i got a perm yesterday... i know that sounds weird but i promise that in korea it's completely normal!! imagine the whole country with naturally straight black hair~ everybody wants to change it to have their own look! this also means that perms/dye jobs are incredibly cheap soooo i figured why not! although now that i see it on my chubby ramen face i'm having a few doubts...

we decided to walk a few kilometers to changi's friend's house and got totally lost on the way! luckily she made a few calls and suddenly a motorbike was scooting up the dirt road to pick us up! when we got there, we played poker and drank a little bit and i had such a good time!! despite the fact that when i went to use their "bathroom" (all the bathrooms i've seen here have been holes in the ground behind a wall outside) there were chickens in my way! and i did not know what to do! i swear these people must think i'm some spoiled brat, never had to move chickens to use the hole in the ground before... my point was it was a great day anyway

it is BITTER cold outside but the town market is still open during the day, even with (very bundled) street performers!! changdi made sure i tried all of the snacks, many of which with names that changdi couldn't translate, thus i will never know what exactly it was that i ate... sometimes confusing, sometimes questionable, but generally delicious

i had the incredible chance to go with changdi to her great grandma's birthday party on our last day in chongdo. so much amazing food on the biggest lazy susan i've ever seen, and when all the men are out of the room, these ladies are a riot! had such a fun time with the language barrier although now i can say "happy new year" "mouse" "america" "pretty" "eat" and "go" :D

one of changdi's family traditions for the new year is to make HUNDREDS of dumplings from scratch, and it was my job to help! we put coins in some of the dumplings, and if you bite into one with a coin, it sends you good luck for the new year!

going to the beach in the dead of chinese winter might not be your FIRST idea of the dream vacation, but it was actually a really beautiful (albeit freezing) day on the shore. seeing those stretches of black rocks reminded me of those ancient chinese paintings of the sea, and i didn't quite mind the cold at all...

my friend changdi has invited me to spend the lunar new year with her family in chongdo! when she invited me back in seoul, i had such a crazy mental image of dragons and parades and fireworks... but i don't think that's what this trip is going to be about. chandi lives in the most remote village i've ever seen, on farmland that just her family owns. her grandparents and aunts live down the street, and the center of the town is a long drive away. no one speaks english, and changdi and i can only communicate with our collective basic korean... ALSO it's china's coldest winter in over one hundred years (and of course we have no central heat)... suffice to say, this trip is going to be interesting.




tonight the family welcomed us with a huge dinner and looots of tsingtao beer. i am the only westerner to ever come to their home and they are thrilled! and despite everything that could go wrong, i'm thrilled too :)

happy birthday to mika!! and evvveryone was out to celebrate~ what a spectacle to see so many guys at once working to make her day perfect! she's a maaaaan eater

on the night of the new year, we celebrated by visiting each of changdi's family members in sort of a trick-or-treat round~ we went to each house, bowed to their new year's alter (check out ours above!) and received coins and candy in return! changdi's brother and her cousin made homemade fireworks and set them off at midnight, the perfect end to a really special night

new years 2008 in manhattan! and we celebrated with korean karaoke on 32nd street. however, some of us handled our soju better than others...