Lunar New Year: Hanging out with the Family

We went to the countryside to hang out with the family for Lunar New Year. It was very similar to the Chuseok I spent with my wife's family. We first went to her father's side house to see the paternal grandfather. We bowed, wished him good health, then ate the most delicious rice cake soup I've ever had. I got called a "monster" by one of the unruly children. Nice.

From there we left to go to Bueyo where my wife's maternal grandmother lives. She's a tough old woman living alone in the countryside. We arrived and did oursae-bae, or bowing to elders on New Years Day. You get money for this if you are bowing, and give money if bowed to. Luckily no one bowed to us.

Since we were the newest couple, everyone wanted to see our wedding pictures and hassle us about childbearing responsibilities. We held our resolve and greeted everyone kindly. I was much less nervous this time around, since I was already in the family, this being the third meeting since I first met most of the family.

I got to meet two of my relatives, which only leaves one unaccounted for that I have yet to meet. The two I met this time around were my wife's cousins, which makes them relatives by marriage. I'm not sure what the English term would be. Cousin by marriage? Cousin-in-law? One of them was a week away from finishing his mandatory military service as an Military Policeman. He told us that his unit found a dead North Korean soldier in the river once. It had been decapitated. He was younger than I was by a few years, but was very nice. He wanted to try to speak English with me, which led to a few confusing, but fun conversations.

Once we got into the house everyone changed into comfortable clothes and sort of just lounged around. Everyone except the women, that is, who worked in the kitchen far too hard. I hung out with the cousins I teach. They did well translating for some of the other cousins that don't study English at all. We played Jenga (Non-verbal games with unlimited numbers of players, perfect) and I taught them how to thumb-wrestle. One of my ambidextrous cousins could beat me left handed every time. I showed them Electroplankton and they totally got down making music with the touch screen on my Nintendo DS.

We watched Korea beat Croatia in soccer, then ate. I talked to more relatives, then went to sleep. My wife and I got our own room. I don't know why we were spared having to squeeze into a room with five other people like everyone else, but it was better than last year when I didn't sleep a wink. I still couldn't sleep well, but it wasn't because of wiggling cousins or snoring uncles.

We got an early start this morning. Everyone was up by 8 am and we were eating a huge breakfast, (which was the same as our dinner) by 9 am. We then packed up a bunch of food, then headed back into our city. We had dinner at a mushroom restaurant and I was interrogated by the oldest uncle to the family about our current plans and when we planned to go back to the States. They happened to be of the opinion "Eh, just stay here. You seem to like it."

After dinner the family further split up. I was taken to my wife's grandfather's sister-in-law. She was a very old woman. She married, then had her husband forcibly drafted (AKA KIDNAPPED) into the Japanese army. He died fighting somewhere for the Japanese, and she never remarried. The poor woman doesn't have much family left, and she's a bit senile. We met her and she was absolutely clueless as to who we were. She had to get an explanation a few times for why this weird looking foreign guy in a suit was sitting on her couch. Seems my mother-in-law grew up in this woman's household for a while, but this woman couldn't remember anything. Eventually some very distant uncles arrived, we bowed some more, then left. We showed the maternal grandmother our house, which she liked very much, then were left to our own devices at home.

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