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VisitSeoul.net

Government Website. READ MY REVIEWS! SEE MY PHOTOS! WHY SEOUL?

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Chuseok in the eyes of Young Koreans

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"One of the major foods prepared and eaten during the Chuseok holiday is Songpyeon (송편), a crescent-shaped rice cake which is steamed upon pine needles." - Wikipedia.

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What's going on in Seoul during the holidays? Click here! (shamleless promotion of the Seoul Government site.)

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Yes, my bites always come out heart-shaped. Happy Chuseok (Thanksgiving) to us! The staff got 5 KG boxes of apples today. I felt crazy lugging home 10 pounds of fruit. What am I going to do with it all? I have no oven here, just a stove-top. I suppose I could make homemade apple sauce.

This was better than our New Years gift shocker: a crate of SPAM, considered a joke by some, but a luxury in Korea. I re-gifted it pretty quickly.

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Hanbok for sale in a shop window, South Gate Suwon. Just to get the festivities going.

PS- Tae Hun's wedding photos from Saturday night. It was pretty Westernized- steak dinner, white wedding dress. There were huge screens on the wall, showing up-close video footage of the couple: Tae's best friend's sister and her fiancee. The guy was displeased his younger sibling was marrying before him. I told Tae Hun that Canadians aren't eager to rush into marriage. I'm allowed the odd generalization.

Without further ado, the Wedding photos:

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Have you been to a Korean wedding? What did you think?

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Plus, For Jack. HAHA!

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Keep up the great work.
You've taken up where Daily Kimchi left off.

R U staying in Korea another year?



- More pics of Eva!

Gary said...

Hey Eva! Great pics and I agree with Andre...you're doing an excellent job with your blog! Keep it up. :)

supersoulfly said...

Question for the ESL teachers in Korea. Do any of you give your employers gifts for Chuseok?

Eva Karrin McKinnon said...

When are you coming back to Korea, Gary ? ? ?


Supersoulfly... I'm not very close with the management because they don't speak English fluently.

Maybe it's in poor form but I'm not planning on getting them anything and I don't think my coworkers are either. I just smiled and thanked them profusely.

Eva Karrin McKinnon said...

Andre - I have some crazy Asia plans for November and December, (travel plans, stay tuned!!!! it's gunna be awesome) and then I think I am coming back, but to live in Seoul and concentrate mainly on writing for the Government site.

Anonymous said...

Hi Eva,
I remember that you bought a new camera this year but can't remember which model. Do you mind sharing it? Your photos have been excellent.

Craig

Eva Karrin McKinnon said...

Hey Craig

Long time no talk.

Nikon DSLR D40X
thanks so much! it is a fantastic camera, my Mom's buying one this week.

Michael said...

At the first Korean wedding I ever went to the guests were talking to each other the whole way through the ceremony, turning this way and that in their seats, making no effort to keep their voices down. At the reception the groom drank alcohol out of his shoe; the westerners got press-ganged on to the karaoke machine. Slightly different, I would say.

supersoulfly said...

The last pic is nice, but seriously girl, clean up your apartment.

John said...

still at it eva? and quite consistently! i love it.

glad to see things are going well - too bad the management at the hakwon isn't close. and they give you some random stuff - most corporate places in korea give at least biannual "bonuses" (if not 4x's a year), guess you haven't come by that yet.

the korean weddings i've gone to - the traditional ones at least, have been relatively short and sweet. following the wedding, the "reception" is usually fairly informal with just close friends of the bride and groom usually going out drinking/eating.

chuseok - my favorite holiday in korea. fall - my favorite season.

glad you'll be in seoul this coming year - i'll be visiting once again, sometime in nov.

looking forward to hearing more about your planned travels!

best!
john

Eva Karrin McKinnon said...

ahhahhahah supersoulfly. my life was insane when i took the photo


I've noticed that John, there isn't much of a "reception". I find the wedding halls extremely tacky.

No more work at hagwons for me. The year was it.

Nice to hear from you!

Eva Karrin McKinnon said...

micheal - alcohol out of a shoe? seriously?

oh honey, it was the happiest day of our life. remember your shoes dripping with soju? ahh. brings a tear to my eye.


that's awesome.

Jane Milton said...

Hey Eva: You're going to be here for another year?! What company will you work in Seoul? And where is it located? Wow, that's pretty cool. What about le mans (NOT to be confused with the Man)?

I'm getting ready to leave. I love it here, but I think if I *ever* come back, I'm working the Government ... the US Government. No more working with Koreans for me; I feel as if I can't be me. It's killing my soul. - Jane

Anonymous said...

Hi Eva! I nearly did a runner a couple months into my stay here due to my lack of firm footing and misunderstandings at the school, but somehow I'm now in my second year at the same hagwon (I like most of my kids, the owners, and the area). I never quite knew where I stood at first. It actually took a few months to get the hang of dealing with the students, the other teachers, the owners, and the environment.

Eventually, my fears subsided as I learned that even the Korean teachers had trouble with my class of always crying and troublemaking six year-old girls. Imagine your first day, and class, in a foreign country teaching a group of crying girls that you couldn't understand, and who couldn't understand you. Also, it didn't hurt that after a few months the owners had me start tutoring their own kids. Something the previous foreign teachers were not allowed to do.

It's also a really great feeling to have one's best students actually wanting to have extra classes. Almost as great as having probably my worst class when I arrived here now being nearly my best. Before I decided to renew my contract, nearly all of them (including the boys) were in tears thinking I might be leaving because they used to be so bad and unruly.

I am by no means a great teacher (good to average, maybe), espcially spending only 50 minutes a week with nearly all the kids, but they all know that I care about them and their futures. Just caring works more wonders than I could have ever thought possible.

Keep up the great work and good luck in whatever future endeavors you decide to pursue.

Helena said...

Cute drawings!

My husband had a student (not in Korea, this was at community college here in the US--actually I think maybe the student was Vietnamese) who wrote in a paper, "Many people celebrate this holiday by making small, triangular dumplings. My grandmother is one of these." This has become our favorite example of misplaced modifier. Cracks me up. Anyway, the dumpling pictures just made me think of that.

I've been to a couple of Korean weddings, in wedding halls. In both cases they did a Western ceremony and then a traditional Korean ceremony right after. I thought it was kind of funny how some of the things they did in the Western one retained the form but not the substance. Like the bouquet toss. It wasn't a matter of tossing the bouquet to see who catches it--the catchee was already selected and it was a rather elaborately staged photo op.

Unknown said...

Hey Eva,

Didn't anyone tell you? Spam is a delicacy in Korea (I'm being dead serious).

Check here: http://wcco.com/watercooler/local_story_290104938.html

Wanna know how much they paid? Check here: http://journals.worldnomads.com/annielovett/post/1896.aspx (in other words, 40k won)

Hell, it goes great with kimchi. I myself use spam to make kimchi jigae, fried rice, sushi rolls and even fry it with eggs. I have a spam t-shirt which you can look at on my myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/wangkon936.

Don't knock the spam!

Oh, incidently, spam is very popular in Hawaii. Something to do with the fact that it goes well with pineapple.

Anonymous said...

Well, I think everyone everywhere ought to be knocking SPAM (the food), but I agree it's yummy and is great as a part of kimchi jjigae, and I'm not even Haiwaian.

I only eat reduced-fat SPAM. :)

kiwi said...

how did you get/find the government writing job?

Gail T. said...

Hi Eva!
How much were the hanboks on sale?

Anonymous said...

people knock spam but aren't hotdogs made of similar stuff? why is spam the butt of jokes but not hotdogs? oh why? why? why?

friend of spam ;)

supersoulfly said...

Hot dogs are not considered a delicacy. Spam is by some people.

I saw plenty of Spam gift bags at E-mart this week. Ranging from 9'000 won to 50,000 won.

I opted to give my employer and coworkers tea instead.

Eva Karrin McKinnon said...

The government wrote me, I met my (potential/current) boss for an interview at the press center in seoul, and that was that!

Anyway, right now they're desperate for writers - they're open to freelancers, for anyone who is interested.

Gail - I didn't look but I'm guessing between 300 and 600 USD. Whenever I ask someone how much hanboks cost, they estimate about 500.


hahahha : "friend of spam" I love your name, but not spam. sorry. never. I've dated too many Jews.

Unknown said...

Hey! That would be spic, not spam, right? Hahahaha... j/k!

I think Cullen Thomas, the author of Brother One Cell, started his writing career in Korea by doing articles for the Korean Herold.

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