Cheusok Britches - Let's spend time with our Epik family

What is Cheusok?

Cheusok is one of the most important traditional holidays. It is to celebrate the harvest and to give thanks. Family members all get together - and it is pretty similar to 'Thanksgiving'. Read more here
During Cheusok family members all over Korea travel to visit their family - so if you are wanting to go anywhere...book transport fast before it is all full!
Gift boxes are often given as gifts to friends/family at Cheusok....my school and coteachers surprised me and Matt with some gifts....so nice <3 <3
Our school Principal also came up to check that we had plans as he didn't want us to be alone as we had no 'family' here....so nice!!

What did it mean to me?

Well it meant that I got the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off work.....so we got a five day weekend......LET'S GO ON HOLIDAY :)

So we all put out little heads together....and after a lot of changes...we finally decided that a trip to Namhae 'The Treasure Island of Korea' - would be just what we needed!!

Friday

 The coteachers got to leave early on Friday as they had to travel to visit their relatives.....so we got to leave early to...to experience the cultural holiday.

So I went shopping....bought a new backpack for my trip and started packing. Made my way downtown at around 1030....(after breaking into Sam's house to leave my bags - one of my fave things about Korea - door codes instead of keys - so they're not in and you need to get in - no problemo)

I'm late downtown...so I play catchup....always a great idea....right?! We loveeee the Ice Cream song!! The night end's with us dancing on tables in a random club that we found!!

We set around 100 alarms....as there is NO WAY that I am missing this holiday!!

Saturday

 I wake up.... I don't sleep in! Yay me!

Downside - I feel like death....this is possibly my first hangover in Korea....and now we have a nice long bus journey or two to look forward to.

We pick up Ryan...who had slept in - but managed to get all his shizzle together - even if he did split his new jeans - and make our way to Dongdaegu station to get the bus!

- First trip - Daegu - Jinju - I mainly sleep/complain about being hungover - me, Ryan, Cat and Laura in the deathseats...but we survive!

Once we get to Jinju I eat a Lotteria (mix between McDs and KFC) - and feel 100% better!

Our plan of action was then meant to be Jinju - Namhae - Our Pension - Buttttttt.......our pension provide us with a private coach that brings us all directly to our pension - which saved a chunk from our travel time.

We arrive at our Pension and the views are just AMAZING. A few people go shopping for food - and we unpack and get settled - the Pension owners come out anf give us cake and apples <3 <3

Then BBQ time <3 <3

We all go round and say what we are thankful for - and drink a lot of beer and soju - and well it all gets emotional.....good emotional though.

Me - Laura and Cat - go and hide in the boy's room to scare them - no one notices that we are gone - and we just fall asleep in their bed haha. When they come in they aren't even scared - so we give up and sleep in our own beds!

Our Pension

We stayed at the 'Rainbow Pension' and I don't think that I can get across how friendly and awesome they were! From helping us get to the hostel - to sharing their food with us - arranging taxis that we hired for the day - and just constantly having a smile on their faces <3 <3 Big love!! I would fully recommend staying there...especially in a large group....I was a bit worried about how we would get around the island....but they made our holiday stress free (Mina also helped a lot - so a special thanks to you too <3 )  

Sunday

• Boriam Temple - Awesome views <3

• Sanju Beach - Sunbathing, chicken delivered to us on the beach and Makoli.

• BBQ's and drinking - BBQ round two - drinking games and a lot of soju. Ripped tshirts and frogs in the bathroom!

Monday

• Darengi Village - Our driver stopped here for us to explore and take pictures - really pretty views!

• Songjeong Beach - This was described as a 'shy young lady' compared to Sanju beach - however I preferred this beach - we played rounders and I was buried in the sand!

• German Village - There is a small German Village designed for Korean's who moved to Germany in the 60's and then came back to Korea - so they speak German and the house are all 'German style' houses. We went in the nightime so I can't fully comment - it was the day before the Oktoberfest celebrations so we had a look around the couple of stalls that had been set up early - we ate some sausages - drank some beer - and met some 'interesting people' - 'Jesus wept' 'Someone just proposed over there, and I'm like Ohh mmyyy godddd'

• Chocolate Binge and an early night - Me, Cat and Laura - get back - eat a ridic amount of chocolate and fall into a chocolate coma.

Tuesday

• Checkout - We leave our Pension and make our way to Jinju for the lantern festival.

• Love Motel - The last bus home is at 8pm - and that would mean missing most of the festival - so we get AM buses home but then we have to find somewhere to sleep - we are in a big group - and there is a festival on. This could be difficult. We split into two smaller groups and our group finds a love motel - interesting decor and free 'movies' - but the rooms are pretty decent - and it means we have somewhere to leave our bags and go and visit the festival.





The selection of videos...yes videos.


• Lantern Festival - Possibly one of my favourite parts of Korea so far - or on par with Korea Burn. So many pretty lights and displays. We made our own wish lantern and put it down the river to make our wishes come true <3 <3

• Restaurant Meal - We have our first sit down meal that we didn't cook ourselves - and mmm it was good - but due to the amount of people - we again had to split - disadvantages of large groups - but we got an awesome spicy chicken dish!

• Grassy Knoll - We then find a grassy knoll haha - to sit on and have a couple of drinks and have a few chats - we are in a big group - westerners - wearing flashing ears - so we get our photos taken quite a lot - and we felt like one of the lanterns haha!

Wednesday

Let's go back to Daegu - I am at school on Thursday - but have no kids - so a relaxed day - then I am off school on Friday - this week has not been bad at all!!

Favourite Quotes/Memories

Namhae Britches (gotta love autocorrect)
Chu-socks (How Punny)
Whatever happens, happens
Why is sand?
Moderate loving coming your way (Thanks Cat for sending that to EVERY guy on my Kakao)
Handwater
Would you rather................
23......23?.....I think it's 23

Massage giving spiderman on a quad bike

Banana boat - you're doing it wrong
NV, NV, BV, BV
Pokemon singsong

Basically I had a really good holiday - and it's a strange feeling to realise that you have become this close to people you have only known a month, but it really did feel like we were a little family (ok, not so little) on holiday together - and I would like to thank everyone for making my Cheusok so special......and I would like to give my thanks to all the little pieces that came together than resulted in me coming to Korea.....this could be my honeymoon period......but I'm actually ridiculously happy at the minute! Ok, I will stop with the over loving.