Is that a pear in your pocket ? Or....

Greetings

Ah, the smell of fall is in the air. The leaves are browning, the wind is getting colder and families are gathering to eat rice cakes and bow to their forefathers. What? You aren’t getting ready to bow to your forefathers? What about foremothers, for the feminists in the crowd? If the answer is still no, then you must not be in Korea.

Because right now Korea is crazy with Chuseok (the equivalent of Thanksgiving) and everyone is preparing to go to their hometowns, eat some rice cakes and bow like they have never bowed before.

Chuseok is one of Korea’s major celebrations and it takes place on the 15^th day of the eight lunar month (which happens to be this Friday if you aren’t up to speed on the Lunar Calendar). We became major fans of the holiday when we found out that it would mean 6 straight days off of work. It sure beats the one lousy day for Thanksgiving back home.

This is just a minor post to do two things: 1) Update you on where we will be for Chuseok, and 2) gloat about having the entire week off while you poor saps work (unless of course the person reading this is retired, then cheers to you having a vacation everyday).

When we found out about the week off we contemplated going to Thailand or Siberia but after checking our bank books we realized that we barely had enough to catch a Greyhound let alone a plane. We also realized that we had banks books. Really, who still uses bank books in 2006?

Anyway, we decided to head to Seoul for the week and we’re leaving tomorrow morning. We are going to make it a week of rollercoasters, castles, shopping, and just aimless exploring. Seoul’s one of the biggest cities in the world so it should be a good time. Luckily a friend of a friend lives in Seoul and is meeting us to show us around. We promise lots of pictures and some good stories when we get back.

Anyway, before I sign off for the week I will leave you with this wonderful picture:

Today our boss told us that she would be giving us a box of fruit as gifts for the holiday. I was expecting a few apples or maybe an orange, but not this. This fellow is a Korean pear/apple and is almost the size of Joanna's head. It's tasty as hell but is way too much pear/apple for one person. It literally weighs over a couple of pounds.


As you can see, one down and nine to go. We're going to give it our best shot and then send the rest to an orphanage somewhere where they will feed the little tykes well into puberty.

Anyway,

Cheers

Shayne (missing his share of the family turkey and gravy)