have yourself a merry little chuseok

To me, nothing says ‘home’ quite like Thanksgiving. It’s usually my first weekend home after being away at school is always a fantastic weekend filled with great food and lots of family time. The Korean “Thanksgiving”, or harvest festival, Chuseok, is a time when people visit their ancestral towns, spend time with their family and eat traditional foods. Sounds familiar, right?

The idea is similar to the Canadian holiday, but Korean traditions are so ancient it’s difficult to compare the two. Take the clothing, for example. When my students came to school the Thursday before Chuseok most of them were wearing hanboks (p.s. Korean kindergarteners in hanboks is about the cutest thing in the world). And over the weekend I saw several women in shops wearing them as well as children in the street.

The beautiful girlies in their hanboks!

At school, we took the whole day to play traditional games, such as top spinning, arm wrestling, jeggi kicking, Ssireum (korean wrestling) and – the kids’ favourite – chicken fighting. We made Songpyeon (rice cakes) by wrapping raisins and brown sugar in rice flour dough. Since nearly all my students were going to visit their grandparents for the weekend, we made cards for them as well. The games day was a great way to participate in Korean culture, but the best part of Chuseok was that we got 2 extra days off work!

Paige and I decided a while ago to join an organized trip with Adventure Korea to an island off the East coast of Korea called Ulleung. While this volcanic, rain-forested island is ‘off the beaten path’ it was overrun by our group of foreigners and other Korean tourists for the weekend. Unfortunately it rained for about 70% of the trip, but we put the extra indoors-time to good use, getting to know our fellow adventurers and roommates for the weekend.

We met lots of people (there were 140 on the AK trip!) but roomed with 3 blonde Americans who turned out to be pretty cool :P. Cate, Kira, Sandy, Paige and I dubbed ourselves the ‘Sex in the Si’ (Si, pronounced ‘she’ means city in Korean) of Korea and I can forsee many future adventures with these girls!

Sex in the Si! aka 2 Charlottes and 3 Samanthas hahaha

Most of the meals were provided, and were quite typical of Korea – rice (for breakfast, lunch and dinner), soup, gim (dried seaweed), kimchi (fermented cabbage) and other side-dishes. The food on the island was largely based around their two main exports – squid and pumpkin. By the harbour there were stalls upon stalls selling fresh(ish) cooked squid. I’m not sure exactly how it was cooked but I saw lots of people eating it on the ferry. They would tear off a tentacle and pass it to the next person… yummeh.

The outdoor activities were excellent, even in the rain. We walked along the rugged coastline and admired the dramatic scenery, then ventured into the muddy rainforest and got up close and personal with bamboo and some local goats. One bridge along the coast was a perfect jumping spot, and the water was beautiful. I think the locals thought we were nuts but we had a great time jumping in (even though it took me a while the first time :S).

Woo!! Taking the plunge!

We even went to a Norae bong (Korean kareoke) to top things off and made our own party on the roof of our hotel. Overall, the trip was a great success and an excellent way to spend the holidays.

The trip came to a close on Monday night so, on Tuesday Cate, Kira and I went to explore the cultural village in the heart of Seoul. The sunny weather was a nice change from the misty island, and we had a great touristy day watching the different shows and activities. Many of the activities were the same as what we had done in school, such as stick tossing and top spinning. It was fantastic to hear some traditional singing, which was very throaty… much different than I expected.

Trying to spin the top... not as easy as it looks!

Overall my first Chuseok experience was fabulous – one my favourite memories of Korea so far. There are some things that I am going to miss about Thanksgiving in Canada – namely stuffing and pumpkin pie – but I’m sure it won’t have changed by the time I get back. I guess that’s the nice thing about traditions :).

biking, beaches and peanut butter

Another great weekend in Korea! The Seonyudo Islands definitely surpassed my expectations, but not without a few surprises.

Paige and I were totally planning on finding our own beach and accommodations this weekend. It turns out the girls we wanted to go with had already booked a trip with Adventure Korea for an island bike tour. We were (are) feeling a little strapped for cash, but we decided that we’d probably spend just as much as the trip cost if we stayed in Seoul.

Plus, the description on their website sounded so appealing. I think what really got me was the following: “We can witness the sunset at one of the best places in all of Korea. You can enjoy the sunset from any of the beaches.  Following the sunset we will have a beach party near our accommodation.  This is a great chance to chat, relax, dance or sing with your new AK friends.” Let me tell you… all this happened and more.

So, we settled for an early Friday night and a very early Saturday morning, as we had to be at the bus stop for 7:30 am. After a bit of chit chat I fell right asleep on the bus. We hopped off our bus onto a ferry to take us to the islands. As we stared off, we were passing by big factories and windmills and just a lot of industrial areas… NOT the scenic getaway I was hoping for. My worries faded away as soon as the beautiful Seonyu islands came into view.

