Chusoek, Korea

Hi again. Here’s the news that’s fit to print. Well, I’m not sure the “lipstick on a pig” photo is fit to print.
Since I last wrote, we went on a couple of walks, of course, went to number of art venues in Busan, and had a holiday weekend mostly with our friends here. Busan has some open air exhibits along the beach and elsewhere. They weren’t that good, but we had a nice walk. We went to the museum of modern art. Here’s a photo of it and the convention center.

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I took a couple of pictures inside before I learned photography isn’t allowed. The second one is certainly relavant to what’s important in American politics.

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This past weekend was Chusoek, the fall harvest holiday, the second biggest holiday in Korea after New Year’s. It is like Thanksgiving in that people get together and eat a lot. They also honor their ancestors. We made food one day at Yung He and Geong Yurl’s restaurant. They were having a get together of about 100 of their family members. Traditionally, Koreans fry up stuff in batter, something they don’t usually do much. Here we are frying up fish, sweet potatoes, lotus root and tofu.

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On Sunday we went to Tongdo temple, Tongdosa, so Myung could pay her respects. You can click on search for previously published pictures from there. Here are more.

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Oh yeah, people like to dress up in traditional clothes for Chusoek. Myung says this is less popular now with adults than it used to be. Still, the kids are often dressed up.

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Make a wish.

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Then Monday we went to Geong Ja’s and Il Hwan’s and made more food. Here we are making pot stickers. These are sweet, made with sweet red bean paste or sweet white potato paste. You roll this dough up into a ball, make a little bowl, fill it and fold it. Here Myung is trying to do the wedding cake in the face bit.

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After that, we went for a walk and picnic in the woods behind Tongdosa…

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…and back.

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That bring us up to date. Yesterday we went to a movie at the just opened multiplex in Yangsan. Oh boy, it’s about time this city of >200,000 got a movie theater. The only English movie was Mama Mia, but I liked it. Meryl Streep can sing pretty well and Pierce Brosnan gave it a shot. One love song in his natural, thick Scottish brogue was pretty good. Today is nothing yet. Tomorrow we’re going on a road trip for a few days. I’ll write about that when we get back.
Be well, all of you.

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