Kwangju(Monday-Friday), to teaching Sunday night-Friday morning, then having to do weekend activities. So it basically shakes out to be that I work 6 days a week! So my down time Sat. night and Sunday mornings are VERY precious.

My Religion class started for this term, on Sunday night. I'm always a little nervous about what kind of group I'll get - this term was no different. It was all going fine until one student walked in about 15 minutes late. I had asked the other students what they thought or knew about God, so when she(Sara) walked in late, I of course, asked her as well. She then began the long speech about how she's a hard-core Atheist. Sara has many issues with God and the church and was not shy about stating how much she hates God because He restricts us from doing whatever we want. She was raised in the Catholic Church and was taught that God is a perfect, judging, unforgiving God. She was pretty much beaten over the head with this concept and now of course, she hates God and has a lot of resentment toward the church. The other students looked shocked and couldn't understand some of her points she was making against God, but they mostly disagreed with what she was saying.

At the end of the class, after she finally finished her thoughts(she talked for about 25 minutes), my mind was spinning because I didn't know how to begin to answer or defend any of the things she had said without offending her. But God gave me the words just then, and I asked her to try to put all the doubts, questions, hatred aside for this class. I asked her to have an open mind when she comes to class and to listen and learn more about God. Once she has been able to have more understanding of Him and His love for us and for her, to then decide for herself where she stands.

This is going to be an interesting Religion class, so I ask for your prayers especially for this student. I had Religion class tonight, and she was very attentive - reading the bible texts that I assigned to her, and was listening carefully. Please pray for me that I will have the patience and the knowledge to teach this class in a way that God's love will be shown to her and to the others as well.

Term 1 for 2006 is now in full swing with our first week of classes behind us. This term, I'm teaching 8 hours as I used to when I was in Kwangju. Last term I taught only the required 6 hours which was a really nice break. However, being Coordinator gave me many more responsibilities that took up my time as if I were teaching 8 hours.

It's great to see this new institute growing so quickly! We have trippled our enrollment and had to hire 3 more teachers to help out - 1 Junior teacher, and 2 Pre-level teachers. If the numbers keep growing as we're forcasting they will, we'll have to request more foreign teachers for the following term. Tonight we had our Mission Day program that the institute puts on every term. Our tiny chapel was packed to the maximum capacity, and then some. The students were smiling and singing with us and really seemed to be enjoying themselves. I'm happy to see that our institute is growing and that the students are having more and more interest in knowing more about God.

I just walked into the door of my apartment here in Seoul, in quite a daze. Perhaps it's because I've been traveling for the past 29.5 hours, or maybe it was the hashrounds and egg biscuit I ate on the plane an hour ago that my sister had purchased for me back at the beginning of my trip. Yeah, I know, gross, but I was SOO hungry and I happened to have just 1 biscuit left after consuming 2 earlier during my flight from Chatt town to Chicago. Then those leftover hashrounds were all too tempting, so... :o)

Going home was probably the best idea I've had yet - I truly needed to for my own sanity. A true dose of "normalsy" is what my body and mind were craving. :o) The following pictures are just a few of the many pics I took while home - I'll share with you the highlights...

Dad and Carolina picking me up at the airport

Carolina was presented and dedicated on December 24th

Zoe Isabella was born to proud parents, Tanya and Gabriel

Introducing Zoe Isabella Avilés

Weighing 7.2 and 20 inches long, Zoe Isabella was born on December 30th to my brother Gabriel and his wife Tanya Avilés in Nashville, Tennessee. Both Carolina and Zoe were born with eyes wide open, ready to take on the world! :o)

Proud Auntie of babies Carolina and Zoe