When we got off the ferry we got our bikes right away and pedaled the 2 minutes to our “hotel”. I’m not really sure what to call it, actually. It definitely wasn’t a westerner’s version of a hotel, but it wasn’t a hostel or a home stay or anything like that. The rooms are shared between 4-5 (or in our case 6) people, and they are basically empty rooms. Ours had a fridge, a tv, a non-operating 70’s kareoke machine and a bunch of blankets and pillows stacked in the corner. No beds.

I heard this is very common in Korea and I was expecting it, but I was still a little hopeful for a bed, or at least a mattress. No, we got a floor to sleep on. It was kind of a soft floor, as floors go, but it was still a floor. Since there was clearly nothing to see in our room, we just dropped our stuff and hit the paths.

We set out to explore the islands on our mountain bikes with questionable gears. We went across a bridge to a smaller island and stopped to take pictures on a pier with a gorgeous view. As we were biking along, we noticed a steep path going up past a house, so we decided to ditch the bikes for a bit to see what was up there. It turned out to be a great choice, as we got the best view of the whole trip from the top of the hill we climbed (see pictures ^^)!

gorgeous view!

After our little climb, we biked back to the main island, grabbed our bathing suits and set out to find a beach on the third island. We didn’t really find a beach, but we did find some cool stuff. We biked beside a marshy area and saw some cranes, which were beautiful! Then we came to a small fishing village, which we bike through and found the ocean again.

It was really neat biking through the village, we really got to see a glimpse of their culture. There were people roping nets to poles (I’m guessing to put in the ocean), people making nets (while listening to k-pop), people selling fish etc. They were definitely not used to tourists. We had seen a beach from afar, but when we got up closer to it, we realized it was a dump.

It wasn’t actually a dump, but there was garbage everywhere. Mostly bottles, plastic and broken nets that had washed up from the ocean. It was actually pretty interesting to see how the sea creatures had adapted to it. We witnessed about 15 hermit crabs crawling out of a glove and saw a huge abandoned anchor.

Personally, I was surprised by how how little these islands and villages had focused on tourism. I didn’t see one postcard, most people didn’t speak English and there was garbage everywhere. On one hand, this was great because we got to see a side of the island (and a side of Korea) that most foreigners don’t get to see, and their culture is very much preserved. On the other hand, if it was more touristy, maybe there would be the resources (and motivation) needed to clean up the shores.

random trash was everywhere!

We got back to the big, nice beach by our hotel, had a refreshing dip and just relaxed for a few minutes until dinner at 7. Dinner was good, but we all agreed that we didn’t get enough food to satisfy us after our adventurous day. We had galbi (barbecued beef), rice, tofu and side dishes and some corn tea to wash it all down.

Since the description on the website clearly indicated a beach party, the six of us made our way down and found some tables to sit on. Then the games began. Paige taught us the ‘slurping’ game, which is very similar to chicken goggles, and when I mentioned it everyone seemed game. I think everyone probably laughed as much as they did the first time I played (i.e. – A LOT).

We were mid-game when we saw our tour guides walking  along the beach. Since it was one of their birthdays, we started singing happy birthday to lure them over. It worked and we made him do a soju shot with each one of us. He was Korean, and turning 29 after all, so should be able to handle his soju! We continued  chicken goggles, sang happy bday in Korean, ate (demolished) the cupcakes that our guide’s girlfriend had brought and generally had an awesome time.

Eventually we got a good group of about 12 as more people from our tour started to wander down. Our bus driver even joined in and was super enthusiastic haha. After a while the six of us broke off and paused the games for a dance session in the ocean, complete with the charleston and box step. The games continued until what we thought was late at night, but it was actually only about 11:30 when we headed back up to the hotel.

The next morning a few of us got up early and went back to the beach to watch the sunrise. It was beautiful, but I think we were all too tired to fully appreciate it. Paige and I took a stroll along the beach for a while then we all went back to ‘bed’ (floor) for about 20 mins until breakfast at 8.

Paige snappin some pics of the sunrise.

Breakfast was absolutely amazing. It was only toast and bananas, but after going a month and a half without peanut butter, it was a godsend. They also had strong-ish coffee which I have missed.

After breakfast we went on the hike that the tour had organized. It wasn’t a long hike, but it was fairly steep and we were definitely hot by the time we got to the top.The view from the top was spectacular, so we spent a while up there and explored some other paths further on. By the time we made our way down, we were in need of a swim, so we got our suits on and once again hit the beach.

One thing you should know about Koreans is that they do not like the sun and avoid it at all costs. They are still very active and enjoy being outdoors, but they cover up. And I mean cover up… hats, masks, long sleeves, hand covers, long pants and hiking boots. Sometimes the only skin showing is around their eyes. So, while they are fairly accustomed to tourists, I think six girls in bikinis was a bit jaw-dropping for some of them. We had a very relaxing afternoon on the beach, but by the time it was time to go we were all pretty burnt.

Overall, it was an awesome trip and it felt like we were on the islands for a LOT longer than 24 hours. Next weekend, Paige and I are going to Ullengdo island, off the East coast of Korea. It’s a national holiday, so we get 2 days off and will be spending 3 nights on the island. I can’t wait! Stay tuned!

Great weekend!