My First Chuseok: Total family immersion.

Tomorrow is the full moon harvest day, Chuseok. Similar to American Thanksgiving, families gather in the countryside to honor their ancestors. They also eat large amounts of food,song-pyeon (rice cakes), then spend lots of time in traffic trying to get back to where they live.

How do I plan on spending this holiday? For the first time, I'll be spending it with a Korean family. My fiancee and I will go to her grandmother's house in Buyeo to celebrate. This is my first Chuseok celebration, and also the first time I will meet most of the extended family. I don't really know what's going on. I get vague details from my students, but I can't put together any kind of coherent image of what families do together on this holiday.

Thanksgiving holidays in my family are also spent together, usually at my grandmother's house. We have a ritual as well, televised football games. More importantly the speculation and the general banter that flows from such events. Even someone such as I, who doesn't follow sports at all, can enjoy a game while choking down hot turkey and mashed potatoes smothered in gravy.

Will this be a trial by fire? I hardly think so. I already met both the parents, as well as some of the relatives that will also be there. I also know some of the children that will be there as well, and they are friendly with me as well. No one is looking for any problems, and all I have to do is keep from making a huge ass of myself.

This isn't some sort of new found confidence I've discovered. I honestly have no idea what to expect, but I know from meeting everybody I have so far that no one is trying to give me a hard time. If I try my best and do what I need to they will accept me. I'll win over more people simply by trying than anything else I could possibly do. It's hopefully a family thing, not a cultural thing, and I've already been fairly well accepted as far as I can tell. This makes things so much easier that any fears I had just a few weeks ago seem silly now.

Seeing as I'll be in the countryside for the next day or two, I don't think it will be possible for me to update barring some luck in locating a PC-room. I'll bring a camera and post some pictures of we do anything significantly cultural.

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