Chuseok Belated

I really must apologize. I've been in a writing slump. It's not just that I'm busy - which I am. If I really wanted to, I would write in the few spare minutes before I sleep or go to work. But, no - I've not been feeling particularly motivated to write lately.

As you may have noticed from flickr, I have been to Japan. I was really hoping to have been able to go for a week but I couldn't have afforded it. September 13-15 was Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving holiday which only amounted to one day off for me. I took Tuesday to Friday as vacation days with the idea of leaving straight away Saturday. As it turned out, I'm glad I didn't stay away so long.

The weekend was fantastic! Being one of only 3 major holidays in Korea, and one of the long ones, people go all out. Usually this holiday is important for remembering and honoring ancestors, which involved visiting tombs and gravesites, performing formal ceremonies with bowing, and eating... a lot. Starting Saturday, I was full until Monday! My friend Steven (Sung Woo is his Korean name) invited my coworker Lexie and I to visit his father's family in Sangju (1.5 hrs), then his mother's side of the family in Wonju (3.5hrs). So 5 of us hopped in the car and road tripped north. Saturday evening was spent mostly sitting at the country house and eating dinner. We slept in the city in Steven's cousins nice new apartment. Then Sunday morning we woke early to perform/watch the ceremony for the ancestors, eat a big lunch, and visit the family tombs for more ceremonial bowing and eating.

We then drove up to Wonju to find another great dinner. His mother has 3 sisters who all have children our age so it was sure to be a fun time! In fact, after dinner, we decided to go out to a singing room for some drinks and karaoke. I had to get up early the next morning to catch a bus back to Daegu to have a 3rd Chuseok meal with my boyfriends family. Lexie and Steven also got up early to meet the family at the potato field to pick some sweet potatoes. She came back with a few pounds of them!

I got to spend Monday with Deuk Kyun's family and enjoy one more great dinner. His mom won - her meal was healthy and definitely the most delicious of the three! I slept at their house and headed off to Japan Tuesday morning...

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Now playing: Mat Kearney - Girl America
via FoxyTunes

Interesting Tidbit #3

You can find some wild things in the markets here. Pig heads, pig skin, pig feet... OK, so it's mostly wild pig parts. But frighteningly enough, you can purchase all manner of dogs. For soup. It's called bo-shin-tang. Yes. Live dogs, un-live, skinned, parts... ugh. Well, true - and a little interesting anyway.

The weekend... in short.

On Wednesday, Eternal Reflections II opened at Club That. The Korean/foreign art gallery and competition was held on the 3rd and 4th floors of this cool wine and jazz club downtown Daegu. I entered 4 photographs as a set simply named "China."






After voting closed on Saturday night, I won 2nd place in my category! This took the tangible form of a 10,000 KRW (~$10) certificate for an American breakfast restaurant which I quite enjoy. Nice.
2 Seoul rock bands and my friends' band played that night and we all greatly enjoyed the music.

Made it an early night, as Sunday was a big day to get married in Korea - the boy had to attend his friend's marriage in the morning, then my friend/co-worker got married in the afternoon. We enjoyed a big post-vows buffet and went home for a nap.

My Last August '08 Weekend Ever

Friday: After work, found a new place near my house to eat meat with my co-worker and boyfriend. Ate grilled chicken (duk-galbi) and pork (samguyb-sal), drank soju, and went home late.

Saturday: Got up early to take the train, drink some beers in the sun, and lay on the beach in Busan... One... More... Time for the summer. Had pretty nice weather. Took the train back to Daegu early to go out downtown with my friends.

Sunday: Woke up late, headed to Woobang Towerland Amusement Park to Sky Jump (controlled descent bungee jump), went shopping, had an amazing anniversary dinner at a great French restaurant downtown, and tried out a brand-spanking-new DVD room by Keimyung University (near my house).

Nice-ah!

Vacation Recap

As you can see on Flickr, I've finally gotten all the photos uploaded from Annie and Gina's visit. Featured trip highlights are as follows:

A couple days in Daegu for the market, nightlife, and rest.
I met them in Seoul to make their (sarcastic voice) hhhoooorrible (/sarcastic voice) trip around the world a bit easier. Slept at my place and hit the market (not-so-early) the next morning. We had a nice traditional lunch with Deuk Kyun and went out later. Annie borrowed a guitar (not nylon strings, sweetie!) and played her heart out at Communes (popular foreigner bar downtown Daegu).
Off to Busan (big coastal city with nice beaches.)
Perfect cure for a late night at the bar = relaxing on the sand with a beer. Busan never fails me. At Songjeong Beach, there also happens to be an excellent jjimjilbang which I have written about before. They loved staying there (luckily - cause it's CHEAP!) and were completely spoiled by this experience.
Took the train to Gyeong-ju for a templestay (:overnight at a Buddhist temple) Golgulsa.
Golgulsa = Golgul Temple. It's a lesser known temple in Gyeong-ju because there are many in that area. Golgulsa specializes in Sunmudo training, which is a martial art which seems to blend the strength of kung-fu with the deliberate, healing movement of tai-chi or qigong. The food was simple and enjoyable, the accomodations the same. I brought the wrong foot wear.
Annie and I attended the morning service at 4:30AM - definitely worth it (missed you Gina!) and we had a great time there.
Short stop in Daegu for the bags and cases, then up to Seoul for a reckless weekend before their Monday departure.
We definitely made an impression on some people while on the KTX to Seoul that night. Doing each other's makeup, repacking our bags, snapping pictures, all while drinking soju (which I had mixed immediately after boarding the train). Classy.
Seoul was great to us though. We stored our things in lockers at the train station for easy access when we would leave, and headed for Itaewon. Jason Jang's band's show was booted off stage at the Hard Rock Cafe for being too hard rock (really, complaints from patrons.... seriously?). So we, along with Las Pistolas, took ourselves to Hongdae where we partied til the early hours, Seoul style. After which, we discovered it is difficult to get a taxi to take you... anywhere. Eventually we found a dive-ey jjimjilbang to stay at. On Sunday, we did a bus tour of the city (GREAT IDEA GINA!! You saved us!) then shopped a bit and had a delicious dinner. Stayed at a love motel for a change of pace and I said goodbye to the girls early the next morning.
I went to work that day. Ick.

Check it all out here.

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Now playing: The Wombats - Let's Dance to Joy Division
via FoxyTunes

Now, when's my next vacation...??