Chinese New Year

What does people normally do on February 14th in North America? Probably most of you would say "Of Course people will have nice romantic dinner! Its a Valentines Day!" But for the year 2010, February the 14th is not only the Valentines Day, but also its the Chinese New Year Day.


Chinese New Year, also referred to as Lunar New Year, is determined by the lunisolar Chinese calendar and it usually falls between end of January and middle of February. On Chinese New Year day, people visit their families and relatives to celebrate together. People would decorate their houses with red couplets and red lanterns.


Children and juniors are provided with red envelops with some money inside by the elders. The symbolism for red envelops is to suppress or put down the evil spirit and be lucky. Traditionally the amount of money inside the red envelop should be even number (Chinese people believe that odd number is unlucky as its sometimes associated with funerals.)



Probably, the most important tradition of Chinese New Year would be the family dinner. The way Chinese people put their heart in the New Year Dinner is the same as how important the Christmas dinner is in the Western culture. People will eat or display fish. Fish is one of the important cuisine for the new years day as the pronunciation of the word fish in Chinese is the same as the pronunciation of the word surpluses. Also, in Northern China, people would eat dumplings(jiao zi in Chinese) whereas in Southern China, they make a new year cake (Niangao in Chinese). In Vancouver, you will be able to experience some traditions of Chinese New Year as there are many events happening in the city. Here are some information.




*The annual Chinese New Year Parade:
Time: Sunday, February 14, 9:30am - 11am
Place: starting from the Millennium Gate at Pender St.

*Cultural Fair:
Time: February 14, 11am - 3pm
Place: the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden Courtyard

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Lunar New Year's Day (Seol lal) in Korea

"Happy new year"
New year is comming soon!! Oh?! You think New year already come? =)
I am talking about the lunar new year's day in Korea!

Korean New Year, commonly known as Seollal (Hangul: 설날) is the first day of the lunar Korean calendar. It is the most important of the traditional Korean holidays. It consists of a period of celebrations, starting on New Year's Day. The Korean also celebrate solar New Year's Day on January 1 each year, following the Gregorian Calendar. The Korean New Year holidays last three days, and is considered a more important holiday than the solar New Year's Day.
Korean New Year is generally the same day as Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Vietnamese New Year.

Customs -

Korean New Year is typically a family-oriented holiday. The three-day holiday is used by many to return to their home towns to visit their parents and other relatives where they perform the ancestral ritual known as charye (차례). Many Koreans dress up in colorful hanbok. Tteokguk (떡국) (soup with rice cakes) is commonly served.
Many Koreans greet the New Year (both Western and lunar) by visiting East coast locations such as Gangneung and Donghae in Gangwon province, where they are most likely to see the first rays of the New Year's sun.

Traditional Food, Tteokguk(떡국)-

Korean dish eaten during the celebration of the Korean New Year. The dish consists of the broth/soup (guk) within which is placed several thinly sliced rice cakes (tteok).It is a tradition to eat tteokguk on New Years because it is believed to grant the consumer luck for the forthcoming year and for him or her to supposedly gain an additional year of life. Additional ingredients are usually added to the dish; these include thinly sliced cooked eggs, marinated meat, mandu, and/or dried seaweed for seasoning is a traditional food in Korea.




Sebae(세배)-

Sebae is a traditionally observed activity on Seollal, and is filial-piety-orientated. Children wish their parents a happy new year by performing one deep traditional bow (rites with more than one bow involved are usually for the dead) and the words "saehae bok manhi badeuseyo (Hangul: 새해 복 많이 받으세요)" which translates to please receive many blessings in the new year.
Parents typically reward this gesture by giving their children new year's money (usually in the form of crisp paper money) and offering words of wisdom, or deokdam.

Sound interesting? ^^*

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Korean restaurant 'JANG MO JIP"

Last Saturday I went to JANG MO JIP Korean restaurant located in Robson street, Vancouver with my chinese canadian and japanese friends. Because I've just got my first paycheck since I started to work. ^^*
So, that day was my treat for them!



I really wanted to let my friends try to eat a delicious korean food. I searched some korean restaurants by google website and then found out some good restaurants like MA DANG COUL, JANG MO JIB, DAE BAK BON GA, SHABUSEN YAKINIKU HOUSE(Japanese sushi dish and Korean BBQ) etc.
I decided to go to JANG MO JIB KOREAN RESTARUATN and went to there with them.
(Jang Mo Jib means my wife's parent house. In Korea, most of Wife's mothers cook some delicious and healthy foods for their son-in-law. Because they regards their son-in-law as a real son.)




