Why do koreans say aish?

Sorry, Am really busy at the moment.

But, I do want to explain what aish means.

It basically is a sound Koreans make when they are in stress or want to express disapproval.

Its like fxxk, but less vocal and not really a swear word. However you do not want to use aishi in front of  a person that has a higher status than you

Korean Birthdays!

Haha, my American birthday was really disappointing. Well, I found respect for some people and disappointment from a lot more.

Just going to write about my disappointments.
- It rained, and most of my roommates didn't want to go eat out, although it was a close distance from our dorm.
- Didn't want to go out and eat for dinner because they were too busy.
- Nothing was prepared.

My new respect
- Went to eat out during the rain
- Went to take me out for dinner even though it was somewhat a fail
- Called me for my birthday

So, I'm really disappointed at my roommates, because I usually take care of their birthday. Treat them for food, or buy them small gifts, and make food for them. In return, they were afraid to go out to eat in the rain lol. And I usually don't celebrate my birthday during college. It was the first actual birthday that I tried to celebrate. And it kind of became a disappointment.

Yeah, so I'm back to the point realizing friends from college aren't really reliable. And I should stop caring about their birthdays.

But, I did find greater respect for those who bought me presents, gave me a call, or even facebook me. Well, I giving them more credit because they don't live near me lol. I also found new respect for one of my roommate who went to eat out with me in the rain, and for dinner.

Anyways, I would like to tell you what Korean Birthdays are like. We eat out like normal birthdays. I kind of eating out in Korean style because we get a plate of food and share among us. I don't know but sharing food makes it more enjoyable to eat. Then, we usually go watch movies, go to cyber cafe, or even a normal cafe. We sometimes do fireworks, Kind of fun.

But, this was during my high school. After high school, Koreans usually go drinking and karaoke.

For girls, I heard they book a hotel, and do a party there, eating sweets and drinking wine lol

Well, I think Korean birthdays are more about being together and hanging out rather than going to places.

This is my limited knowledge of Korean birthdays because I had very few Korean birthdays lol I lived more then half of my life abroad :S

Turning 21 soon!

My birthday is coming soon.

Its pretty interesting. The month is 01. The date is 21. The years 1991. The age is 21. This years 2012. I'm taking 21 credits. It seems 2,1, 0s are frequent. Although I'm catholic, I'm really superstitious lol. Yeah I know I'm a fail catholic.

Anyways I kind of wanted to talk about friends and my worries, because usually birthdays are celebrated with your friends. So, its going to be an emo post.

So read at your own risks lol <3

I don't really have people to celebrate my birthday with. Its either, I just pass it away or just go out and eat with friends, but nothing exciting. It just feels like a regular outing and pretty much is a regular outing. But, the main problem is I don't think I have like 'real' friends.

Well, I might be insulting my friends, but I don't hangout haha

I don't do stuff with anyone lol. Well, my mom doesn't like me hanging out with people because she thinks I'm weak, since I have my dad's fail genes. And doesn't like people coming over. I talked to her about this break and she did say it was her fault and she would change that if we could live the past. She told me, she was too busy trying build a stable life and couldn't bother with my luxuries of having friends to hangout with.

 Moreover, traveling kind of screwed many friendship. We didn't have facebook when I was in elementary school. So, I lost most of my childhood friends, well I'm not even sure if they last that long.

My current friends are very international. So, my problem is that I don't see them at all lol. And if I go to Korea, I would have no friends. I would have 3 Korean friends lol. And 2 I don't even really contact.

lol, and with 2 years of military service, I'm not even sure if any would try contacting me.




I guess year 2015, It would be a complete fresh new start?

Korean Gifts

As I was sick the whole break, I didn't really get to do much. Most of the time, I just went to E-mart, a Korean supermarket/walmart. I realized how different Korean gifts are.

Well, its not weird. Like the items are normal, its just that what we give as gifts are very strange. I didn't really notice this because I too thought it was normal. 

So, I'll give ranking to weird items to give as presents 

5. Fruits 

Fruits are pretty common in Korea. US does give fruit as present but not as common as Korea.

4. Cosmetics

 Koreans give lotions, perfume, toner set as gifts. This isn't too bad also, since it does happen.

3.Fish

Imagine getting fish as a gift. I bet nobody does this in America. However, in Korea, its pretty common. These fish gifts are pretty expensive as well. Usually they are high quality fish.

2. Meat

I believe a lot of Koreans would enjoy getting a Korean beef set. Korean cows are expensive -.-.

1. Spam

In the US, getting spam as a gift probably would be a joke. However, in Korea its a legit gift. I think its because spam is pretty expensive in Korea.

In Korea, anything can be gifts. Well, the thing is they have to be packaged and the mart usually have a specific section for these gifts. Also you should choose wisely on depending on who you are giving it to. Like any culture, you don't want to offend the receiver.

lol, we also give tooth paste as gifts.

Its kind of nice to get these gifts because they are efficient. You are going to save money buy not buying these necessities.

Happy New Year!

Happy new year! Its the year of the dragon this year. Koreans also like the Chinese and Japanese follow the zodiac signs.

This year, there is Euro 2012, and the London olympics to look forward to. In Korea, we have the election of the parliament members and Presidential election. I'm not too interested in political stuff, but these two events are something that will influence Korea greatly.

In Korea, its actually not the "real" new year. Korea used to follow lunar calendar and celebrated the new year of the lunar calendar.

So, what do we do during the solar new year?

We celebrate it like most other countries. We have fireworks, drinks and outings with family/friends. The only difference is that Koreans have a huge bell that rings to alert that a new year has come. A lot of people also make new year resolutions.

What about the lunar new year?
Our lunar new year is considered more important. I assume it is because there is more tradition involved with it.

We wear new clothes. Usually the traditional Korean costume. Originally, people would get new clothes as presents.

We do 제사 jaesa. It is a ritual where we prepare quite a bunch of food to serve our ancestors. When I say ritual it sounds really primitive and very un-modern. However, I really do like 제사 jaesa. It gives us a time to think about our ancestors and be thankful. Usually its gives a chance for my parents to thank their parents for raising them.

Then, we do 세배 saebae.  Saebae is when we bow to our parents and grand parents. Again we want to show respect to our parents. After we bow, our parents give us money.

After we do are bows we eat 떡국 duk gook. Its a traditional soup dish which has rice cakes in it. We also eat food that was used in 제사 jaesa. Yummm