happy 추석:chuseok

추석:chuseok, korea's thanksgiving day, is a day to celebrate a plentiful harvest. traditionally, on this day, korean families gather to pay respects to those who've passed away by visiting their ancestral hometowns--hence the heavy traffic--and celebrating the bounty of food by, well, eating it!

in the olden days, traditional korean rice cakes:떡 (dduhk) which are filled with a sweet mixture of sugar and sesame seeds were homemade. nowadays, traditions are made a bit easier as many buy already packaged rice cake goodies, some much better than what they could prepare on their own.

for the chuseok weekend, i visited some of my relatives and relished my time away from work. i must admit though, that my brain actually hurts, albeit, in the best way possible, from concentrating in korean.

my aunt fell asleep after lunch and we snuck a picture!

from left to right:
my cousin, his daughter, his wife, my aunt, my other cousin's husband

my cousin once removed and me: