Chuseok 2017

Chuseok baby! Chuseok is a Korean Thanksgiving holiday where people give thanks to their ancestors. Traditionally, families get together and visit the graves of their ancestors. Most graves are located on mountains, under huge lumps of earth. Families cook together and eat traditional Chuseok foods like Songpyeong (a sweet rice caked with various fillings like chestnuts). This year, we had 10 whole days off work! Usually Chuseok lasts for three days, but there were some bank holidays here and there, plus the weekends which made it 10 days. It's very rare to have such a long vacation period and it would have been the best time to travel. However, laziness occurred and David and I didn't want to travel during the busy period. Honestly, Incheon Airport would have been mobbed and so would have been the expressway and country roads. Everyone travels during Chuseok to see their families. I saw a video of Incheon airport on the first day of the holiday and it looked horrendous. Security queues were over a mile long. I don't think it would have been enjoyable. Roads were heavily congested too, with many folk driving like idiots. 

Here are my previous Chuseok posts: 2015, 2016

So my Chuseok consisted of laying around doing nothing. It was pretty awesome. It was super rainy, so there wasn't much I could have done anyways without getting soaking wet. I did dog sit someone's dog for 7 days which was nice. I love dogs, the more dogs the merrier. She was 10 years old, so she wasn't a hassle and she was super cute. 

I took Jules (my friend's dog) and Monroe to a dog cafe twice. I love dog cafes! It's the best place for a dog to socialise. I don't want my dog to be scared of others, so I take him a few times a month. He's still afraidy cat, but he's getting there. He's a bit more confident and can wander and play for a little while on his own. Usually, he runs back to me and tries to sit on my lap, or hide under my chair. 

The rest of the time mostly involved playing in arcades and baseball. There's this really cool arcade where you can do shooting, archery and baseball. I was pretty good at the shooting, I'm not sure how as I am usually not good at anything! I ended up getting the maximum score and making it on the score board! Huzzah! 

A few of the nights, David and I hung around with Rebecca and Jack. We played darts, arcades, went to a batting cage etc. Oh and screen baseball which I am absolutely terrible at. 

David and I decided to "splurge" one night at a fish restaurant. Gangneung has many fish restaurants by the beach. It's pretty expensive, about 150,000won for a set meal. You can have cheaper things but we wanted the whole whack.

I also got my hair cut! It's a bit scary going to a hair dressers in Korea. My Korean isn't really that good, but it wasn't too bad miming what I wanted and showing a picture. My hair dresser was nice and spoke a little English. Hair cuts here are so cheap! For a full cut and wash it's 20,000won. 

One on of the days, I met up with a couple who I used to work with back in Aberdeen Scotland. They're both in Korea now, too. They're about an hour away from Gangneung, so it was nice meeting them. We hiked a little of Seoraksan and ate some Italian. 

Finally, the last day was the coffee festival which I wrote about here. 

It was a nice relaxed holiday. It definitely went by too quickly. I'm pretty sure it would have been better if I traveled somewhere though. But, I guess the rest was needed. I feel slightly refreshed and hoping to go back to work with a refreshed mind. Sometimes working and teaching the same things over and over can take a toll. I rewatched a video I took two years ago of one of my lessons and I was so active. My classes were having fun, dancing and playing games. But, I looked back on my current classes and they're pretty boring with no energy. So, I hope to restart the fun and active lessons again. 

So yeah, that was my Chuseok. 

Kelly