So here are a few from Chooseok weekend in Seoul. (btw, Chooseok is the equivalent of Thanksgiving in Korea. It's celebrated with the harvest moon and you basically go visit your families and eat a lot. Sometimes you wear hanbok and throw sticks, but my family isn't that traditional. You also visit family graves.) But before the Chooseok activities I went to meet up with friends Colby and Grace in Shinchon, where Yonsei University is. We hung out around Ewha University for a little while... and took some pictures in the subway...
The next day we visited my long-lost (sort of) family north of Seoul, where I didn't take any pictures but I got some along the way...Chooseok traffic! Wow...
This is my family's grave site. We went to visit my haraboji (grandfather)'s grave.
My family's grave site is waaaay up north, near the DMZ. So driving back we could actually see North Korea...that's the reason for the barbed wire in this picture!
The weekend after Chooseok I went with my host family to Namsan, a mountain in Gyeongju, and we climbed it and it was fun. We ate bibimbap at a restaurant at the top, too and it was delicious.
And my host family made hilarious attempts to get persimmons (kam) down from the trees..but failed. I tried too but luckily there is no pictorial evidence of this.... :P
My host brother reminded me of the dangers going up the mountain...
This is some francophilia in Busan...at the Lotte Cinema, where Colby and I tried to see a movie but nothing good was playing. Not only was there the Moulin Rouge but also the "Cafe Montmartre..." so cute.
This is my Imo (aunt- mother's sister) in Ulsan, a suburb of Seoul where they used to live. We were in a park and these planter pots were hanging...not sure why. But cool picture I think.
Anyway, it was definitely an enjoyable few weekends. I got to go see my grandfather's grave, which I think was important. The tradition in Korea is to bring food to the grave(usually the favorite food of the person who's passed away) and enjoy some of it along with them. You also bow 2 and a half times to the dead, which I found a little awkward just because I'm not used to it. I'm glad I did it though, and glad I got to go.
It was also nice to spend time with the family over Chooseok and see friends. Soon I'll update about the Gyeongju conference, which was, as someone put it, the first time we got to be "off."
I'm excited for tonight because my family and I will watch the Host (괴물), one of the more famous and successful movies to recently come out of Korea. I've been meaning to watch it for a while. I borrowed the movie from one of the English teachers at school.
Teaching is tiring. I'm exhausted today. I guess it's also from not going to bed early enough though...which I'll work on.
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