Soul Food Night

What is the use of being on vacation if you are going to wake up early? I was so excited to have this week off and I was certain that I would sleep in. Well, sleeping in has been 6:30am. I don't even wake up that early on a regular day...yes, it is early for me!

Today a few friends are coming over for soul food night. I am really excited. One of my friends found collards!!! SWEET! Me and Vahid were talking about wishing that we had ovens to make sweet potato pie. Now, that would have been HEAVEN!!!

So here is the menu: rice, mashed potatoes, fried chicken, flat bread(no oven no biscuits :( ), collard greens, mixed greens, fruit salad, banana pudding...for the life of me I tried to find black eyed peas and had no luck! Oh yeah, sweet tea!!!

You should have seen me at the grocery store trying to figure out if they had hamhocks!!! The last time I made collards here a friend got everything from teh base so I never really paid attention in the store. I tried asking a guy behind the counter if they had salted pork...I actually went to look for a packet of salt..."salt and duegee gogi gachi?" ..."upseyo"...after calling my sister Sopia who talked to her mom, I found out that they don't have any cured meat here...well, not in the regular stores. So I am going to have to be creative about the collards and I hate being creative when I haven't tasted it first.

It is Chusuk now which is the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving. We don't usually get the week off but we got lucky this year! It is probably one of the most heavily travelled vacations in Korea. Families drive out of the city to the countryside to be with grandparents. There is a ceremony that involves alot of bowing and it is to honor the family's male ancestors. Then all of the younger people bow to the elders according to age. It starts with the oldest elder then works its way down to the youngest elder. The children and young adults do alot of bowing. It is pretty cool.

Korea is a very small country and it only takes about 6 hours or so to get from the northern point, Seoul to the southern point, Busan. During Chusuk I have heard of it taking 17hrs!!! Imagine millions of people trying to leave the city. The lucky people are on the trains. That is the best way to travel this time of year.

So it is only proper that on the very day that our Korean sisters and brothers are chillin with their families, I would be chillin with my "family".