Chuseok Weekend

So this last weekend was Chuseok, aka "Korean Thanksgiving." We had a four day weekend, Fri-Mon, so we decided to go visit Aaron's relatives in Ulsan, which is in the Southeast area of South Korea. Aaron's mother was visiting from America, so she came with us as we journeyed down there on Friday.

On Saturday morning, which was Chuseok day, we took an early morning walk to the coast of Ulsan to Ulgi Park, which was a coastline park. There was a part of the park called Daewangam Rock, of which several large rocks seemed to rise up from the beautiful clear waters of the sea. It was a pretty gorgeous sight.







Later on that day, we went to Aaron's aunt and uncles house, where they set up all the food as an offering for the ancestors, as a traditional chuseok prayer, which was pretty interesting. Afterwards, we all enjoyed the food as well.


Finally, on the rest of Saturday, we drove to Gyeongju, which was known as the "museum without walls" because of all the temples and shrines and tombs from the Silla empire. We visited a few different places: Imhaejeon Site, Tumuli Park, Seokguram Grotto, and Bulguska Temple.






On Sunday, we visited the Unmunsa Temple, which was a temple for women. It it was pretty scenic, situated near some mountains, and had some interesting paintings and building architecture.







And then finally, on Sunday night, we went out with Aaron's mother, aunt, uncle, and cousins to sing at a Noraebang, and had a lot more fun than expected.





What a weekend! Click here to read more

Hanging out with my friends

Last weekend, some friends of mine were visiting Korea, so I met up with them in Seoul and spent a day and a half with them, which was great. They weren't from Texas, so I haven't seen them in 2 or 3 years, so it was fun hanging out with them.

On Thursday night, we went to the Hongdae (the nightlife) district, which wasn't as big as I thought, but maybe we weren't in the main areas. We went to this spicy seafood stew place for dinner, which might've been a mistake because it was too spicy. In fact, we were dunking the red-coated shrimps and rice cakes into our water before eating it, and even then, our lips were on fire.



After breathing fire, we decided to hit up a nearby Noraebang (aka Korean Karaoke) for some singing fun, and even though I've been here for like 6 months plus, I haven't done it, so off we went. It was really fun, in fact! They had a TON of English songs as well, anything from oldies to pretty new stuff. We were singing old 90s pop songs like Spice Girls, TLC, and Savage Garden - it was so much fun!





We sang for quite awhile, and by the time we got back to their hotel, it was already 1, so we went to bed ready for another day.

The next day we were pretty lazy in the morning, but we did manage to hit up Insadong during the early afternoon. So after that, one of my friends' relatives came visiting from China, so we all went out for lunch, which was Bulgogi - two kinds in fact. One was grilled on the grill thing, and one was boiled in a soup, which later the broth was made into a noodle soup. The meat was tender and oh so delicious.








When our bellies were full, I wanted to show them Dr Fish, so we all went to that cafe where they bursted out laughing as soon as they put in their feet, since it was an oddly ticklish sensation. Still, we had a pretty good time.





The friend with the relatives left with them after that, so me and my other friend, we walked around the lights of Gangnam a little bit, before taking the subway to Dongdaemun, where they are supposedly some night markets. We didn't find too many stands, but there were some little stages with shows like belly dancers, and even a nausea-inducing looking ride. We stopped here for dinner, of which she had tofu stew and I had galbi (beef short rib) soup, delish! We just walked around the area and finally went back to the hotel.












The next day, I had to leave and come back to my apartment, and so that was my weekend. Click here to read more