Two weeks after I started teaching, we had a day off for a holiday. Because in many cases Koreans use the Lunar calendar, holidays can change from year to year, and this year, Chu-seock (pronounced “chew-sock”) fell on September 13th, 14th and 15th. Unfortunately, only one of those days was a weekday, so we only had one day off school.
Chu-seock is basically Korean Thanksgiving. It is a time for family and eating. The actual holiday is the middle day and the other two are given for traveling. In general, families go to the elder parents’ homes to eat and praise their ancestors. The original intent was that the ghosts or spirits from the ancestors would come and eat from the food first and then the family could eat. These days, many people do not really believe this will happen, and participate in this holiday for cultural reasons as opposed to religious, and people of all religions take part.
Because we had only been here 2 weeks, we were not sure what to do, so we made no plans. On the Friday before the holiday, one student brought me a plate with some Korean treats and a note explaining that the treats were hangwa, a traditional Korean cookie. I waited to sample one until I got home so David could try one also.
That night we went out for Dak Galbi. Usually the students from the schools are still in classes late into the night, but because of the holiday, they were able to leave at 6 o’clock instead. It just so happened that many of them were arriving downtown at the same time we were.
This was really the first night that we had seen any students in Myongdong (downtown). We had passed a few students while walking and all of them greeted us with the usual, “Sarah Moore, HIII!!!” Many were shy to David and did the bow and for Ezekiel and Cadence repeatedly said, “Very cute! Very cute!” accompanied by a thumbs up. Everyone commented on Cadence’s eyes and said, “Good color!”
When we hit the first major intersection is when we realized what celebrities we really were. As soon as we walked up to wait at the crosswalk, some one said my name and six students ran over. More from further away must have heard because then we could hear my name again and more joined. Suddenly we felt like we were surrounded by student paparazzi. Every girl had her cell phone out and was snapping pictures like crazy, of me, of David, and especially of the kids. We couldn’t even believe it! So many were talking and giggling and shrieking it was impossible to talk to just one girl, or even really recognize any, and every one was trying to reach in the crowded circle and hold hands with Ezekiel or Cadence. When the light for the crosswalk finally changed we stepped into the street and could breathe again and realized, “Wow. I think we were just officially mobbed.” Sadly, we didn’t have either camera with us to document this affair, and unfortunately/fortunately this will probably never happen again as my newness is wearing off and the students are in school all night anyway!
Before I had left school on Friday, another student I had come to know by her English name that she chose, “Kelly,” came to me and said, “I have a gift for you, but it isn’t finished yet. Can I come to your house and give it to you?” Saturday morning she arrived promptly when she said she would at 10am. We were just finishing breakfast and invited her in. She brought us a beautiful silver cloth wrapped box. She said, “When I asked you what your plan was for Chu-seock, you said nothing, and that’s very boring, so I brought this for you.” I love her bluntness! Inside was about 100 pieces of hangwa! There were many different kinds, colors, shapes, sizes. We were pretty touched.
Ezekiel really took to her and they became instant friends. She really took to him, too! She took SO many pictures of him on her phone and continued to ask about him for weeks after. And he would be talking on his “phone” (basically anything he could put up to his ear: toys, forks, my foot…) and say he was talking to “Te-wee.”
We needed to go to the grocery store, so after she left we headed out to try a different Wal-mart-like store, E-mart. BIG MISTAKE. It was worse than going to Wal-mart the day before Thanksgiving in America. There were SO many people we could hardly get through the isles because of the crowds, not to mention all the people stopping to talk to our kids. On a positive note, we happened to see another American friend of ours from orientation named Thomas. He doesn’t even live in our city! He happened to be visiting his friend Josh from the US, who also lives and teaches in Chuncheon, and we were shopping at the same time. After chatting for a while, they suggested we do something the next day. They knew of a museum near Josh’s apartment, so we decided to meet to check out the museum and then go to dinner.
David says, “Yeah, I’m up for anything! And I’m usually pretty adventurous.”
Josh says, “Really? We’ve heard of some things we’d like to try!”
Then they tell us about a special dish here where you eat live octopus!
“First you have to stun him in a special sauce. Then you have to hurry and swallow him down before he is un-stunned because some people have actually been choked to death because of the octopus reviving and trying to crawl out of their throat. One guy I know said his octopus grabbed onto his last molar on the way down!!”
I don’t care for seafood anyway, but this was totally out of the question! I can’t stand when meat looks like the animal it is from, which is why I don’t like most seafood. Shrimp still look like what they look like originally. When they serve cooked squid and octopus here, they still have the legs and tentacles-another no way for me! If hamburgers came served looking like cows, I probably couldn’t eat those either. So something STILL LIVING was definitely NOT going into my mouth.
Then they told us about a drink that uses the poison from a snake that temporarily makes your liver stop. They were excited to try BOTH of these!
David clarified, “Ok, maybe I’m not THAT adventurous!”
