Busy Busy Busy!

It's 추석 (Chuseok) weekend here in Korea which means I finally have some time off! Chuseok is like the Korean version of Thanksgiving and we celebrated it yesterday. First all of my host dad's family came over to our apartment and we set up this traditional table and bowed to the ancestors. After that we ate a ton of food and I hung out with all my host cousins and we went out bowling together.

Then in the early afternoon we headed over to my host mom's hometown,대부도 (Daebu-do) which was about an hour's drive away. There we hung out, watched tv with the cousins, harvested some sweet potatoes, and ate a ton of food. I tried octopus and crab, though I drew the line at eating octopus heads. After dinner we played a traditional Korean game, which everyone got very intense about! I didn't really follow what was going on, I just threw the sticks when it was asked of me haha. We watched some of Gag Concert on TV and then headed home. I was completely exhausted and slept like a log last night!

Today I climbed a mountain with my host family! Wow it was tiring I'm so out of shape...and I also have a cold right now so that probably didn't help. But getting to the summit and seeing the amazing view was worth it. After we came back down we had a delicious lunch and then I slept until dinner time and now I'm chilling out with my family.

School has been going well! I've done 3 full weeks of school and and I'm so happy with the class I'm placed with, they're so great. There are days when I just feel kind of grumpy and down, but that's a normal part of culture shock. And the fact that I'm not a morning person and I have to get up at 6am here probably doesn't help. I usually feel better after eating lunch on those days. I've been venturing away from my sister's side at school and socializing by myself, which feels good. And Korean class is going great, we're learning so much and we're getting ready for the TOPIK exam at the end of October. We've been doing debates on things like abortion and welfare in Korean, which is incredibly challenging but fun. I want to share everything that I've been doing since I have it all written down in my journal, but putting it here would take way too long! Maybe someday if I get the motivation...

Until next time! Sorry I haven't been updating as regularly as I thought I would be able to.