You Like Ham?

This upcoming week is Chuseok, an American equivalent of Thanksgiving, at least that's what I've been told. From what I understand, it used to be a time to help with harvest and everyone would return to their parents or grandparents house and lend an extra hand during harvest season. Now, at lot of the kids in my class said they just go hang out with the grandparents and they love Chuseok because they get pocket money (anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 won or $50 to $100). It being the holiday, my employer was kind enough to get me a nice neat package.

(Sweet bag I can use on shopping trips that the box of meat came in)

Inside the package was two loaves of ham. I don't know if loaf is the proper term to describe ham or if that is even correct. Also, I got two pork rolls, another funny description for meat, as well as a pickle mustard sauce. The highlight of the package, besides the bag it came in, was the mini freezer pack I can use on my camping trip this upcoming week. I have off this Saturday until the following Thursday, go back to work Friday, then have the weekend off. Unfortunately, Katrina only has off Tuesday through Thursday; however, we are going with a group of friends and people we have met before to an island close to Incheon - Deokjeok. Jonathan, a fellow coworker at Avalon, and I are going to head up Monday to set up our tents and scope out the island.

(Regular ham, Peppercorn Ham, Two Rolls of Pork, Pickled Mustard Sauce all inside a sweet Box. Happy Chuseok!)

Almost forgot, I was in the men's lavatory and the principal of my school walked in. We have had a few conversations, if you can call an exchange of hellos and a few simple questions conversation. Anyway, he came in, I said, "Chuseok, gift," and used my hands to make a box shape, "Kamsamnida" (Korean for thank you although my spelling is probably off). He said, "Ne" which is yes or you're welcome. A few moments passed and I was headed out the door, when he turned to me and asked, "You like ham?" I replied with another of the few Korean phrases I know, "Mashisoyo" or delicious. He just laughed and I walked out the door. Oh the simple things in life.

Speaking of the simple things in life, Wednesday after work, Jonathan, the same guy I'm going to Deokjeok with, took me back to Yeongtong so I could spend the night with Katrina. You might be wondering how he took me? Or not. Nevertheless, I got to ride on a motorcycle. Loved it! That's about all I can say. I want a motorcycle. It was awesome, the wind in your hair, the open feeling, awesome. I think we reached about 120 km/h at one point, which was a little too fast for my liking, but I still had a great time for the 20 minutes I was on the motorcycle. Who knows, Christmas is right around the corner...