Happy [Korean] Thanksgiving!

Thursday afternoon, Gwen, Samson and I set off for Chunyang, the small village out in the country where Samson was born. We arrived after dark, and went to Samson's mother's house for a very yummy dinner. (His mom uses only all-natural ingredients, and the food was incredibly fresh and delicious.)

Samson and Gwen introduce Songgi (their dog) to their niece.
This was the cue part... before the niece decided she wasn't afraid
of the dog and started terrorizing her.

After dinner we went out for drinks with Samson's childhood friends, and then checked into a motel for the evening. (Well, Gwen and I stayed at the motel, while Samson stayed at his mom's house.) In the morning, we - as well as something like ten other relatives - gathered at Samson's mom's house for Chuseok breakfast. First they set out a special set of plates and bowls of food, then Bibles and hymnals were brought out, and everyone (well, other than Gwen and me) prayed for their ancestors. It was definitely an interesting mix of traditions. Then the ancestors' food was cleared away and new dishes were brought out for the living to partake of. Again -very delicious, all-natural food.

Gwen and Samson, Chuseok breakfast

After breakfast, Gwen, Samson and I went up to an apple farm owned by the parents of one of his friends, where we snagged a huge crate-full of apples which we wedged into Gwen's little Matiz. The views from the apple farm (as well as the views on the way to and from said farm) were spectacular.

The countryside was so beautiful.


Up at the apple farm


Me.

Later in the afternoon, we met up with several of Samson's friends along the bank of a river. Samson fished with a net (and actually caught fish!) while his friends cooked pork on a homemade oven/grill made out of stones from the riverbed.

Samson fishing.


One of the fish he caught.


The stone grill


They cooked the fish on it too.

The next day we took back roads out of Chunyang towards Andong. At one point we wound up (and then down) a road labeled with signs proclaiming it to be "Mysterious Road" - um, okay. The only thing mysterious about the road were the signs! But the views were incredible.

How mysterious....

We stopped at Dosanseowan (Dosan Academy) [wikipedia], a Confucian academy founded in 1574, and explored and took pictures, then headed down into Andong where we stopped at the Korean Maskdance Festival [info] [website] for food and some glimpses of very strange masks.

Dosan Academy


View from Dosan Academy


This was what was on top of that distant island/hillock


Masks!!


Write a wish and tie it on...
at the end of the festival, this all goes up in flames!