Chuseok Celebrations

I just had my one-month anniversary of living in Gangwon-do last week! A couple weeks before that, during the Chuseok holiday, some friends and I explored our city for the first time since moving there. For those that don’t know, Chuseok (추석) literally means “Autumn Eve” and is the Korean equivalent of American Thanksgiving. Koreans usually visit their family during this time, make songpyeon (rice cakes with yummy insides), and visit their ancestors’ graves.

For my pre-Chuseok celebration, a group of EPIK teachers and I went to the lighthouse in our city and poked around for a bit. Near the lighthouse, there’s a small house where a Korean drama scene was shot (Goblin for those interested). We walked around the city for a bit near the ocean and made our way to the cave, which was probably my favorite part! I just adore caves. This one was nice and cool inside, a nice break from the warm, humid air outside. In order to enter the cave, we had to wear hard helmets and thank goodness we did, because I bumped my head against the rocks a few times and it would have hurt otherwise! The cave was super cool (literally and otherwise), because there were times we had to bend down and walk hunched over, or squeeze around parts of the cave that stuck out in our path. I didn’t have as much trouble with the bending-down areas thanks to my short height, but some of my friends were not as lucky.

After the cave, we relaxed for the rest of the day and I grew more fond of where I live.

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Seoul… As BTS’ leader, RM, famously said,

사랑과 미움이 같은 말이면 (If love and hate are the same words)

I love you Seoul

사랑과 미움이 같은 말이면 (If love and hate are the same words)

I hate you Seoul

On Chuseok day, five of us EPIK teachers took a trip to Seoul to hit up the BT21 store and explore the city. Our first stop was Hongdae. Despite our carefully planned out schedule (lol), we did away with that when we realized we were all starving upon arriving in Seoul. I ate Indian food for the first time since landing in Korea, and it was a nice change of menu. Once our bellies were full, we headed towards the the lovely, the fantastic, the beautiful BT21 Line store! Basically that’s what this trip was. Shopping for BT21 merchandise. And I have no regrets about it! BT21 are characters designed by the members of BTS, that have an extremely large selection of goods to buy, from clothing to cute mugs to soap trays. Boy, do they have some cute merchandise!

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This specific cafe was celebrating one of the BTS member’s birthday, RM. It was adorable! I loved the vibe of the cafe; it was aesthetically pleasing, and the cafe workers were super sweet. They gave us 6 extra RM-themed cup holders for the birthday celebration. It was also very relaxing to just sit, sip coffee and eat some tart cake!

Our second stop of the day was Myeong-dong for the Lotte Duty Free Star Avenue. I’m not completely sure what all this place held as we were only there for one thing: seeing the BTS handprints. At their spot, you could place your hand in the BTS members’ handprints! So happy there are so many BTS-dedicated places in Seoul.

Our last stop in Seoul was Itaewon. We hit up our third LINE store of the day where I bought a cute BT21 plushie (as you will soon come to learn, I adore all soft, cuddly things) to add to my collection. We did a little more shopping, ate dinner, then headed home to Gangwon.

Seoul was fun and I enjoyed the adventure, especially the cute cafe celebrating RM’s birthday. However, I am so thankful to be living in my smaller city. Seeing Seoul was exciting and I would definitely go again, but the amount of people present, despite the ‘smaller’ numbers due to Chuseok, made me realize I could never live in a city that big. Despite the language barrier and the changing scenery, Gangwon is slowly becoming a place of solace for me in this crazy, new adventure of mine.

Any recommendations on where I should go next in South Korea or neighboring countries? Let me know!