Chuseok - Korean Thanksgiving

Our mission celebrated Chuseok (Korean: 추석) in September.  All the missionaries came together for the first time since the mission was organized in July.  I purchased a traditional Korean dress, a hanbok, and wore it for the occasion. 

It was fun to dress up for the occasion.  Some of the other sisters had them to wear also.

We had traditional Korean food and it was very good.  All the missionaries had a good time being together for the holiday.  It is actually 3 days long.  My understanding from talking with Korean friends is that they honor their ancestors by having a feast, going to the cemetery and cleaning the site and being with family.  Some said they just eat traditional foods for 3 days.

The missionaries went to a park for a while and then came back for a talent show.  It was a lot of fun to see all the talented young people and some fun skits.  

Delicious Korean food

Hungry elders

Food Table and Sisters

Elder and Sister Groesbeck

This is Elder Champion with his cup of Roasted Silk Worm Larva.  I was told they taste as bad as they smell. 

Here we are at Yeouido Park.  It was nice to be by the Han River and walk in the park

You can see some of Seoul on the north side of the Han River.  Lots of people were enjoying the nice September weather and cooling off in the water.

Seoul has wonderful architecture all  through the city.  There is a variety of shapes and sizes. 

                                                              This is one of many sculptures that are in
                                                              abundance through out the city

This is a picture of half of our missionaries at a mission tour by Elder Ringwood, our area President. He was a mission president of the Korea Seoul West Mission back in the 80's.  He is in the middle with the red tie.  His wife is the daughter of Elder Nelson. We are not in the picture because we are the photographers. 

This hydroponic garden was in one of the subway stations.  The subway stations are very clean and have a variety of stores to shop to and from your work or errands.

 We have been attending outdoor cultural events on our P-day, or day off from office work.  This is a traditional Korean Mask Play.

We really enjoy the colorful dresses of the women. The dances are graceful and lovely.

 Lotte World.  It is a big amusement park and the Koreans refer to it as the Disneyland of Korea.  We did not buy an admission but just walked around to see the castle and some of the rides. There is also a huge indoor section to see sometime in the future.  Maybe in winter when you cannot do much outside. 

Lotte Tower-- this is the beginning stages of what will be the largest building in Asia.  It will be 128 stories tall.   It is now 40 stories tall.

It will be an imposing structure and visible from all over Seoul.  We live about a 40 minute walk from this area of Songpa.  There is a very large Lotte Department Store, Grocery Store, Ice Skating Rink, and many other stores. We take the Subway to the Jamsil Station and you have your choice of 11 different exits to different parts of that area.  We have also learned to take the bus there which is closer to our apartment and shorter time than the Subway. 

The area is full of things to see and do.  We have enjoyed getting around on the Subway not only to look for missionary apartments but also to see the sights of Seoul.