Haechi

Haechi is the symbol for Seoul.

I've been seeing this little guy around Seoul all year (actually I think it's supposed to be a girl, but this blue one looks like a guy to me, so...).  I didn't know what he was or why he was all over, but I thought he was cute.  And one day I said to Blake, I wish they had a figurine or stuffed animal of this guy because I'd like to take one home with me.

And then one day, I saw it like this:

And thanks to Google (whatever did we do before Google?!?), I found the official website of Haechi.  So I learned a little about where the symbol came from and that the very worn, but still charming stone "guardians" I'd been noticing outside of all the temples in Korea are the same thing.  Haechi is supposed to be an imaginary animal that has the "power of justice."  I'm not really sure what that means.  How anyone or anything could have a power of something like that.  Especially, when they're, you know, imaginary.  But anyway, I suppose it's a nice idea as long as you don't really take it seriously.  

But even better, I discovered that there are at least two Haechi shops in Seoul!  Yay!  So when Blake and I were in Seoul for the Chinese New Year, we went on a quest for the Haechi shop.

And we found it!

All the Haechies (Haechis, Haechii?) you could possibly want!

And now that we were really looking for him (her?), we saw Haechi everywhere.

A "real" one outside of Gwanghwamun...

A character Haechi in front of Cheonggyecheon...

(ignore my UGly boots, as I call them - it was FREEZING!  literally)

On a roll-up door for a street stand...

 Even Haechi on stairs...

You can get a free Heachi app from the iTunes App Store!  It's super cute.  You should check it out.  Although, be forewarned - the app is called "Talking Haechi," but so far I haven't been able to get it to make a sound.  LOL.  Oh well, it's still cute anyway.  If you tap her, you'll get different reactions.  Be sure you tap her mouth.  That's my favorite one.

And if you ever go to Seoul, make sure you find a Haechi of your own!

Happy (Chinese/Lunisolar) New Year!

Happy New Year!  It's now the Year of the Dragon.

If you know me at all, you know I certainly don't believe in horoscopes or things like that.  But sometimes I think it's like fortune cookies - interesting to read and see just how coincidentally dead-on or dead-wrong they are.  Similar to the signs of the Western astrology zodiac, Chinese astrology has animals that it assigns to each lunisolar year in a 12-year cycle.  Granted, this doesn't start on the same day each year, so you have to actually check your particular birthday to figure out in which Chinese-year your birth date fell.  Last year was the year of the rabbit, and this year is the year of the dragon.  There's some myth about how the order of animals was determined.  You can read about it on Wikipedia if you're interested:  Chinese New Year.  My little sister was born in 1988, which was 2 dragon years ago.  I wonder if its description sounds anything liker her.

According to chinesezodiac.com, people born in the Year of the Dragon are ambitious and driven.  They are creative and work well alone.  They're leaders and have fast tempers.  And Jason, if you're reading this, it says that, "when they find the right partners, they’ll usually commit to that person for life."  I am absolutely sure that part is true.

Anyway, I hope you're all having a pleasant New Year.  While you were all enjoying the first week day of January as a holiday, I was at work.  Ok, technically, at the exact time that you were enjoying that day, I was asleep.  But you know what I mean.  But now I'm enjoying our two days off for the Korean New Year, so I guess it all works out.  :)

One of the banks my company uses is HSBC, and apparently it's customary for many businesses to present small gifts to some of their customers for the New Year.  This is what they sent me last week:

Crystal dragon from HSBC bank

Pretty neat, huh?  I think I"ll put him on my desk and enjoy him.  Thank goodness it's not the year of the snake!

Jan 18, 2012 PotD - Blue Skies

This is the view from the window of our plane back to Seoul from Taiwan in Dec 2010.

Wow.

Even over a year later, with my feet planted firmly on the ground (or the floor of my 7th floor apartment at least), it still takes my breath away.

Our New House!

It only took me a month to post this!  We closed on our new house a month ago today, and I can't tell you how hard it was to get on a plane to come back to Korea and leave that house empty.  Thankfully we have wonderful family and friends to play tag-team squatters for us and keep an eye on it.  And a good security system.

At any rate, we absolutely LOVE it, and I cannot wait to get back home and move in!

For the meantime, here's your tour.

And shortly before we left, we somehow found the time to go by with Blake's parents and do a few things.  Ms. Donna and I measured the windows for blinds and talked curtains, while Blake and Mr. Charlie hung our first picture!

Thanks to Canvas on Demand (which I highly recommend, by the way), we (and by we, I mean Blake) hung a wall display of pictures we've taken on some of our trips over the last couple years on gallery-wrapped canvases.

Starting from the top, going clockwise:

1. wall from Uluwatu Temple in Bali, Indonesia

2. view between the merlons on the Great Wall Mutianyu, China

3. clock tower at Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong

4. temple in Seoul, South Korea

5. exterior of the Coliseum in Rome, Italy

6. temple in Shanghai, China

7. (center) Eiffel Tower in Paris, France

Aside from the fact that we really like the pictures, I'm really excited it about it because it's the first little piece of us in our new house.  And as much as I'll always love my first house, this is an exciting new first, too.  This is OUR first house together.  That we hunted for and bought together.  And maybe it's not exactly a perfect dream house, but for us, it's pretty darn close.