Easter Flopping by the Han

The day before I had to go to the MT (membership training), a bizzare little ritual performed by all Korean companies, institutions, schools, organizations, societies, clubs. The odd collocation 'membership training' comes probably from an ill-executed translation. What it really means is "going away with colleagues/coworkers/classmates, playing silly games, eating lots of food, drinking lots of alcohol with the idea of thus building the collective spirit and sense of belonging."

Judging by the broader than before smiles and more vigorous than before "great Korean hand-wave" from the few first year students I met today on campus, the ritual seems to be working. I don't know, I might have simply impressed them with my terminator ball throw, or I simply looked adorable in the impossibly orange sweatshirt, made exclusively for the occasion of the MT event.

Of course, the MT inevitably involved two huge meals with colleagues. On our way up to Gapyeong we stopped for lunch at a place simply called 'Waehalmoni' (maternal grandmother). It's a "good name to Koreans" cuz maternal grandmother is the one who truly spoils her grandchildren with good food and affection. Why is it so? Well, she is the one who usually lives alone in the country; her sweet, fresh, kimchi fed daughter had managed to snatch a city slicker and produce a couple of very urban grandchildren (anyone seen "Way Home- Chib-euro - that kind of a deal). When the city kids come to grandma she's beside herself with joy and spoils them with best of everything, best usually meaning food.

Although we were disappointed not to see anyone older than forty in the establishment, that didn't stop us from lapping up huge pots of chicken and duck soup spiced with jujubes, ginseng, some thorny twigs of the good-for-your health and some skinny spindly white roots of the good-for-your-stomach type. Still, that wasn't enough to fill us up, so we ordered dwaenjang-chiggae (fermented bean paste soup) and bori-bibimbap (barley with assorted veggies). Aigooo (Ouuch). An hour later we played a few quite physical games with students. The soup was all stirred and upset and wanted out - and it almost managed to do so, through my nose, no less.

After the MT and a few horrendous hours of unbelievably congested traffic, we finally came back to Seoul - where we (BIG SURPRISE!) went to a famous (what else?) guksu (let's call it Korean spaghettini) restaurant. Except, this one -for authenticity purpose- was had no guksu in the name but guks-hi, as guksu is pronounced in the dialect of Ganwon province. There, we slurped more noodles, suffered through numerous bowls of fiery kimchi and bottles of more traditional drinks. Yours truly came home at 11:00, half-plastered. Since I don't like anything half-whatever, I did my best to make the drunk half whole by consuming the wine left over from the previous night.

Easter Sunday woke me up not in the best of conditions. I had a restorative breakfast of three egg-shaped ibuprofen pills, - very Easter, dare I say - and resurrection, gratefully, followed. I felt good enough to go for the Easter picnic by the river.

It was quite cold and windy, but still very pleasant. Good food and good drinks were consumed, light conversation flowed...

A, B and C ended up their day playing badminton by the river. B is still hurting. Not a bad Easter at all. Except, no Easter eggs at all - the egg-shaped orange wonder drug excluding. Next year, I'll be better prepared and less hungover, I hope.

Here are the pix of some of the Easter bunnies who didn't quite hopped but rather flopped by the Han. My favourite is the one of Lady Gwen and her pretty blue parasole. Lady C is hilarious sitting contentedly on the ad for her drug of choice - Starbucks, and I look like I am directing an orchestra.