E.V. Chu-Seok

In the first week of October, Korea was scrambling to prepare for one of the biggest holidays of the year: Chu-Seok. Chu-Seok is the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving, the harvesting time here and therefore also the time to spend with family, not eating turkey but instead kimchi and other delights. Chu-Seok fell on October 6th this year, a Friday, but was preceded by Korean National Foundation Day on the 3rd of October creating a week-long holiday for most office workers in Korea. People rushed to buy gifts and food and often went home to the countryside to spend this time with family. Some of my students admitted that they experienced stress during such a period, but most talked about feeling good during this time. I have been closely observing the Korean way of life and family is by far the most important thing in people's lives here. This love/devotion to family can be both healing and destructive as honor is prized above other things and people often feel forced to accomplish things or fit in merely from the familial and social pressures.

The pictures depicted here are some eye candy for the many places in Seoul that I visited during that week. Mi-Hwa, a sweet former student of mine as well as a former staff member of my YBM Guro location took me to Gyonbokgung Palace the day before Chu-Seok to show me a symbol of Korean history and culture. It was a beautifully warm day with a bright sun and I felt as though we had left the city to go into a new world. I didn't get a chance to go to the three museums on site that day, but I plan to do that sometime in the coming months. I truly felt the Asian pull that day and finally felt really ensconced in Asia since my arrival. This palace looks like the palaces you see in movies of ancient Chinese civilizations...it was awesome to walk through this gigantic area where kings and queens used to walk hundreds of years earlier.

After the Palace, we went to have dinner in Jongno where I had samgyopsal for the first time. Absolutely delicious and probably the dish I like the best here though there is so much to choose from! It is basically bbq pork, though not with the western bbq sauce you might be thinking of. Kalbi is also delicious but is beef instead of pork and is traditionally much more expensive than pork here. Here, you can have samgyopsal for two as well as Kimchi Kalguksu for about 20,000won. It's pretty cheap for two people.

After dinner we walked along the Chyungyechun Canal at night, the first time I was to see it lit up. It was gorgeous and I've taken pictures but the quality is not great online. The original pictures are nicer. This area of Jongno is known for being quite romantic and you will see tons of couples holding hands there. It can be a bit discouraging for us single ones, but it's still a nice sight to see.

After that, we walked down a bit and passed in front of Doksu Palace. We didn't go inside but Mi Hwa indicated that the sidewalk in front of the Palace is notorious for relationship break-ups. People have been known to bring their significant other there to break up with them. How sad and crass! Imagine your boyfriend telling you, "babe, let's go for a walk", and you find yourself in front of Doksu and you know exactly what will happen! ;)

Doksu is right next to the City Hall where the world filmed Korea watching the World Cup. Imagine that place with millions up people up and down the street and spread out on the grass here. There are many large screens on sides of buildings in this part of town for such occasions.

The next day, I was invited to Incheon to have Chu-Seok dinner with Harvey, a former teacher at YBM and his girlfriend Young-In. It was fun! I had song-pyon for the first time, a type of Tok (traditional Korean dessert made with rice paste and sweet, but not too much). This type of tok comes in green or white. The green version is made with some type of herb but I didn't like it as much. The white one has a sweet center made with sesame seeds and some kind of syrup. Yummy! After hanging out at their place for a while, we went to dinner where I had Kalbi for the first time. It was really good! That's the picture you see below.

Young-In is camera shy but apart from that, she's more outgoing than I am! Definitely not a typical Korean woman! The next day, Harvey and Young-In came into town (Incheon is a suburb of several million people about an hour's subway ride outside of central Seoul). We went to the annual Seoul Drum Festival which took place at another old palace in the north-western part of Seoul. It was awesome! There were musicians from around the world such as Senegal, Singapore, Italy and Japan. There were also many Koreans percussionists playing all kinds of music, from traditional (awesome but difficult to describe) to classical (western) to modern.

That was my basic Chu-Seok experience. The pictures you will discover by clicking on the Kodak Gallery link will also show you times I spent in Insadong at a teahouse with a French friend I made when I arrived. We went to a teahouse where we had gamjajin, a type of potato pancake, in a wonderful atmosphere of orange lamps and tons of plants. You will also see a picture of some of the teacher's from YBM who went out to have a girls' night out eating Kalbi and sampgyopsal as well as Hote-Tok, a delicious Korean-style donut.

We also spent some time in Insadong where we watched a man in a window demonstrate how to make Chinese pasta. It was the most amazing process! He took a wad of dough and proceeded to multiply the dough into spaghetti pieces! He mutiplied it into such thin pieces with this amazing rhythm that it was like a dance... And then we saw the same exact process done with...honey! Can you imagine! I took pictures of the making of the honey dessert called Kkul Tarea. They didn't come out perfectly but I think well enough for you to see how it's done.

I've labeled all the pictures so that you can know all you need to know. Feel free to ask questions if all is not clear.

Other interesting things:

1. I've discovered something I like better than Soju, though it's a bit more expensive: San Sa Chune.

2. The largest cut of bills in the Korean Won is 10,000, which is the equivalent of about 12 Canadian dollars. So imagine wanting to take out a hundred dollars or more. You end up with such a huge wad of cash that you feel like hiding!

I will try to take some pictures of my apartment so that you can see it in its finished glory, now that I have my stuff here! I love my place!

Till next time!

Love,

L