Chuseok

This weekend is Chuseok, a major harvest festival in Korea like Thanksgiving. Many Koreans travel to their hometowns to honour their ancestors in special ceremonies and to share a traditional meal together. These are songpyeon or traditional rice cakes. One of the staff here made some on Friday--they were delicious!

There are very few students or staff here at UBE and Kukakwan and the cafeteria is closed. One of the staff and I went for lunch in Cheonan and I did some shopping for food at E-mart. E-mart, like many stores, was selling special giftsets of food or other products for Chuseok and many of the employees were wearing the traditional Korean hanbok. This lady said, "Kimchi!" when I took her picture.


I got a sense of just how many Koreans travel when, last night, I tried to get back to UBE from Seoul where I take Korean class.

My class usually finishes at 9 pm (last night around 8:45) and I take a city bus to the Express Bus Terminal. The busride to the terminal was the first indication that there was a lot of traffic.The busride normally takes about 20 minutes (and this is in heavy traffic) but last night, it took about an hour.

When I got to the bus terminal, the clerk said there were no more bus tickets to Cheonan. There was a man scalping bus tickets to Cheonan for 10,000 won (normally 4,500 won). I was shocked that he was selling bus tickets at more than double the price. I laughed, shook my head, and like a crazy foreigner started talking in English (mostly to myself since no one else was listening) saying, "I can't believe he's selling tickets at a higher price--that's unfair".

Several options came to mind. I thought about calling someone to see if I could stay in Seoul but by this time, I just wanted to get back to UBE. I also thought about getting to the train station and trying to catch a train but I had never taken the train before and didn't think the chances of getting a train ticket were any better. I also considered staying at the bus station all night and getting a bus in the morning but that didn't seem like the best option.

So, I asked the man who was scalping bus tickets if he had a ticket to Cheonan. He had just sold the one he offered me (for 10:00 pm). About two minutes later, though, he offered me another ticket for the 10:40 pm bus. I paid him the money, still muttering to myself about how unfair and crazy this was.

Wow! What a good opportunity to watch myself. The buses were all running late because of the traffic in and out of Seoul and Cheonan so I had a long time to sit and wait, along with throngs of people, and reflect on myself. I began to be thankful for the man who was selling bus tickets for a higher price. He was my ticket back to Cheonan. I felt all the anger melt away and I started to laugh at the way I had reacted.

I managed to get on the 10:10 bus (if you wait in line and there are extra seats, you can use your ticket on an earlier bus), which left the terminal at 11:20. The busride back to Cheonan took 2 hours and 20 minutes (with no traffic, usually an hour) and after taking a taxi to UBE, I arrived at the dormitory at 2 am. The moon was full, the air was clear, and the mountains were like big shadows. I arrived back at UBE happy and thankful for meeting someone who had given me a ticket to seeing myself. Next time, I'll try negotiating for a better price.