Best Chuseok Ever! part 2

So after getting back from Seoraksan I had a day to rest up before I had my first visitors...I have a friend named Emilie who I was introduced to before I came to Korea because she was coming over at the same time. Emilie lives in Gwangju which is about 4 and 1/2 hours south of Seoul and since her and her friend Laura had nothing better to do they decided to come check it out.

They arrived in the early hours of Tuesday morning and after getting a little sleep we headed out to meet my friend Ahyoung. Ahyoung is a college student who works at the old OLA campus and we have kept in touch ever since. She was nice enough to show us some of the hidden gems of the city but the weather had other plans, raining us out completely and making us take cover within the COEX. The COEX is the largest underground shopping center in Asia and also houses a start of the art convention center. The G20 summit will be held there in November and none other than Obama is making an appearance.

Luckily Wednesday's weather held in check and we were able to venture out and participate in some traditional Chuseok festivities. First we watched a traditional Korean Musical performance that was out of this world. Then we worked our way over to the National Palace where we got to see lots of traditional games and arts & crafts. I even made a box with traditional Korean rice paper patterns. After that we popped some silk worm pupa and headed to Itaewon for some long awaited Mexican food. After almost two months of Korean food some wanna be Mexican was pretty badass.

This Chuseok holiday was great, I had a chance to get out of the city and see some amazing landscape, I enjoyed the company of a familiar face, and I got to take in some of the traditional aspects that Chuseok has to offer.

One more thing I got from Chuseok was that feeling of family even though mine is half way around the World. Just being out and seeing all the families spending time together, some looking anxious to get away and play with friends while others embraced the short times that had together it reminded me of something familiar even if it is only September. Happy Chuseok everyone!