Christmas Cake 2019 ... and stuff

Ah, Korea's Christmas cakes! Gotta love 'em, and so I do. This year's iteration harkens back to my first Christmas cake, back in 2008.


Today at school, we had an elaborate afternoon snack, which I at first assumed had something to do with Christmas. But it was actually a "workshop" for the school's "educational program". I suppose this is the elementary school version of the semi-to-quite drunken committee meetings we had in the high school.


Saturday evening, I went to dinner and drinks with some pals in Hongdae. But before any of them showed up, I made a new friend, a blood donation mascot who gave me a cookie:


After dinner, we went to a bar called Gopchang Jeongol, which means Offal Chowder.


But it is a bar, a really cool bar, a really packed, really cool bar. It focuses on a retro atmosphere and retro music. Many guests sang (and danced) along, and a good time was had by all.


Tonight is Christmas Eve eve, and in case I don't post anything else in the next two days, Merry Christmas, Everybody!

새로미 who?

Regular visitors to my patch of Seoul know I am a sucker for a photo op with a mascot. I have shots with dozens of characters, from sports mascots 턱돌이 (Mr. Stone Jaw) to the Doosan Bear to the FC Seoul 도깨비 (goblin), from a perfume atomizer bottle to a loaf of bread to a frosty mug of Kloud beer, from Pororo to Crong, from … well, you get the idea. So, yesterday, I snagged this beauty:


(S)he is wearing a chest badge of the official Gangseo-gu (my district of the city) logo, and is therefore, I assumed, the gu mascot. A trip to the website (https://www.gangseo.seoul.kr/site/english_new/contents/gangseo/symbol.htm) informed me that the character's name is 새로미, Saeromi, "representing a friendly and warm-hearted image, is a forever friend of the people of Gangseo, and represents perennial glad tidings."

But not quite. As you can see from the image there, Saeromi is a male bird (?) of some description.


And, wearing a skirt and a hair bow, my new friend is clearly a chick. I don't know if they are siblings, a married couple, or just friends.

Furthermore, I wondered, exactly what kind of bird is Saeromi? Not enough bill to be a duck, which was my first thought. Her plumage is mostly black, suggesting a crow, but one with a white face. Looking further down the webpage, I saw that the official bird of Gangseo is the magpie. I would say mystery solved, but magpies don't have white faces either … On the other hand, while magpies symbolize trickery, meaningless chatter and bad luck in the West, Asians see them as bringers of good fortune.

Indeed, ggachi figures prominently in Korean minhwa folk art and folktales with the tiger, horangi (together ggachi and horangi, 까치와호랑이):


Stay tuned.