On arriving back at our room after a exhausting day of being touristy, the Guesthouse lady asked us if we would like to join the NY party with the rest of the guests which would involve making Tteokguk (traditional Korean NY food of rice cake soup) and playing Yunnori (traditional Korean NY game) for the small fee of 5,000won (I think... it was a while ago and I might have made that up.)
Anyway, before I talk about that, first off I will try to explain the baffling concept of 'Korean age', and how it's different to how we as Westerners think about age:
1) Firstly, for some reason Korean's believe that when a child is born they are already 1 years old. So you are born and straight away you are 1. I don't know exactly why, because even if you counted the 9 months in the womb you still wouldn't be 1, but that's how it is.
2) Secondly, Korean people add 1 year to their age on New Year, not on their birthday. So everybody adds one year to their age on New Year.
3) Thirdly, whether they add 1 more year on Solar New Year (the NY that Westerners celebrate) or Lunar New Year (known as Chinese New Year to most), is up to them.
The point of this story being that the reason that making and eating Tteokguk together is a tradition is that when Korean people eat the soup they believe they age one more year. So instead of asking 'How old are you?', it is a traditional custom to ask 'How many bowls of Tteokguk have you eaten?'.
Now you are probably wondering what Tteokguk is exactly. It consists of thinly sliced rice cakes in a delicious broth made from beef, pork or seafood, seasoned with garlic, onions, seaweed and peppers and served with an egg.
I would like to tell you how to make it, however there was a very protective Korean lady hogging the kitchen (for the Expats reading this, you know what kind of character I mean!) so I still have absolutely no idea, ha. On the upside, despite the fact that I'm not usually a fan of rice cakes, it was really tasty, not too heavy and not as spicy as other Korean foods. Thankfully, I didn't look or feel any older after it eating it though...
After washing down our Tteokguk with the obligatory soju and mekju (beer), the Korean guests all set to work making a home-made Yunnori board, that looked something like this:
Each team/player (depending on how many people are playing) has markers and places them on the starting position.
Next they throw the 'yut' sticks, that look like this:
If 3 sticks land flat side down, but 1 stick is flat side up it is called Do, and the player/team can move 1 space.
2 sticks flat side up is called Geh, and the player/team can move two spaces.
3 sticks with the flat side up is called Geol, and the player/team can move three spaces.
4 sticks with the flat side up is called Yut, and the player/team can move four spaces.
And finally, if 4 sticks are land with the flat side down, this is called Mo and they can move five spaces.
Additionally, if the player/team land on the corner spaces they can then take a shortcut across the board, the objective of the game being to be the first player/team with all of their markers crossing the finish line.
Now here comes the twist:
the Guesthouse owners had a much more exciting take on the game planned for us, and so they did what Koreans do best... turned it into a drinking game!
So in addition to the regular Yunnori board there was also spaces colored in red. If a player/team landed on these spaces they would have to pick a piece of paper out of a 'mystery bag' and do the forfeit on the paper.
Some of the forfeits included:
1) Singing a song
2) Down a drink in one
3) Drink a dirty pint made by the other team (think about some kind of beer, soju, soy sauce, kimchi, oyster sauce, coffee cocktail, yum!)
4) Let the other teams draw all over your face.
5) Take a group photo trying to look cute/ugly/sexy.
6) Write your name in the air with your bum... (weird... but hilarious)
But if you wanted to play you could make the forfeits anything you wanted, but the sillier the better in my opinion. The organisers made a point of separating the foreigners, so that we had to team up with the Korean guests. You would think would be a little awkward, but when you've shared a kimchi/soysauce/beer and soju cocktail together you can't help but be feel a bit closer!
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