Recent "Firsts"

Recent Firsts:

- old men playing croquet under the train tracks

- 50-60 year old men playing some sort of stick game in the dirt next to the market

- brown squirrel with white belly when hiking up the mountain nearby (It's VERY rare to see wild animals of any sort here!)

- '119' ambulance truck went zooming by with sirens and lights blaring and flaring

- ate a fig off the tree on the school grounds (given to me by a student)

- received a bag of natural medicine for free from the acupuncture doctor

- a tree with leaves a bunch of different colors - fall must be coming


- when walking down a very familiar side alleyway this morning, I felt for a moment that I was in the U.S.... (Indeed, this feels like home in many ways!)


- empty shops with no one in sight, as if we were on an empty movie set (on Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving, one of the most important holidays here)


- visited Buddhist temple in Busan, South Korea


- picked up seashells and "sea glass" in Busan, South Korea

Blasted Language Barrier!

Times when the blasted language barrier becomes a bear:

- when wanting to know whether there's corn starch in the ingredients
- when trying to schedule, cancel, or change doctor's appointment
- when trying to get somewhere in a rush
- when trying to determine for the vegetarians or vegans in the house if there's any meat in anything (In most cases, "meat" seems to not mean here what it means in the U.S....)

Therefore, if you're a vegan, you'll find it VERY difficult to stay vegan in Korea!

PHOTOS: Temple in Busan, South Korea

Holiday: Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving)

Chuseok is one of the biggest holidays celebrated in Korea. On this day, one can see many girls and women of all ages wearing the traditional "hanbok" (Korean traditional garb), such as this one. We saw women and girls wearing this even on the train!

The dates on which Chuseok occurs depends on the lunar calendar. This year it was Sept 29th-Oct 1st. It celebrates nature's bounty; it's a harvest festival of sorts. What happens on this holiday? People travel to wherever their relatives live, specifically their grandparents, to spend the time with them, eating, playing, making and eating rice cakes, and generally not working. It's like a mass exodus. Seriously! 

A few months ago, when my friends and I were planning ahead as to what to do on this holiday, we decided to go to Busan (southern coast, second largest city in S. Korea). Well, when we looked at train tickets in the morning, we had a number of choices. About an hour later, our choices were down to half of what there had been. We knew we had to act fast! 

There seem to be few other times in Korea when Koreans don't work and when they all hit the streets and tracks to drive and/or take the train or bus to get to their relatives. There are news pieces about how bad the Chuseok traffic is. In fact, it's called "war" traffic. 

Indeed the roads were congested and we were super glad we'd bought tickets early, and weren't driving (not that any of us have cars or international driving licenses). 

Also, when my friend and I went to the market yesterday evening to buy veggies for the week, there were hardly any vendors. It was dead quiet which is unusual for us because we're used to seeing it busy, flooded with vendors and buyers from at least 9am-8pm every day of the week including Saturday and Sunday.

When I asked my students what their favorite holiday is, many of them answered, "Chuseok" because it's when they see their relatives, and get gifts or money from them too!