Thanksgiving Day was just another day here in Korea. We all worked in the office from 8:30-6, and I came home and baked some sweet potatoes for dinner. What I looked forward to all week, however, was the Thanksgiving dinner in Ichon coming up that Saturday night (November 24). I would be meeting up with some friends there, and we would be fed a traditional dinner by some foreign church members. An added bonus to the weekend was that my friend Sarah had no weekend responsibilities, so she came to visit me on Saturday, and we headed over to the dinner together that evening.
Right after we got off the subway, we ran into Kecha, a member of our orientation group, and an older couple that we had met somewhere before . . . None of us really knew where to go to get to the banquet hall. We walked for a while until Kecha got a phone call and had to go back to the subway station to meet a friend. Then I called the lady in charge and asked for directions. We found that we needed to turn around and go back the other way, so as Sarah and I started back, the man turned to join us, but his wife had other plans. Sarah and I were fascinated with them from the very beginning when the woman refused to take the escalator that her husband wanted to take out of the subway station, and she went to take the elevator alone. Now when we began to walk, she nearly got on a bus without him, and he had to run to catch up with her. We didn't actually see what happened with that, but they arrived at the banquet hall significantly later than we did. Sarah made me laugh when she said, "You can tell who wears the pants in that family." Haha. The woman wasn't mad at him or anything. She just took charge in every situation.
Anyway, the evening was great. The dinner turned out to be for all of the foreign teachers within our organization, so I met a lot of new people and found some old friends as well, like Kecha and Joy. The meal wasn't the best Thanksgiving dinner ever, but for Korea, it was awesome! I have never been so excited to see familiar foods. The room was decorated beautifully, and the atmosphere was incredible. It truly was one of the best Thanksgivings I've ever experienced. I felt like, for a few hours, I was back at home in the States with one big happy family since all of us are really united through the same experience.
 |
| Melissa, Kecha, Joy, and Sarah |
 |
| Homemade pumpkin cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake, and carrot bread |
That looks lovely. I'm glad you had fun. That lady and her husband were certainly interesting.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's so nice you were able to have a Thanksgiving Dinner with other foreign teachers. It must have been for all the foreign teachers in the Seoul area, because we never heard about that happening last year (or maybe it was a new event this year). Anyway, it must have been great to eat some home food again!
ReplyDelete