I spent this past weekend in Gangneung with a Korean friend/my co teacher. I came home with her for Chusok. Chusok is the Korean form of Thanksgiving. They return to their homes, spend time with their families, give thanks for the harvest, and worship their ancestors. Hae-In's family is so nice. I especially love her mom!
We got in late on Friday night, but on Saturday Hae-In took me all around Gangneung. We went to a traditional house and a museum designed for a soldier and his mom (both were important during the Joseon dynasty). The mother is actually going to be the figure on the new 50,000 Won bill. As of now, the largest bill in Korea is only a 10,000 which equates to about $10. So I'm pretty excited about the 50,000s. We ate Shabu Shabu for dinner and then met up with some of Hae-In's friends whom she has known for years. They were all so friendly. We started at a bar with only four of us (Hae-In, Na-Bi, Hae-Seon, and me), then two more showed up (Byeong-Yun and Eun-Jeong), then we changed bars, then Hae In's boyfriend (Kyeong-Pae) showed up (first time I've ever gotten to meet him), then we changed bars again, then we went to karaoke, two more people came (one was Tae-Ho and I don't remember the name of the other guy), and then we finally ended up at the same coffee shop where we started the day. It was an amazing day!
Sunday was more of a relaxed day. We got up early and ate breakfast. It was so nice to be able to eat home-cooked Korean food again! I went with the family for Seong Myo, which is a bowing and food offering in order to worship their ancestors. Usually on Chusok, the man's parents' tombs or the man's family's tombs are visited. Hae-In told me that she doesn't remember a time when she visited her mother's parents' tombs. Sometimes families visit more than one set of tombs but only if they are in close vicinity. There are three "foods" needed in order to worship one's ancestors. Hae-In's father told me that there are Chinese characters representing those three things, JuKwaAw (maybe). I can't remember the last character...only what it stands for. Ju means alcohol (soju), Kwa stands for fruit (Kwa-Il), and the last character stands for dried squid. It was only a 10 minute hike up to the tombs, but Hae-In kept saying (Stomach hurts, difficult, stomach hurts). Haha! To be fair, she ended up not feeling well the rest of the day. After we went back to the apartment, her parents went hiking, and we hung out for most of the day just at the apt. We went to her aunt's apt for dinner. AMAZING! The food was A-M-azing! When we left there, we went to meet Hae-In's senior (just meaning that he's older than her...by like 8 years) and Ji-Hee. Ji-Hee is our friend who we go to dance classes with and we all went to movies together last year. She lives in Gangneung as well.
On Monday, we ate breakfast, hung out at the apt, ate lunch at the apt...Hae-In still wasn't feeling well. She felt bad that we weren't getting out and doing anything, but we had a pretty full weekend as it was. ^_~ We ended up meeting up with Hae-In's boyfriend to get coffee and hang out on the beach. He was getting ready to head back to Seoul. They barely seem like a "couple." They are very independent people which seems to be odd for Korea. Some of his friends think she is a bad girlfriend because she likes to travel instead of stay in Korea during his vacations, but he understands that she has a life outside of their relationship. Afterward, Hae-In and I met up with Eun-Jeong and Na-Bi and went to a different beach. It's a place where a drama was once filmed, and after it was filmed, the area built up and it's not nearly as peaceful as it once was. There is a giant hour glass that was inspired by the drama that fills up with sand everyday and after 365 days, it flips over and starts again. The four of us ate MakGukSu (cold spicy noodle soup) for dinner and then went with Eun-Jeong back to her place. She had to pack to head back to Seoul. I decided to go back tonight so Hae-In wouldn't feel like she would have to hurry home tomorrow. Hae-In, Na-Bi, and I went for coffee AGAIN at the Clarinet before my bus came.
Tuesday, I slept in for the first time this holiday! Then I bummed around until I got up the energy to walk to guitar lessons. I wandered around until it was time to meet Madeleine near the Pizza Hut in Tangaedong. I wanted to check out the indoor rock climbing place. Oh boy! It's hella hard! The people were so nice and they tried to show me what to do. After a while, I kind of got the hang of it. I think I'm going to stick with it for a while. The first time I tried it, I thought "NO WAY!" But Madeleine told me that a lot of foreigners come to the club once or twice and then quit. I don't want to be that person. It's amazingly hard, but I'm going to try to stick with it for a month and see how it goes.
Peace out.
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