today is chusuk, or as we call it back home thanksgiving. its a day filled with ritual. families visit the graves of loved ones to pay their respect. they bow before the graves, aay a little prayer, and then pour a rice drink on the grave. its very beautiful and moving. we got to watch jk, jane, and kelly pay respect to jane's grandfather. we invite over to jane's parents apartment for dinner. they have a very nice apartment. think of jefferson with their penthouse pad. very nicely decorated with a 64 inch flat screen tv, inside garden, and sofas. it was so nice to sit on a sofa. i was in heaven. it was a little overwhelming at first. they have a large family. i sort of felt like i was on display. everyone was very nice and very welcoming. jane's younger brother had just come back from the states so we talked to him alot and the older brother con, who also spoke english and had been to the u.s. they told us about the custom and things like that. we sat in the living room on the floor where tables were brought out with variuos dishes on them. the men ate first. we started the meal with another type of rice liquor made from the fruit of rose plants. on the bottle it said it was good for backache, health, and cuts. it was sweeter than soju but very tastey. i liked it. the meal consisted of various vegetables, several side dishes one of which was potato latkes, and otehr delious things. there was also kimchee and soup. the soup was a bit fishy so i avoided that. especially since there were various unknow meat products floating in it. we also had rice and meat. the meat was like pot roast and it tasted just like pot roast. it was so good.
they were all impressed with our usage of chopsticks. thank god. i was so self-conscious during the whole meal. i constanstly felt liek i was be watched and everytime i went for a piece of meat i was praying it wouldn't fall. i did have one slight snag. getting the meat off the bone. finally one of the elder men showed me how to use the spoon to debone it. they also served rice cakes filled with sesames and beans and fruit for dessert. the whole experience was wonderful. i'm so glad i was able to experience this. needless to say there were several rounds of toasting and shots during of the rice drink during the meal. good thing all those years of drinking vodka paid off. when some of the younger guys left the women came out to eat. although they were also eating in the kitchen. normally i think they all eat together but since there wer so many people they had to do it in shifts. after eating jane's dad and the other men turned on the tv and watched golf. it was just like being at home. i felt like my dad could have walked in any minute.
shortly after that we walked over to the graveyard so jk and his family could pay their respect. all this i mentioned above so i won't go into detail. the mountain on which the relatives are buried are owned by jane's family. apparently her family is very well off. as if that wasn't apparent by seeing the apartment. both con and the younger brother offered to show us around korea whenever we wanted. they told us that if we got into any kind of trouble to call them. they want to take us to a tradition village sometime. i'm looking forward to that. very nice people. on the way to the train station jk told us that he wanted us to meet his family because he thinks of us as family. he said that everyone thought we were very nice. i forgot to mention this but at one point outside con was remarking on my watch and then the younger brother [i can't remember his name] made a comment how harace and i were very stylish. thats right we bring some STYLE to korea.
now i'm back at home relaxing. i finally got my cable for my tv this week. and last night i discovered the magic of korean tv. there are about 3 stations that play some american stuff but i was watching korean soap operas. thats the one good thing about soap operas. you really don't need to understand what they are saying because its all the same. i also managed to catch some korean videos and a station that had a bunch of pop stars performing live. i finally got to see bdsk or tvrfx, not really sure what their name is. tht the pop hair band i wrote about beofre. they are so like nsync and the rest of them its funny. all these korean teenage girls were crying and screaming. too funny. can't wait to see whats on tonight.
until next time. stay tuned for me ketv…
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