Chuseok Adventures

Our Ferry

For Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving), I went with my recruiter, his wife, and our friend Soo, to an island in Incheon to visit his family.  Traditionally, families all meet together in their home towns to celebrate their ancestors and have traditional ceremonies (a form of ancestor worship).  My recruiter's family is Christian, however, so they don't spend Chuseok in the traditional way.  This year, they rented a "pension" - aka a cottage - on an island.  The house is situated right on the waterfront, so we had easy access to the...mud.  This wasn't a sandy beachfront by any means, but more or less a mudflat in the middle of the day when the tide was out.  This made for an incredibly fun afternoon, though, as we got our feet wet (and muddy!!!), and caught crabs, fish, and shrimp.  Unfortunately, my car full of people had to leave before nightfall, when the octopus and big crabs would be out.

 We started off the afternoon right, with some kimchi jiggae (kimchi soup).  Actually, Soo informed me that this actually goes by the name of, "Military/Boot-Camp Soup" because it originated on the American army bases (either during the war or more recently, I'm not exactly sure).  The women would take what ever canned meat the soldiers had (spam, hot dogs, and  whatnot) and mix it into the traditional kimchi soup, which has a kimchi broth, some vegetables, and tofu.  This batch was pretty spicy, but I liked it!

 Here, you can see...well, no wait...you can't see my 

first catch of the day!  A very tiny, nearly microscopic crab.  I surprised myself with how squeamish I was at catching it.  I guess I'm not the little girl who used to play with bugs all afternoon anymore.  

As the tide started coming in, so did the fish!  Here is a fish I caught!  Well, a fish I picked up.  The guys had a fish net they were using, and I think this one got left behind.  I found it flopping around in the mud, so I decided to pick it up and have a mini photo shoot with it.  It surprised me by wriggling out of my hand once or twice!

All in all, it was a really great day.  Beautiful weather, fun activities, and a really comfortable, warm-hearted family.  There wasn't the usual smog covering, which was fantastic...until I realized that I got a slight sunburn on my forehead and nose.  Totally worth it though!