100th Day Celebration

Today was Dash's 100th day celebration, or "Baek-Il" in Korean.  In Korea, on the 100th day after a child's birth, the family celebrates the child having survived the most vulnerable time in their life (physically). The family and friends celebrate by eating traditional red bean rice cakes, which symbolize the hope of longevity and happiness.

We were thrilled to have family in town to celebrate this special occasion for Dash. We had them draw pictures and write small notes to him that he can look at when he is old enough. Besides the traditional rice cakes, we also ate Korean Sweet Pancakes. Usually the baby will wear traditional Korean clothing, but since we don't have any for Dash, we decided to wear ours!

We also did a traditional Korean ritual: The child is seated before a table (in our case, a blanket) of various foods and objects such as thread, books, notebooks, brushes, ink and money. The child is urged to pick up an object from the table, as it is believed the one selected first will foretell the child's future. For example, if the child picks up a writing brush or book, he is destined to be a scholar. If he picks up money or rice, he will be wealthy. If the child picks up the thread, it is believed he will live a long life.

Although we don't necessarily buy into predicting the future, we placed the following objects in front of Dash: a pencil (scholar), money (wealth), a hymbook (musician), a missionary tag (RM or General Authority), a football (athlete), a shoelace (long life), a lion (animal lover), and a phone (engineer). As you can see from the picture, Dash ended up picking the phone. 

Rhetorically, 

Rebekah

Pepero Day

Need another excuse to eat candy now that Halloween has passed? Introducing Pepero Day!

Peperos are long thin cookies that are usually dipped in chocolate (or may have chocolate inside). However, they can be coated in other flavors, like strawberry or peanut.

According to Wikipedia: Pepero Day is an observance in South Korea similar to Valentine's Day, but held on November 11. The original purpose of the Pepero Day was to exchange peperos with each other in hopes of becoming taller and thinner. The current purpose is to exchange peperos to show affection for friends and loved-ones.

Naturally, Matt and I will be celebrating. You can find Pepero at any Asian market and you can find the Japanese version, Pocky, at various grocery stores (don't ask me which ones- I just know I've seen them). 

Rhetorically, 

Rebekah

White Day

For those of you who don't know what White Day is, read this post from last year. 

I gave Matt a few ideas of presents he could get me for White Day, and he totally outdid himself. Not only did he buy cute matching shirts, but he wore his shirt--all day. Voluntarily. What a guy.

Randomly, these shirts were made in the Dominican Republic. 

One of the best benefits of White Day is that I get twice as many presents because Matt can get everything on sale the day after Valentine's Day. Below are two boxes of chocolate, a photo frame, and a cute picture book about Charlie Brown's Valentine's Day (complete with sound effects)!

It was a well-deserved break from working on my 30 page paper (although I still did go to work and I also did a few hours of homework). 

We topped off the day with "The Lego Movie"

Which was a cute show. Be warned: the song "Everything is Awesome" will be stuck in your head afterward. And possibly the song Batman wrote about being an orphan.

And we also had dinner with some of the Lund cousins at: 

It was great to catch up with family. My cousin Cami reminded me that the last time we ate at Macaroni Grill was at our graduation from BYU. (We graduated the same year in the same major). Good times! 

Rhetorically,

Rebekah

Korean Festival

Koreans know how to party. 

 

Matt and I enjoyed spending last night making korean bookmarks, participating in korean games, and watching performances. I especially loved the k-pop dancing performances, the traditional "samulnori" (large drums), and the A cappella korean student group. They did so well!!!

Matt wore one of his korean shirts that had "foreigner" written in Korean on front. He won a gift card for us because they wanted a non-korean to translate a word that they had defined earlier in the performance. Since he had "foreigner" on his shirt, naturally he was the best pick. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of that proud moment. However, I do have this picture:

(Matt is not smiling because he wanted it to be an authentic traditional photo. I missed the memo.)

We had such a good time that we stayed until 9:30, when the performances ended.

Rhetorically,

Rebekah

Valentines Day

Matt's Carrel. He didn't see it coming. I decorated his carrel the night before while I was at a "writing conference." (I went, so I wasn't lying, but I left early to do his carrel). The small pink book on the table was a photo album so he could take the pictures down and store them.

I sent Matt on a short scavenger hunt throughout the house. He had to figure out the end of each rhyme in order to find where each candy bar/ sweet was. Here are some examples: 

1.     Pool table- sweettart

If you’re good with a stick and feeling cool, 

Go to the table where we play _________

2.     Shelf- starburst

This next one is tricky, don’t second-guess yourself

You’ll find your clue on a bathroom ________

3.     Front room fireplace- big hunk

If you’re feeling cramped and need some space

Go to the front room by the fire__________

4.     Backyard deck- snickers

Is the door locked? You’ll have to check--

Through the kitchen to the backyard _______

7.     Entertainment room TV- u-no

Wanna watch the Olympics? Do you have some time free?

Check out the space around the _______.

Since we were celebrating Korean style, we went out for Shabu-Shabu in Park City. Shabu-Shabu is a a traditional Korean/ Japanese meal where you start out with a portable gas stove and a bowl full of boiling broth (see pictures below). You slowly add raw materials (vegetables, thinly sliced raw meat, and noodles) and they cook in the broth and add flavor. It was a unique experience.

And I made Cherry yum-yum for dessert. The heart is made out of cherry pie filling, which is also found underneath the whipcream/ cream cheese topping. Thanks to Matt's mom for sending me detailed instructions!

Learning to Speak Korean

Okay, so it's not that impressive, but every week Matt will teach me a new Korean phrase. So far, I have learned how to say things like: hello, thank you, stop it!, don't leave, the end, yes/no, etc. So not enough to have a full conversation yet. However, it finally paid off the other day when I saw some Asian women in the parking lot and I could recognize that they were speaking Korean!

I talked to another wife of a Korean RM, and she said that she listens to Korean Language CDs when she drives to work. I might invest in that next semester.

However, I also want to keep my Spanish up. While I can practice with one of my co-workers from Mexico, I'm hoping to also start reading the scriptures in Spanish again so I can brush up on what I've forgotten.

What languages would you be interested in learning?

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

White Day 화이트데이

My boyfriend lived in Korea for three years and loved it. Consequently, I have learned a lot about Korea in the past couple months. One Korean tradition that I enjoy is their concept of Valentine's day. 

In Korea, Valentine's day is spread across three days: Feb 14 is for the men (women give them chocolate/ presents), Mar 14 is for the women (how we would celebrate Valentine's Day in America) and Apr 14 is for all the singles (they usually all go out to eat on this day).

I really liked this format because I always feel bad about the pressure guys get on Valentine's Day. Plus, no one in the US celebrates March 14, so I really felt special that day when my boyfriend surprised me by assigning each of my friends a "mission" (like mission impossible) to say a key phrase and give me chocolate at scheduled times throughout the day. It was one of the most creative operations I've ever seen. 

As an aside, I would highly recommend doing the "tangled disney movie" paper lanterns for a date. We got the blank white kind and wrote different messages on them for White Day as well (our own tradition, not Korean). 

Rhetorically,
Rebekah