The restaurant was packed with people and there were some people waiting in a line for entering. I think the location is very convenient and already known as a famous restaurant in downtown. That's the reason!
Fortunately the waiting time was not that long.
The most popular dish here is GAM JA TANG, the spicy pork spin hot pot. And I'm not exaggerating, literally, every single table has this. It was extraordinary! Huge pieces of pork spins with meat falling off, very tasty! We also ordered seafood pancake and the glass noodle. Very nice too.

A couple of things I noticed here, waitresses take your order with iPhone.... It's creative! That just amused me. Another thing is this place is very generous about their side dishes, which doesn't happen in most Korean restaurant, waitresses would bring a bucket of the item and fill it up at your table.

All in all, if you want to taste a korean famous food, here is definitely a place to stop by!!

By HeeJung

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10 Romantic Movies for Valentine's Day

Watching a romantic comedy is a fun way to celebrate Valentine's Day, whether you're spending the holiday with your special someone or a whole slew of friends and family. And there are lots of lovely movies to choose from. TheHolidaySpot suggests you the following movies that are all-time hits with cinegoers and celebrate the wonderful feeling called love in a beautiful way.
An Affair to Remember (1957)
Director: Leo McCarey Starring: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning, Neva Patterson, Cathleen Nesbitt.


Plot: Handsome playboy Nicky Ferrante and beautiful night club singer Terry McKay have a romance while on a cruise from Europe to New York. Despite being engaged to other people, both agree to reunite at the top of the Empire State Building in six months. However, an unfortunate accident keeps Terry from the reunion, and Nicky fears that she has married or does not love him anymore. Will he discover the truth behind her absence and reunite with his one true love, or has fate and destiny passed them by?

Click here to watch trailer
An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)
Director: Taylor Hackford Starring: Richard Gere, Debra Winger, Louis Gossett, Jr., David Keith, Lisa Blount.


Plot: Zack Mayo is a young man who has signed up for Navy Flight School. He is a Navy brat who has a bad attitude problem. Sgt. Foley is there to train and evaluate him and will clearly find Zack wanting. Zack meets Paula, a girl who has little beyond family and must decide what it is he wants to do with his life.

Click here to watch trailer
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
Director: Mike Newell Starring: Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell, Kristin Scott Thomas, Simon Callow, James Fleet.


Plot: The film follows the fortunes of Charles and his friends as they wonder if they will ever find true love and marry. Charles thinks he's found "Miss Right" in Carrie, an American. This British subtle comedy revolves around Charlie, his friends and the four weddings and one funeral which they attend.

Click here to watch trailer
Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
Director: Nora Ephron Starring: Dana Ivey, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Bill Pullman, Ross Malinger, Rosie O'Donnell.


Plot: Tom Hanks stars in this film as widower and single father Sam. When Sam's son, Jonah (Ross Malinger), calls into a talk radio program looking for a new mother, Sam ends up getting on the phone
and laments about his lost love. Thousands of miles away, Annie (Meg Ryan) hears the program and immediately falls in love with Sam, despite the fact that she has never met him and that she is engaged to humdrum Walter (Bill Pullman). Believing they are meant to be together, Annie sets out for Seattle to meet Sam, who, meanwhile, contends with an onslaught of letters from available women equally touched by his phone call. Will Annie and Sam ever unite?


Click here to watch trailer
Titanic (1997)
Director: James Cameron Starring: Dana Ivey, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Bill Pullman, Ross Malinger, Rosie O'Donnell.




Plot: This fictional romance features Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, and Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater, two members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the 'unsinkable' ship RMS Titanic. But on 15 April 1912, Titanic meets with an accident on her maiden voyage. What happens to the lovers? Will their love survive?

Click here to watch trailer
The Way We Were (1973)
Director: Sydney Pollack Starring: Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Bradford Dillman and Lois Chiles.


Plot: The film tells the story of an intense Jewish woman who marries a carefree WASP following World War II. Fundamental differences in the way they engage the world – as revealed in their responses to the rise of McCarthyism – eventually pull them apart. The film is both a romance of star-crossed lovers and a morality tale about the importance of commitment to both individuals and relationships.

