AHHA! How fancy is that!
Me! Saying “happy new year”! With the number one most difficult language in the world! (according to a brief survey among international students in my Korean class).
Recently reading an article about how certain people rejects any “happy new year” greeting, I encounter some intriguing ideas. Rejection comes from a belief that “new year” event is highly associated with ancient hocus pocus magical non-Theological beliefs. Never being one that gets influenced by other people’s thoughts, I have my own beliefs, my own thoughts about “new year”.
For many people, here is the common formula for new year:
New year = new hopes = new resolutions = new dreams = new days = new sunrises = new shopping lists = new wanted items = …..
My roommate has her own story about new year. She believes that bad luck shalt come to thou who embrace new year with unclean possessions. In other words: filthy room, three-months-worth-unwashed bed sheet, white-turned-to-brown muddy shoes, stench in bathroom, and so on and so on. And thus, my dear brothers and sisters, I spend my waking hours in the last days of 2012 between laundry room, bathroom, and bedroom. I was a chlorine (disinfectant)-maniac. I was the woman with broom in left hand and rug in right hand. I was an enemy of Korean housewives for snatching the last piece of on-sale detergent in the rack.
As for me, I don’t put my faith in the “bad luck” section, but in the “bacteria’s luck” section. I seldom wash my possessions. Not that I am proud of it, I just want to make my point, so please stop the judgement. Also for the new year. I think of it as a good way to infuse new spirit to this old tired body of mine. Once in 365 days, you get a slap on your cheek that reignites the prefrontal area of that squiggly jelly in your brain. It makes you think again. Wakes you up from your usual autopilot-mode: wake up-work-lunch-work-home-dinner-sleep. “Oh yeah, I do this boring routine because I want to achieve this and that.”
Anyhow, I had fun during my old and new session (hopping from 2012 to 2013). Savouring Mexican cuisine with 19 other foreigners, deflating all anger by hitting pinatas (Mexican game: blindfolded person trying to break open a ball containing candies by using a stick), and watching a very flexible Egyptian guy doing moon-walk dance. Ooow-somee…
Not to mention, I also had my first birthday in Korea. Started with a surprise gift from my roommate (Guylian chocolate!), surprise cake from fellow Indonesians (hardcore cake: cake with ice cream topping and oreo, all self-made), and birthday party initiated by my Korean sonsengnim (I made a failed attempt on having a duet with my Indonesian friend who is already widely acclaimed as KIST singing master).
A collage of my birthday tales in 2012
Well, I wish everyone a fueled year of 2013, stuffed with blessings!
(Also for me, one new chapter of my life to be written this year 🙂 )
beigesubmarine 