Thanksgiving Feast

It always difficult to be away from home for the holidays.  But I am so lucky to have the Fulbright family to rely upon.  On Saturday, November 19th, the Fulbright office hosted an early Thanksgiving dinner for all the grantees.  That morning, we took the KTX to Seoul and immediately headed to Hongdae to check into our hostel for the evening.  Although we made reservations in advance, we learned, upon arriving, that the hostel had overbooked its rooms, our beds were already taken, and it would be nearly impossible to find another place - the reason being that it was the weekend of Super Junior's big 2-day concert tour.  Cue panic and stress!  Eventually after some phone calls and negotiation, the hostel owner offered us a private double room at a heavily discounted price.  Whewwww, somehow it always works out.

After regaining our composure and freshening up, we hopped in a cab and headed to the National Folk Museum, our venue for the evening.  It's the most visited museum in Korea and located in the middle of the Gyeongbokgung Palace complex.  When we arrived, the museum was closing for the day and all the tourists were heading out of the building.  It was pretty cool to walk in against the crowd and enjoy the place to ourselves.  We started off the evening with a private tour of the galleries.  Then we sat down and listened to speeches by Mrs. Shim, the head of the Korean-American Educational Commission; Sung Y. Kim, the new U.S. Ambassador to Korea; and Mr. Cheon, the director of the National Folk Museum.

It was such an honor to meet the new ambassador.  The former ambassador, Kathleen Stevens, who we met during our last all-group visit to Seoul, finished her tenure a little over a month ago and Sung Y. Kim was sworn in as her replacement.  In addition to his distinguished career in foreign service, Ambassador Kim is notable because he is the first Korean-American to serve in this position.  Aside from an informal statement that he made at the airport upon landing, this was technically his first public appearance in Korea.  In his speech, he applauded us for exemplifying the people-to-people ties that are needed to continue strengthening the U.S.-Korea alliance.  To learn more about him, read his biography on the State Department website: Meet the Ambassador.

Following the speeches, we listened to live performances of traditional Korean folk music.  The singers and musicians were all so talented.  Then, they taught us how to sing a famous folk song Arirang.  After the lesson, they asked for volunteers to sing the song and the guys from the Orientation team over the summer stepped up to the plate.  I'm so glad that I captured it on film! ^^

By this point the evening, we were starving.  The Thanksgiving feast, itself, was probably the highlight of the evening.  You don't realize how much you miss Western food, until you smell the savory aroma of turkey in the air.  It was like a stampede of wild, carnivorous animals running towards that buffet table.  All of us shamelessly filled our plates with mountains of salad, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pasta, steamed veggies, cranberry sauce, and of course, turkey.  For dessert, they had 3 types of pie: pumpkin, apple, and cherry.  It was an incredibly meal.  I was in heaven.

It was so nice to share this meal with my Fulbright friends.  For this grant year, they are my de facto family - slightly dysfunctional but highly loveable.  I simply don't know what I'd do without them.  I'm really blessed to have met them all.

Us, with the Horn of Plenty

With Morrow, my unplanned color-coordinated buddy

So much Fulbright Love

The only thing missing from this holiday was my family.  This Thanksgiving, I have so much to be thankful for.  I am thankful for the opportunity to live abroad and reconnect to my cultural roots.  I am thankful for my loving host family and the truly amazing people that I have met in Korea.  I am thankful for my awesome city and my wonderful school.  I am thankful for all the helpful teachers and my hilarious students, who always put a smile on my face and make my job feel extremely worthwhile.  Most importantly, I am thankful for the opportunity to have an impact larger than myself and learn more about myself, in return.