Chuseok: Korean Thanksgiving

From September 18-20th the entire country of Korea went on holiday.  Travel plans were all booked for weeks and tickets were expensive.  Over Chuseok--Korea's version of Thanksgiving--people tend to travel south or into the countryside to be with their families.  People often eat a special type of rice cake called Songpyeon.

It is covered in pine needles to keep it fresh.  At first, I wasn't sure if Koreans ate the pine needles.  It turns out that they don't!  Whoops!

Koreans also give each other tons of...interesting gifts.  A few weeks before Chuseok I noticed many gift boxes at the grocery stores...fancy gift boxes of shampoos and strangest of all, luxury gift boxes filled with SPAM!  For whatever reason, Koreans are obsessed with SPAM.  It is considered a very nice gift!  My Dad would approve!  I, on the other hand, thought it was a very strange gift.

Since I don't have any family in Korea, and all international travel plans were insanely expensive, I decided I should take the road less traveled: I decided to go to Seoul. Sure enough, I had no problem booking a train ticket and there was no traffic.  On the other hand, I heard from people traveling south towards Busan were stuck in traffic for hours.  It was a good time to go to Seoul!  I hadn't spent enough quality time in Seoul, which is silly because Seoul is an amazing city only 50 minutes away from me on the KTX.  I decided to stay with my "sister", Kady from Austria.  She was our foreign exchange in high school.  I am glad we've kept in touch.  She has been living in Hongdae, Seoul for the past few months studying and looking for a job.  I am extremely impressed with her ability to speak Korean.  I wish I could speak that well. While I stayed with her, we went to a coffee shop and studied Korean together.

We visited the Gyeongbokgung in Seoul.

It was very cool, but after a while, all temples start looking the same...  When I first got here though, I was so hypnotized by the upward curving roof tops! It looked so exotic!  However, I am no longer in my honeymoon stage in Korea.  I love it here, but I don't freak out with excitement about temples anymore!

At night, Kady and I went out with some of her Korean friends.  We had walnut 막걸리makgeoli (rice wine).  Koreans like to pair makgeoli with some kind of 전Jeon (Korean pancake).  I rather enjoyed it, if I do say so myself!

Kady, her friend, and I having Makgeoli and Okonomiaki!

All in all, I had a wonderful time in Seoul for Chuseok, even if it wasn't really a traditional Chuseok celebration out in the country with Koreans...I did not receive any SPAM this holiday season, but some of my friends received a king size gift box from work...(I'm so jealous!...just kidding!)

I still must say, American Thanksgiving is the best!  Nothing beats my mother's cooking and large loud Tiffany family gatherings in the dining room eating cheesy mashed potatoes and Sparkling Kid Wine!  But spending Thanksgiving in Seoul is pretty cool, too!