Click here to watch trailer
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Director: Rob Reiner Starring: Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher, Bruno Kirby, Steve Ford.


Plot: This romantic comedy centres around Harry and Sally both of whom search for love, but fail, bumping into each other time and time again. Finally a close friendship blooms between them, and they both like having a friend of the opposite sex. But then they are confronted with the problem: "Can a man and a woman be friends, without sex getting in the way?"

Click here to watch trailer
While You Were Sleeping (1995)
Director: Jon Turteltaub Starring: Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, Peter Gallagher, Peter Boyle, Jack Warden.


Plot: This fairytale romance stars Sandra Bullock as a love-starved subway toll booth operator, Lucy. who pines for regular customer Peter (Peter Gallagher), and rescues him from almost being run over by a train. While he is in a coma in the hospital, his family mistakenly believes Lucu to be Peter's fiancee. In this cofusion, Lucy finds true love in Jack (Bill Pullman), Peter's brother.

Click here to watch trailer
You've Got Mail (1998)
Director: Hallee Hirsh, Michael Palin, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Parker Posey, Greg Kinnear, Jean Stapleton


Plot: Kathleen Kelly, owner of a little and famous bookstore for children's books falls in love with a man over the internet without knowing him in person. Suddenly, her business gets endangered by the opening of Fox Books discount store just "around the corner". Although getting advice by her anonymous mail-pal, she has to close down her store and is full of hatred for Fox Books. Will she ever know that her anonymous mail-pal is actually Joe Fox, the son of the owner of Fox Books?

Click here to watch trailer
Two Weeks Notice (2002)
Director: Marc Lawrence Starring: Sandra Bullock, Hugh Grant, Alicia Witt, Dana Ivey, Robert Klein.


Plot: Lucy Kelton (Sandra Bullock) is the Chief Legal Counsel for one of New York's leading commercial real estate firms, the Wade Corporation. George Wade (Hugh Grant), is the eccentric and remarkably self-centered head of the firm who seems entirely incapable of making a decision without Lucy's advice. When things start to get too much for Lucy, she gives him two weeks notice, and George reluctantly accepts, under one condition -- Lucy has to hire her own replacement. After extensive research, Lucy picks June Carter (Alicia Witt), a Harvard Law graduate determined to make a career for herself. Lucy soon begins to suspect, however, that June plans to hasten her rise up the corporate ladder by winning George's hand, leaving Lucy to wonder if she should warn George about his beautiful but calculating new attorney -- and whether she should tell George that she has finally realized she's in love with him.

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I see you, "Avatar"

I don't usually go to a theater twice for watching the same movie.
But I did actually only for Avatar! That means this movie have something special.
I don't enjoy watching 3D, science fiction and action moive too much.
But my friends asked me to go to a theater together so that I checked it out from some blogs of other reviwers before watching. After then, I was so exciting and couldn't wait to watch it!


It's an amazing and exciting 3D movie and you can't image how many people watch this movie.
The film board said that It's about 6,081,183 people watched since released the movie on the 17th of Dec. Now the movie professionals are expected to exceed 10million moviegoers!!



As you see, the director of avatar is James Cameron who already led "Titanic" and "Terminator" to hit the box office 10 years ago.
This movie was completed after going through nearly 18years of production. It's such a long terms to make.

The story is including in a love and conflicts between the main character who became a new living thing", Avatar and pandora indigenous woman and also in an exhaustion of natural resources in the mess and unavoidable war.

The war begin after that the earth people wanted to take a substituted resources from a peaceful planet pandora for solving the problem of the energy depletion. That's the point and the main story of this movie.
Expecially, you should watch carefully the confrontation scene of between the indigenous people,Na’vi and the earth people and the beautiful the world of Na’vi!

I think the natural world of Na'vi and the first mankind life look simillar.
Jake learn how to commune with all of nature and living thing and experience an restlessness of mind from their life and mind, showing their respect to the nature while living together with them.

In the real world, Na'vi is disappeared now. But they defended their world, pandora, against the earth people who have a high tech weaponry in this movie.
Finally they could keep their beautiful world because they won!

This movie give us a living lesson and a chance to re-think about our earth and life. If you're looking for a movie which touch your feeling or you like 3D movie, you should watch this movie! You won't regret i guarantee!

Enjoy watching it! =)

By HeeJung

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Australia

Various foods!

