Life in South Korea: Lunar New Year

This weekend was the Lunar New Year. It is the year of the Ox. The Lunar New Year is not the festival it is in China. In Korea businesses were closed Monday and Tuesday. Everyone goes back to their home towns and visits family. On Monday the yound people in the family have to bow to all of the elders in the family. There is a teacher here who is Korean and he showed us how to bow. First you have to form a diamond with your hands, then get down on both knees, then stretch your arms out in front of you and put your head down. After that the elders give young kids (under 18) money. There is a meal and all the food and table settings are white.

Since everyone was leaving Seoul, we couldn't get tickets out of the city. Instead we got a room at the Shila Hotel. It's one of the nicest hotels in the city. There was a nice pool and a spa. We went swimming and snuck into the spa. In the spa there was an area to shower. There were indiviual areas this a hand held shower, mirror, and body washes. There were different grained salts that we could use to rub on our bodies. After lots of scrubing we went to the pools. There were three different temperatures and each pool had a waterfall you could go under. It was nice jumping from hot to cold, or cold, warm, hot. I went in the cold pool and then went into the dry sauna. After that I would run out and hop in the cold pool. It was very refreshing! There was also an infared sauna. I had never heard of that before. It was only 70 degrees, and had infared lights. It's supposed to be very good for your skin. After the saunas we went and scrubed down some more. It was a very relaxing day!