I’m sure by the horrified look on my face they could tell I needed something more tame. And dead.
Eventually we said goodbye and finished our shopping. The rest of that day was uneventful. We wrote to another friend in Chuncheon, Alex, and invited him to join our American Chu-seock party.
Sunday around 3PM we headed to meet the others at the Chuncheon National Museum. It just so happened that because it was a holiday it was pretty empty, and best of all, free to get in! There were a few things to do outside the museum while we waited for the others, like old Korean games and instruments to play. We tried to get Ezekiel involved in something, but I think he was shy and a little embarrassed.
Inside the museum we were able to see many relics of Korea’s past, just like a pioneer museum in America. Most of the things in the museum are considered cultural treasures and are very rare. The Japanese occupied Korea between 1910 and 1945. During that time, most everything that was Korean was outlawed, including their own language, as they were forced to learn Japanese, and much of their history in the form of material things were destroyed. After that time the Korean war caused additional damage. These major incidents make anything found from Korea’s past a true relic.
We had a good time trying to make up stories about what each item was since we had no idea what the plaques identifying them actually said. Some of them would have an English name but no description. In one room we saw several guns mounted together in one case. Next to each it simply said, “gun.” Good thing that plaque was there to help us figure that one out!
After touring all the floors, there was an area where you could pay 100 won (~$.10) to make a picture using a traditional Korean method. First, you lay a wet tissue paper over a block with a raised design in it. Then you are given a “stamp” which is a ball of cloth tied off on one end so it is round and smooth on the ink side. You rub the stamp in some thick paste-like black ink, then pound it on your paper which brings out the design. It was actually really fun. After we left the museum, we took a little walk around the grounds which were very beautiful with wide trails and paths leading through some woods.
We walked a little ways to try to find a restaurant open for dinner. I say “try” because, remember, this was Chu-seock weekend. Sunday was the actual holiday so the streets were mostly empty and many places were closed. We found one place with the doors open and inviting us in. It looked like many Korean restaurants, with traditional floor seating and a grill in the middle of the table. But after taking our shoes off and were about to be seated, we saw that the menu on the wall said 35,000 won! About $35 a serving! Alex can read Hangul and he said they served duck which is why it was so expensive. None of us really wanted to pay that, but we were already half way through the process of getting to our table. It was really awkward, but we decided to leave and head to a different, aka cheaper, place.
We saw another place open that served pork, but Josh said he had eaten there Friday night and had gotten sick, though he admitted it may have been his own fault for not cooking the meat long enough. Still, it was enough to make us keep walking. We finally came to another pork place and decided to stop. I remembered we had brought some hangwa to share with the others so we all partook and evaluated. Though it is called a traditional Korean cookie, it was nothing like any cookie I ever made. It is similar in consistency to a rice krispie treat, but there is no marshmallow holding it together. And they really aren’t that sweet. They just have that puffed rice feel and then get really chewy. But Ezekiel loved them!
After dinner Alex realized he had left some of his things somewhere. We checked our table again before we left the restaurant, but with no luck. Then he remembered…the duck restaurant! He had set his things down when he was taking off his shoes and never picked them back up! We headed back down the road, back to the restaurant we had left, and back toward the probably frustrated restaurant owners to retrieve his things. Alex was so embarrassed he didn’t want to go in. I actually didn’t really care that much, so I volunteered to be the one. We don’t live in that part of town like Alex and Josh do, so I wasn’t worried about these people holding a grudge against me.
After ehlping Alex reclaim his stuff we went to Josh’s apartment. I was even more grateful for our place after we saw his. I knew that we had a pretty good sized apartment, but if you are single, it is much different. He had a one room studio with a little kitchenette and a bathroom. He had no chair or couch, only his bed. The bathroom had only a toilet, a sink, and a shower head. Seriously. No bathtub, no shower stall. He just had to shower in the middle of the floor. This is not a big deal here, since they have the big drain in the middle of the floor, but still, I’m sure it feels weird! We didn’t stay too long because we still had to get a taxi home and wanted to get the kids ready to settle down for bed.
Tuesday morning so many of the teachers seemed disappointed when they would ask what we did for Chu-seock when I would respond with, “Nothing special.” All of them had big plans with their families and many left the city and went to other parts of Korea. I’m not sure what they expected since we aren’t Korean, and really, the idea of wanting a ghost to come eat my food doesn’t really sound that appealing to me. Ki Eun and I were talking about that and she said, “So since you don’t like ghosts, you must like the ghost busters?” I suppose so. I wonder what they really think of our holidays? In a few weeks I will be talking about Thanksgiving. I wonder if they will think it’s strange that Americans consider that day to be about family and we DON’T invite our ancestors to join? If they will think we are strange that the typical Thanksgiving day for Americans is about eating turkey and pumpkin pie and watching football?
Actually, when I put it that way, I think Americans are pretty stange, too.
Take a look at the photo gallery for pictures of our day at the museum!
Recent Comments