Have you ever been to Australia?
If you don't, just go there! You will never, ever be disappointed! I can guarantee it. You can meet the most beautiful scenery you've ever seen.
Today, I want to guide you to two biggest cities in Australia: Sydney and Melbourne.
First of all, Sydney is the biggest city in Australia which is surrounded by great nature. Maybe, some of you will misunderstand Sydney as the capital city. But it is not like that. Even though Canberra is the capital, Sydney is reall huge city. Since it is surrounded by beautiful nature, you can visit a lot of bays and parks.


I want to recommend you to visit bays rather than beaches just like manly beach and bondai beach. Because those beaches are so popular to everybody that you can not fully enjoy your time being there. In stead of visiting those big beaches, you can visit small bays and spend your holidays with your family and friends. When the weather helps you, you can see the most beautiful spot in the whole country ,Which is, Watsons bay and Gap park. Those places are famous for the background of various movies. Some people say that they can die because of the beautiful scenery. I know, it might seems too strange and weird to do that. People want to die? Because of the beauty? It doesn't make sense. But if you visit there and see the place, you will totally understand their feeling.
The first picture is Sydney tower. You can see every building and whole city at the highest place in Sydney.

A sightseeing bus! You can visit any place in Sydney.









This is the most famous building in Sydney, Opera house. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, who, in 2003, received the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honour. The citation stated:

"There is no doubt that the Sydney Opera House is his masterpiece. It is one of the great iconic buildings of the 20th century, an image of great beauty that has become known throughout the world – a symbol for not only a city, but a whole country and continent." The Opera House was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007.


The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel arch bridge across Sydney Harbour that carries rail, vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The dramatic view of the bridge, the harbour, and the nearby Sydney Opera House is an iconic image of both Sydney and Australia. The bridge is locally nicknamed "The Coathanger" because of its design. Look at the picture then, you can find the coathanger there! It is not only the widest long-span bridge but also the fifth longest spanning -arch bridge in the world.

The Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney open to the public in Sydney. We can see various plants and flowers in the Royal Botanic Gardens that is why it became the oldest scientific institution in Australia and ha been playing a major role in botanics.



You can also visit Sydney Aquarium. There are over 11,000 various kinds of fish. Giant turtles, sharks, seaholses and so on. The reason why it is unique is that it is surrounded by real sea!

Now, it is time to move on to Melbourne. Melbourne is the second populous city in Australia. This train is an old steam train. It is really famous in Puffing billy, Melbourne. It runs so slow that you can run beside the train. You can enjoy the moment of running through thick forest.

When we rented car and drived through the Great Ocean Road(The road which we can drive beside beach for 4 hours sometimes, come across wild animals), it was getting dark. So we saw the 12 apostles in dark. 12 Apostles are disciples of Jesus. Actually, waves made the great statue. Because it is not artificial thing, it is precious and worth.

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New Moon

I was excited to watch the second movie of Twilight saga, New Moon.
It was released 20th of Novemver. I booked a ticket for the movie the day before release date with my German friend. Actually we were looking foward to watching it a few month before. Twilight saga is about the love story between human(Bella) and vampire(Edward).
In New Moon, there was an irresistable accident beween Bella and Jasper(Edward's brother). Jasper tried to attack her when she was bleeding at her birthday party in Edward's house. From that moment, Edward recognizes that he can not protect Bella every single moment. So Bella asks him to make her as a vampire, but Edward leaves her rather than making her as a vampire. After his leave, she becomes desperated and frustrated. Meaningless time passes by and 6 monthes later, she visits her old friend Jacob to get over her sadness.


While meeting him, she finds out an unexpected truth. It is that Jacob changes as a werewolf. Whenever she has some problems, he appears right next to her. One vampire wants to attack her in the meadow. So he and his friends from gang manage to kill him.



Twilight is totally based on the love story between Edward and Bella. On the other hand, New moon is based on a love triagle(Edward-Bella-Jacob). So it makes us expect and be suspicious about how next story will be going on. Eventhough Edward leaves Bella, she tries to meet him again. At the end of the movie, she finally meets him. He asks her to get married to him.


Whole story of this movie is based on the book [Twilight saga0. However, some scenes are quite diffrent from the book. So I really want to recommend you to watch the movie first. And then, read the book. In that case, you will not be disappointed about the movie as well as book. While you read the book, you can remember and imagine every single scene from the movie. Then, it can help you to improve your reading and listening ability.

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