Apparently it’s just my luck to end up sitting next to nice people on the bus :) On the bus from Gwangju I met James, a 27-year-old Taekwando instructor who is going abroad for the first time to teach Taekwando in Abu Dhabi for a year! I was on my way to Yeosu to visit Nikki and he was on his way there to visit his girlfriend. The next day he sent me a text message to wish me a happy new year and it turned out that he was at his family’s house in the next town over from Hadong, where I was spending the weekend with Jungeui, who I had met on the bus in November! In the end, I got a ride with James and his family back to Gwangju today where I took a shuttle bus to the ferry to go to Jeju :)
This weekend has been like cultural immersion. Korean people are very family oriented and the collective ideal extends to their friends, and their foreign friends are no exception. On new years morning after setting the table for Jungeui's family's ancestors, we visited the graves of four ancestors. We hiked up to each grave with her dad, uncles, great uncle, and cousins where we left an offering of food and soju and bowed twice. Over the weekend we visited several of her friends’ and relatives’ houses where sat on the heated living room floors and were offered fruit, drinks, deep fried seafood, Korean pancakes, and sweet rice cakes. It would have be rude to refuse, so I learned to eat as little as possible at each place, but to try one of each thing to be polite. Still, I was full for two days straight! Grandparents give children money and I was included whenever Jungeui received money. I also got to give some money to her friend’s 2-year-old daughter :)
This weekend has been like cultural immersion. Korean people are very family oriented and the collective ideal extends to their friends, and their foreign friends are no exception. On new years morning after setting the table for Jungeui's family's ancestors, we visited the graves of four ancestors. We hiked up to each grave with her dad, uncles, great uncle, and cousins where we left an offering of food and soju and bowed twice. Over the weekend we visited several of her friends’ and relatives’ houses where sat on the heated living room floors and were offered fruit, drinks, deep fried seafood, Korean pancakes, and sweet rice cakes. It would have be rude to refuse, so I learned to eat as little as possible at each place, but to try one of each thing to be polite. Still, I was full for two days straight! Grandparents give children money and I was included whenever Jungeui received money. I also got to give some money to her friend’s 2-year-old daughter :)
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