5 day weekend!

Last week the moon did everyone a solid and was full on Thursday the 19th.  So what?  Full moon, big deal, right?  Right.  Korean Thanksgiving, or Chuseok, follows the lunar calendar.  Last week's full moon was the harvest moon and in Korea, that is Chuseok.  The holiday, focusing heavily on seeing family and honoring ancestors, requires people to go back to their hometowns and prepare a big feast with their families.  Because of that, the holiday is actually 3 days long.  The actual full moon (August 15th on the lunar calendar) and the day before and after.  This year, Chuseok fell on a Wednesday-Friday.  Can't get much better than that.  5 day weekend!  Sometimes it falls on a Friday-Sunday and isn't so great.  

But this year was awesome.  With how busy the actual holiday was, it was nice to have the weekend to relax before school started again.  It was also nice to have time to digest.  There was so much eating involved.

My rough Chuseok outline was like this:

Wednesday: Go to the traditional market and buy all the ingredients/requirements for the Chuseok food.  I'm not clear on the rules, but I think it's something along the lines of "something from the mountains, from the ocean...etc."  The rest of the day was spent cooking and at night we took a loooooong walk through Soho-dong.  It was reminiscent of the Narragansett Sea Wall.  

Hello, Thursday morning.

Thursday:  We woke up early.  Really early.  6:30 early.  So early that the sun hadn't even cleared the mountains yet.  See picture above.  By the time we had actually gotten out of bed and put decent clothes on, Victoria's dad had already set out all the food.  We did the memorial ceremony "Jesa", ate, and took a nap.  An 8am nap.  When you eat that much food and drink makkoli that early, you DEFINITELY need your 8am nap.  Later on we visited the columbarium.  5 points if you didn't have to look that one up.  That night, the rest of Victoria's family came over and we ate and drank like it was going out of style.  

The Jesa feast

Friday: We're just going to write Friday off.  It was a recovery day.  

Luckily we had another two days to relax before the week started.  Chuseok is a great holiday to meet family, but it is pretty exhausting.  Though I do miss the times when I could go party in Seoul or take a trip somewhere during the holiday, it has become just as fun to spend some quality time with the family.  It makes me really want to go back stateside for a Christmas or Thanksgiving.  

"Fall"ing Into Place

My lame attempt at a clever title.

Summer is officially over.  The white raven has arrived (anybody? Ok. No more jokes).  School started.

I've fallen into one of my periodic bouts of stagnance again.  Probably because I don't have any real goals.  The goals that I did have were more like things that I just want to do.  Go to the gym regularly.  Blog more.  Stop parking it on the couch with a tub of ricotta cheese.  Mostly things that are achieved by simply doing or not doing them.  I need a real goal.  A goal to work towards.  A SMART goal.

I think I've found one.

This January (or if not, then April) I'm going to take the TOPIK test.  The TOPIK is for Korean what the TOEIC or TOEFL is for English.  My Korean is ok, but I would like to learn more.  I feel like it is my responsibility for being a long term resident of Korea and being married to a Korean.  Even though it is not imperative for my survival here, It's something I feel like I can do.  The TOPIK test is a way to quantify my skills.  Having an official result is more validating than someone saying "but you speak Korean well!"  This will get me on track to study more often and more seriously.  I even compiled a list of resources!  I love lists!

The test is broken up into 3 levels.  초급, 중급, and 고급.  Beginner, intermediate, and advanced.  The total TOPIK score range is 1-6.  Levels 1-2 are for 초급, 3-4 for 중급, and 5-6 for 고급.  I would start at the beginner level, 초급.  My goal is to get a 2.  Then I can prepare for the intermediate level 중급 test.

I think that I have a solid foundation and that my goal of getting a 2 is attainable if I put my mind to it.  Yesterday I downloaded a previous version of the test and was able to answer quite a few questions without getting stumped.  I can do this!  The hardest part will be forming the study habit.  I think I can, I think I can.  I know I can, I know I can.