HAPPY...
For those of you who have never heard of Chuseok, well... neither had I two weeks ago. Chuseok, as I'm told, is the equivalent of Thanksgiving in America. From that I am left to assume it celebrates the day the pilgrims landed in Korea and the Indians taught them to cultivate the land.
This is a photograph taken
at Chuseok in Seoul in 1492
So Chuseok is clearly a big deal here in Korea, as most teachers I've talked to have been given the whole week or nearly the whole week off work. Apparently I picked a good year to start in Korea. Chuseok landed on a Wednesday (today) but usually it's just a three-day thing. Chuseok, like Easter or Father's Day, is one of those moving holidays based on a calendar that most of the world doesn't use. It is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar.
The break didn't look like it was going to go very well. Most of the foreign teachers went out of town and being the new guy in town, I didn't really know anyone. In addition, Saturday afternoon I went and worked out on the mountain again, screwing up my back in the process. Monday I could barely get out of bed or get around my apartment.
(I will also use this image if/when
I want to depict flatulence)
I got some tips though, about the back pain from a friend who's a masseuse and I'm almost at 100% again. For all the back pain and everything else, I have done some of my best runs on NamSan this week. I know I'm getting better at it. I've cut 2:06 off my record from last week which is quite heartening. My goal is to be able to take the whole trail at a run.
...and then I'll be ready to take on Drago.
I've also been walking around HongSeong, exploring a bit, and I've found a few channels that play a lot of English movies (English as in Michael Caine or Jason Statham flicks). I'm also planning on taking a train up to Seoul on Friday to complete a Craig's List purchase of an XBox 360 to try and fill the void left by my recent, tragic loss.
He looks so peaceful...
Homesickness has really begun to set in this week. This is probably mostly because the time difference makes communication with my family that much harder-- and the fact that I have so many more free hours in the day that I am much more prone to boredom and such. There is always something I'll think aww man, Steven would love this! or Man, I'd like to race Eric up this mountain... It's going to get better soon though. I'll have a phone and I'll get this month's pay on Friday so that should be pretty rockin'.
Anyway, one of the X-Men movies just came on and I think it's about time I cook myself the special Chuseok dinner I planned. I have a few more ideas for blog posts so keep an eye out for more in the next few days as I get pictures.
Until then, stay awesome everybody! Cheers!
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