Photos from my weekend 9/24/06

After we finished cutting the grass on all the graves; Mr.Hyun's family and I went out to eat at a restaurant in the nearby town of Pyeoson.


This is a Korean specialty called Kalbi, it cooks at your table and it is always served, like most Korean meals, with a bunch of side dishes.


Here are two of the finished graves after the grass has been cut.


Everyone works together, one person with a gas powered hedge cutter, and the rest of us clear the grass away and use small machetes to hack the weeds and grass down.


This morning my co-teacher Mr. Hyun picked me up at 5:00am to head for the east side of Jeju Island where his family is from. The road was full of cars headed out of the city to cut the grass on their ancestors traditional graves. Traditionally all the men in the family go once a year on this day, which is two Sundays before Chusok, Korea's Thanksgiving.


Mr. Hyun's family cuts about 15 graves, but everyone starts off in about four different teams and we moved from grave to grave cutting the grass in and around the burial plots of his ancestors. Eventually everyone ends at the same grave and once that one is cut, we all headed to a restaurant to eat together.


This is Pyeoson, which is the name of a small town on the east side of the island, where Mr. Hyun is from.


Friday night I met up with my friend Jeehee, a young teacher from my school. She is very very nice and I am sure that we are going to be great friends. Jeehee is actually 35 years old even though she looks about half that age.