Now thanksgiving is one of my favourite holidays of the year. i love the feeling of gathering just to have a meal together with your famile, and enjoy each others company, under no other pre-tense than that.. i miss the sunset jeep rides out into the vineyards, the laughter that ensues as we run along the vines to gather the sweet pinkened grapes; our bellies still busting from the delicious meal. The coolness that takes the air at this time of year and makes us wrap our arms around each other or snuggle in a nice warm flannel blanket.. this is something i am truely going to miss out here....
The idea of celebrating their ancestors also requires them to go and do the yearly maintenance of the graves. This may seem a little bit strange to only do once a year, but because there isn't much space in Korea, people are generally buried deep within the mountains and it is a little bit of a journey to get there. This task falls to the eldest son of the family. (the desire to have a son in your family really runs deep. i met a family with 4 girls.. the mother told me how much they wanted a boy; she was very pregnant, but she really thought it would be another girl- this is also not a traditional practice in korea- usually one or two children is the maximum; and this is mostly because schooling is VERY expensive.) I have been told that the maintenance usually takes about a day and is done at least a week in advance of Cheusok. This involves clipping, mowing, and gardening duties. I cant imagine how this would occur on a mountain side, but sure enough as i traveled in the bus towards the north, away from all the crazy traffic, there were little bald spots littering the mountain range.
So as i mentioned i headed north the Chuncheon to visit my friend Rose from University. It was an amazing weekend filled with fun and laughter and relaxation. I arrived on Friday morning after a long morning of travel. My bus left at 7am from Daegu. I had spent the night at my friends house, but was required to be there 30 minutes early. since i had NO idea where the bus station was, i left his house around 5am. i arrived at the subway stop where i was told to go, and headed out to find the bus station. as i left the terminal i was surrounded by about 4 or 5 buildings with large express buses parked in the lots. so.. i just picked one with people in it and went in. she informed me the one i was looking for was across the street. so i cross the street, to be informed that i need to go around the corner, where i am then informed i need to walk about 5 minutes up the road. At 5am, walking around the city carrying my belongings for 4 days, is not the most enjoyable experience, but i was just happy i had found friendly, minimal English speaking Koreans to help me! (the benefit of being in a larger city) So i arrived at my destination and sat down amoung the throngs of people escaping to the south for the holiday.
The bus ride was, uneventful except that i was frozen most of the time and so i curled in a ball, wrapped my scarf around my head and went to sleep for most of the ride. i felt very Korean. its both strange and impressive how quickly they fall asleep. every time i get on a bus they are all sitting there with closed eyes immediately. So when i arrived in Chuncheon we spent the day chatting and shopping, we went for Vietnamese food which was fantastic, and walked around the underground mall. We went to a place called VIPS for dinner to celebrate her friend Shinee's birthday! It was a surprise for her, which i was a part of... we had to use me to get her to the resturant haha.. VIPS is a western buffet and where gorged myself on guacamole, melted cheese and smoked salmon and capers... oh man... i was craving that for sooo long! then we went to a place called Sherrifs and played darts and talked, danced and laughed late into the evening. 
The next day we went to this place called everland. Its a HUGE amusement park with one of the largest wooden roller coasters in the world its called the /T-Express... it was intense. so intense that i couldn't even scream, i tried to.. but nothing came out, i had lost my breath... some serious adrenaline after that ride caused us to run around the park for another couple of hours and ride the gut busting head splitting amusement park rides that you typically find.. only sometimes you felt like you were going to die... we headed up in the ferris wheel to see if we could catch an overhead glimpse of the park. it was a pretty nice ride, but the shaky pod we were in caused for a little bit of anxiety near to the top. but it was a nice ride with Rosie and her man Andrew. So after a long day of bad food and stomach sloshing rides we departed with the beautiful full moon in sight back to chuncheon. 
That night we went to a place called Tombstone (another western bar) and shared some laughs and played darts. we were exhausted from the long day but still found ourselves wandering home around 3am to share a bottle of wine and chat. the next day... well.. we relaxed and watched some movies, ate some delicious breakfast and talked... a perfect Sunday afternoon. followed by a great dinner of dakgalbi- which is traditionally a chicken based dish, but i found my way around that and ate the cabbage, noodles, sweet potatoes, and rice cakes that this spicy dish entails... it was soooo good! Then it was time to go home and back to the reality of my life here in Bugok. My time away this weekend really rejuvenated me and made me feel sort of comfortable again. it was so nice to be able to just fall back into place with someone that i haven't seen in so long.. and know that it will always be like that. I cherish the friends that i have and miss them everyday. I just wish that i had someone a bit closer to make this adventure that much more bearable. Im putting in a request to be transferred... who knows if they can even do this. but I just know that my experience here will not be all it can be if im cooped up in this little town. but i just have to take what i have and make the best of it. :) TIK
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