Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Happy Lunar New Year (Seollal)!!!

This past weekend was Seollal (1st of January in Lunar calendar). I think the most important & celebrated holiday in Korea. This New Year fell on January 23 of the regular calendar. Seollal is big family holiday. They go visit their families & some dress up with the traditional hanbok. I think is also a big gift giving day.





Funny, but a box of Spam is one of the gifts typically given.

Fruit is also given. Fruit in Korea is very expensive. This orange came form Jeju, It was the best orange ever, but the average price for a single one is around $12... crazy : /


Korean red ginseng tonic.... aka "The wonder tonic". It's known to have numerous health benefits, be an energy booster & a potent stress reliever.


Honeyed Korean red ginseng slices.


Sean came back from work with some gifts & he also got Monday and Tuesday off from work! Yeaaaay for me.... not so yeayyy for him... We were all very sick in the house.

At first I thought it was a simple cold, since I got the flu shot I wasn't to worried about getting sick. Markus started school two weeks before, I though it would be normal to get a cold. I gave him a medicine I brought with me from PR and he started getting a little better. And for me, I stopped by the neighborhood drug store and I asked her in my aweeesome konglish; Me-di-cine, cold-duh... And start coughing... achuuuu... cold-duh...
She's obviously making fun of me in her head, I mean I must look super stupid. The way I communicate with people here, is just too funny (I sometimes feel like a chimpanzee). I guess is the same as when we made fun of the very few Chinese we have in PR, only this time I'm the one being made fun off. Thank G. I take it all as a joke, because playing the other part is not so nice.
Anyways, she understood me and said; Neeeee....
And gave me the weirdest medicine I've seen. A warm drink I had to drink at once and some pills I was supposed to take every 5 hours (to learn this I had to get Sean on the phone. Explanations on dosage is waaay beyond my Korean & Konglish knowledge).


The bottle I had to drink all at once and pills every 5 hours. The blue box is just peppermint tea. 
The drink tasted a bit like "malta" with Robitussin in it, only sweeter (and malta itself is as sweet as can be). Not so bad, I've had worst. 


I have no idea what's in this but the powdery thing, is similar to "gofio" but thinner.


I took these for two days before going to the Dr. We didn't really go for me, we went because Olivia woke up with a cough that sounded like a dog bark. When we got to the Dr. office it was packed, there were at least 20 families. Supposedly there's a huge Influenza epidemic & it's a really strong strain. Well Olivia had croup, Marky had bronchitis and I have severe bronchitis. Now the medicine changed, I say again, meds. are so different here. 


You have to mix the liquid one with the powdery one. : /


Mine...

It's been over a week for me and I still feel like scheisse...
Olivia and Markus seem to be doing better & Sean is NOT sick TG...

Stay warm & Happy New Year! : )


2 comments:

Alexandra said...

You are too funny! Hope you feel better soon and the babies too!

Tania said...

Gracias : )