Holidays

"What's '절하다'?" I asked my mum in a moment of enthusiastic study.
"To do ceremonious bowing," she replied.
"Ah, so not something I really need to know." A hasty conclusion perhaps...

With the beginning of the Lunar New Year approaching, the whole country was released from work between Wednesday and Friday of last week to celebrate. With stories of Seoul transforming into a ghost town and a gridlocked road network as the city heads out to spend time with their families, Lauren and I - rather than spending extortionate amounts for a flight out of Korea in holiday season - followed suit and went to visit my aunt in the countryside.

We arrived on New Years day (this year was on the 7th February) to find my aunt and uncle dressed in hanbok in preparation for the New Year celebrations. Soon after we arrived, we all bundled into one of the bedrooms and watched on as my cousin and her family performed the aforementioned "ceremonious bowing" - bowing down to the floor while kneeling - to their parents and grandparents before exchanging envelopes of money. Feeling slightly voyeuristic as we witnessed this ceremony, we were taken aback and a little embarassed as we were motioned to do the same. I'm not entirely sure we did it exactly right, but we were presented with a token amount of money which was an unexpected yet pleasant surprise.

The rest of the day was filled with eating fruit and ricecakes and general pottering about. The grandma slept on the sofa while Lauren and I watched Back to the Future. Other family members turned up at various points during the day to hang out as well; the formalities were short and sweet.

On Friday another of my cousins turned up to spend time with us. We got our nails done before venturing out to a nightclub for our evening entertainment. Now, in Korea, there is apparently a subtle difference between a club and a nightclub. The former sounds like a similar setup to a Western club with music, a bar and a dance floor. A nightclub, however, predominantly holds tables and chairs and might have a stage and a small dancefloor at the front of the room. On hearing about such joints, American-style bars that pop up on TV sprang to mind - another misperception.

On arriving at the nightclub, we observed neon taken to another level as blinking palm trees welcomed us in. Inside was a band playing beyond volume where conversation was possible, and the room was totally black save the attendants' glow-in-the-dark name badges. We were shown to a table where our bags were taken away for safe keeping before being presented with beer and fruit.

"Beer and fruit: it's normal," confirmed my cousin.

My cousin had also pre-warned us that the waiters might introduce us to some men. She didn't make a big deal out of it. "In Korea, it's normal," she assured us again.

Lo and behold, within fifteen minutes of being seated, we were led by a couple of waiters out of the main room, up some stairs and into a private noraebang where we found a bunch of men sitting, singing and drinking. They offered us whisky and strawberry milk.

"Young persons place my..." I thought as we sat with them.

Lauren and I gave them an ironic rendition of It's Raining Men before bidding them farewell in favour of our own seats. They weren't our types.

Some Korean techno pop blasted out of the speakers while a scantily clad young lady girated with a couple of topless muscular men on stage. In a society where low necklines are frowned upon, this display was seemingly out of the ordinary. Little did we realise that if we'd turned up an hour earlier we would have witnessed a full strip show.

We danced until the music switched to the ballad genre and the floor emptied. Everyone went back to their seats and the match-making began. Initially the waiters attempted to split us up to send us each to different tables, but this certainly wasn't on our agenda for the evening. Regardless of what we wanted however, they were pretty forceful as they grabbed us by the wrists leading us up and down the aisles until we reached an appropriate table of men. I have read since that girls are supposed to put up some resistance so as not to appear too eager, so perhaps my arm wrestling and repeated refusals were in keeping with the ritual. Eventually my cousin came to rescue me with the excuse that I couldn't speak Korean; one I felt was valid but perhaps this not a factor to the service the attendants were providing.

Soon the music started up again so we figured if the boys wanted our company they would be forced to dance too. And so the cycle continued: dancing with raunchy stage performances followed by slow songs and match-making. Even if we didn't appreciate being dragged around for the benefit of drunken men, at least it made for a cheap night out!

Tiring of the nightclub etiquette and unenthused by the squatter toilets screened by smoke as girls rebel against the unwritten rule that they cannot smoke in public, we left the building to find our valet parking guy. It's almost as though they were encouraging drink-driving...