#Living in Korea

[apolline-lucy]

POV: you’re on a date in a coffee shop in seoul with your favourite fictional queer character. she’s a liar, but one thing that’s true is that she’s obsessed with you.

THE ANATOMY OF DYING

[studykac]

🧋06.25.23 🧋

Finally got back to my favourite local café for some studying! I've had tonsillitis for the past week so I've just been comfort (/low-key hate) reading Julia Quinn books since last sunday.

Finished up some practice questions, caught up on my daily vocab in one of my books (still haven't started making the flashcards I specifically bought for this month though rip ㅠㅠ).

Today's audiobook read was Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey and I had some fun with it! It was super short which I'm not complaining about and it was a really good introduction to the future western genre! A pretty solid read overall, and I'm interested in picking up more from Gailey in the future!

I also started a new physical read with Wonderworks by Angus Fletcher, and now I want to reread the Iliad lmao.

🎧 Beggin by Maneskin

📚 Wonderworks by Angus Fletcher

[ddaome-kr]

Korean Holidays in Spring 🌼

Note (Another note from me, the team member responsible for posting our stuff on tumblr): So, it's basically summer in Korea these days (very hot and sunny!) and this may seem out of the blue... We planned this post when it was spring, but real life (a.k.a college assignments) delayed our schedule a bit. We still hope you enjoy our post about holidays in Spring. Here's the link to our instagram post as usual(part 1, part 2).

Just less than a century ago, almost every individual in Korea were farmers. Even in the 1960s, more than half of the total population grew crops for living. If we count from the days of Dangun (단군, the mythical founder of Korea), for more than 4000 years, the people of Korea were largely committed to farming.

In a society where farming is central to the community, the weather and the seasons hold great importance. Really, because if there is a storm or an extreme raining season, that would mean that the crops will be ruined that year, leading to a year of celebration. Thus spring, which marks the beginning of the year and also the beginning of the planting season, was full of traditional celebrations which wished for a good year and the blessing of the ancestors. This post will further investigate the traditional spring holidays of Korea and its unique customs which were set to celebrate such comings of life. 

Seolnal [설날], also known as the Lunar New Year and Chinese new year, marks the beginning of the new year and celebrates the rise of the first moon. Now when the first moon rises, it appears as a very small crescent figure. After 15 days, it becomes the full moon. On this first full moon of the year, the jong-wol-dae-borum[정월대보름](hereon referred to as jeong-wol)holiday is celebrated. In the very early morning of the jeong-wol, families celebrate the day by eating bu-rom[부럼], which is a set of hard nuts such as peanuts, walnuts and chestnuts. By putting the hard nut in your mouth and purposefully breaking it with your teeth, you wish for good luck. More specifically, you wish for no bad luck this year.

This bu-rom breaking tradition stems from a homophonic term with bu-rom: bu-se-rom[부스럼]. Bu-se-rom refers to little pimples, thus by breaking the bu-roms, referring to bad luck in general, the people wished to have a healthy body in the new years which is essential for harvest. Traditionally, people would eat jabgok- bab[잡곡밥], which is rice cooked with nuts, with the na-mul[나물](seasoned spring herbs)s together. 

(A picture from our family dinner in the new years week, which features the additional servings of jabgokbab, namul, and other traditional dishes)

During the middays, people went around each family’s houses and farms, each carrying traditional celebrations. Ji-bul- nori[쥐불놀이] was a ceremony of intentionally setting fire to the farmland. Attaching a small paper or a can to a long rope, the players of jibulnori would hold the end of the rope and spin it, while lighting up the small paper or can attached. After spinning the rope a few times, the player would throw the fire inside the land. The fire was thrown in not only to wish for good farming but also to eliminate the bugs and the weeds that have grown over the winter. The community came together and later played yut-no-ri[윷놀이] and many other activities. 

After spending the day together families would gather and watch the first full moon rise together. People usually granted wishes, and they also predicted the outcome of the farming through the shape of the moon as well. 

Due to the development and industrialization of Korea in the last few decades, however, many of the traditional celebrations have been reduced in its size and significance. Nevertheless, the core traditions remain and many rural parts of Korea still celebrate such traditions. 

Thanks for staying with us and we hope you have enjoyed your five minute reading with us. 

[agingerwithaseoul]

Busan Fireworks Festival 2022

[cozyfaee]

04.22.23 Good day with my friend in Bucheon ♡

[rosiefaery]

[bieups]

[1일 1포 - 7/28]

My school gave me ₩50,000 for my birthday, but it's in this gift certificate form instead of cash

어휘

문화상품권 - gift certificate/voucher

문화 - culture

있다 - to exist, to have

곳 - place

어디 - where

문화가 있는 곳 어디에서나 - wherever there's culture

e-쇼핑 - literally "e-shopping" as in online shopping

영화 - movies

도서 - books

인터넷 - internet

[theoreosisters]

Together when apart <3

[easykorean]

Long-term foreign residents reaches all-time high.

The number of long-term foreign residents in Korea reached an all-time high in 2023 of 2.5 million people. This includes migrant workers and foreigners studying abroad. For reference, in 2013, there were only 1.45 million foreigners living in Korea. We covered Studying Abroad in four illustrated vocab-filled posts: Easy to Learn Korean 1695 – Study a foreign language abroad (Part One). Easy to…

[apolline-lucy]

2024.03.25✨

menu for a productive day:

- 1 hour walk ✔️

- finish reading Modern Divination ✔️

- write 1k words for my wip - ongoing

- post about my sapphic fantasy novel THE SILVER BIRDS ✔️

- journaling ✔️

- medical check up ✔️

how’s Monday treating you? 🤎

[atkoram]

it took years but i finally got a room with a view

[emma-emma-dilemma]

Love when the food delivery guy waits around outside my door instead of just leaving the food and fucking off like they’re supposed to

[plagalkey]

everything tastes better with you around

[cozyfaee]

Pretty moments from life recently. 🌿🪻🍃🌼

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

Past Lives (Celine Song, 2023)

[bieups]

[1일 1포 - 6/28]

Saw this at a bus stop recently and was reminded of all the times my T-Money card didn't have enough money to cover my bus fare and I had to find a place to recharge it and wait for the next bus

교통카드잔액조회기

카드를 대주세요

교통카드를 대시면 잔액이 표시됩니다

어휘 // Vocab

교통카드 - transportation card (for bus/subway/taxi)

잔액 - balance (as in how much money is in a bank account)

조회 - inquiry

잔액 조회기 - balance checker/reader [기 is a common suffix for machines]

대다 - to touch something to something else

~아/어 주세요 - please do ___

~면 - if/when

표시되다 - to be indicated

(I now use my bank card as a transportation card and don't need to recharge it...but this is still a cool little machine that should be at more bus stops!)