korea family TAG
Aside from my short solo stint in Seoul, my time in Korea was devoted to family. I have a cousin in Taegu (also spelled Daegu) and a cousin in Andong and together with my cousin’s son (my nephew?) we went to Gangwon to ski, hence the TAG in the title of this post.
My cousin in Taegu picked me up from my hotel in Seoul. It was nice of her, I could have just as easily taken the train from Seoul to Taegu, but she insisted on picking me up. After a night in Taegu we went to Andong, where her parents and brother live. From there we picked up her brother and went to the High1 ski resort in Gangwon where we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Her son is kind of a spoiled brat in my opinion, but he’s cute and lovable in his own way. He actually kind of reminds me and my bro when we were young. We were pretty much spoiled brats too, but I’d argue that we both turned out okay.
On our way back from Gangwon we stopped at a few of the tourist sites in the province. One of them was an old gold mine that was turned into some sort of tourist trap.
We stopped for lunch at one of the markets in Jungseon, a small town in Gangwon province. It’s interesting how the different markets in Korea have different food specialties. Here the specialty is rice cooked with a mountain vegetable called gonduhrae. We looked it up, apparently there’s no English translation for it, and apparently it’s related to thistle.
The market in Andong is famous for Andong steamed chicken. There are tons of stalls in the market that specialize in this dish.
The graves for many of my ancestors are in Andong, so my uncle took me to the hillside where they are buried so that I could pay my respects.
They told me to bring alcohol and newspaper. The alcohol I understood, since we pour alcohol on the graves (it’s not unlike pouring one for our homies here). The newspaper I didn’t understand until I got to the graves and found them surrounded by snow. It was for me to spread on the ground while I bowed with my knees on the newspaper to prevent my pants from getting wet.
My uncle took me to another hillside so I can get a view of the town. We brought along Turbo, my cousin’s dog.
One major regret is not taking a family photo in Andong. It’s been almost twenty years since I had last seen them. But even though it’s been twenty years, they haven’t changed much from how I remember them. To them apparently I’ve changed a lot though, from looking more like my little nephew to looking more like my dad looked before he left Andong. Hopefully it won’t be another twenty years before I see them again, I’ve resolved to try and go to Korea more often to see my family there, and for sure next time I’ll take a family photo.
