Chuseok

Ok--I know I am very, very slow with these posts, but better late than never. Chuseok was so eventful and there is so much to share that I don't want to leave it out. We had a very lovely day that started with lounging around in pj's, eating fruit and drinking coffee. Then, we got ourselves ready for a brunch at halmoni's house. The 'ghost doll' aka Kwishin-baby led the way in the car (Bubbie got this doll for Dahin years ago and everyone we know says its scary; the white skin and black hair make it look like a ghost you see in a Korean horror movie. I like to show it to guests to freak them out--love the doll).

At halmoni's house we had galbi jjim--a casserole-style dish with marinated ribs and carrots, potatoes, and onions. It's similar, in a way, to the crockpot beef dish I ate a lot as a kid. Love it! The kids ate a lot, too (they are total carnivores). After brunch, we drank more coffee and hung out for a while.

Jack's sister Eun-he and her daughter (kids' cousin) Hennie had some presents for the kids. The boys got a baseball bat, a ball, and a baeball mit a piece. Hennie and her mom are big baseball fans. They spend practically every Sunday going to baseball-related events. The kids went outside to the park for a while to play baseball. The weather was perfect, warm with a little bit of a breeze.

Jack's sister and her daughter came to Seoul for the holiday--they stayed with us for 3 days. It was great to spend time with them, and Dahin got re-aquainted with her cousin she had not seen since she was 2 years-old. Now, cousin Jennie has an Australian accent; when Dahin mentioned it, Jennie said, "No, YOU have an accent." Jack's sister and her husband were celebrating their 25th anniversary. After Chuseok, he flew to Seoul and they all flew to Japan together for a trip to Disneyland.

Sitting around the house, we decided to go somewhere in the city, assuming that the streets were clear. We settled on Cheongyecheon, the recently restored stream that runs through downtown and nature park. WRONG. It was so congested that it took us an hour and a half to get to Cheongyecheon, normally only a 20-minute drive from Jack's mom's house. Along the way, we saw sites, such as grandpas wearing hanbok on motorbikes, and the girls got even closer telling elementary school jokes about pee and poop (yay--loved that).

When we got there, we actually had an easy time finding a place to park and took photos in front of the Korean Tourism Organization building--next to which is this cafe-like place with Snow White and the 7 Dwarves (don't know why, but it was fun for the kids). Then, we went into the basement of the tourism building where they had folk games set up and we got to try on some hanbok and take photos.

Jack and his sister, Eunsil, pose with Cheongyecheon in the background.

Dahin and Jennie try on hats and the kids play some games.

Oliver, Jennie, and Dahin were very willing to put on hanbok for a Chuseok photo, but Ronan could not be coerced. Hennie tried her best, but to no avail.

Oliver looks less than thrilled to be wearing pink. They only had one little boy hanbok in the collection of clothes, so he had no choice. Still, a good sport, he put it on and posed for photos.

Ronan, meanwhile, played and played games. His favorite was this virtual soccer game. A ball image was projected onto the floor and it bounced around. He tried and tried to kick it. After about 15 minutes, we had to carry him out of the building; he was so into it!

Hennie poses with Bi (or 'Rain'). They had a whole bunch of Korean idol cutouts you could pose with.

Finally, we make it to Cheongyecheon.

I remember this area of town 11 years ago. It was so decrepit and smelly. There was a highway that ran along this route and on both sites were buildings literally crumbling down. The highway, as well, had cracks in the foundation. For centuries, a stream ran here but it was covered up in the big push for 'development.' The then-mayor of Seoul, now the President of ROK, decided to turn the nasty area full of squatters and trash into a nature area. So, they tore down the bridge and many of the buildings and restored the stream. Many of the original structures, such as bridges, were still standing over the stream when they unearthed it. The rennovation has made a tremendous difference in the look and feel of the downtown area.

There is a little art gallery located under a bridge. It's very nicely done.

Dahin has Hennie take a photo of one of her many 'nature finds.'

The kids really enjoyed sticking their feet in the cool, clear water. It was all good fun into guess-who's-kid fell into the water. Yep, that's right. Of course one of my kids would end up falling into the water. All of a sudden, I heard a collective "Oh!" from surrounding people and looked up to see Oliver drenched. Yay us. So, after convincing him that we had to take his clothes off in order to put a jacket on his top and tie another one around his waist, he let us get him out of those damp clothes. The weather was warm, luckily, so he didn't get too cold.

As we drove back to halmoni's house for a second round of galbijjim and naps, we passed Dongdaemun, Seoul's east gate that now marks the entrance to the popular Dongdaemun shopping district. It also reminds me of how much Seoul has grown, way beyond the borders once marked by the east, west, south, and north gates.