Grave Management, Temples and Baseball Games

I have pictures :)

Ok actually apparently Blogger doesn't want to upload my photos SO I have added the URL of my facebook album and changed it to everyone so even if you don't have a facebook you should still be able to see it: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2090893512658.2103298.1254840026&type=1

Let's go through the day (3 parts)

I. Grave Management

At 8am I woke up for breakfast after a night of drinking with my sister and co. I only had a slight headache when I sat up so we were good to go there, I walked downstairs to get breakfast with the family and saw that there were boxes of food and lawn upkeep tools by the door and no breakfast. Ohma said something to me so I nodded and smiled and walked away (it had something to do with breakfast I don't know) so I took this time to change into some normal clothes not knowing if I had time to take a shower or not but my sister had just gotten out of the shower so I decided to just put on clean clothes I had no idea what I would be doing so I chose shorts and a nicer t-shirt. Sol came in to tell me breakfast was ready so I went downstairs where we had breakfast as usual then I helped Ohbba pack the car (btw this english spelling of Korean words can be completely wrong I'm just typing it as it sounds). My sister last night had said something about us sleeping in the car so when we got in the car I stayed awake for a while as we drove through the city but Ohbba kept telling me I looked tired and I was encouraged to sleep soooooooooo I did.

I woke up a couple times during the TWO HOUR CAR RIDE to the middle of nowhere, South Korea and to find myself in a small town, the middle of rice fields then curving through a mountain. Each time I was like, we have to be there soon... right? The mountain part was making me a little car sick so I went back to bed then woke up as the car stopped behind two other cars, on the side of a narrow dirt road, on the side of a mountain, in front of a field growing something that wasn't corn or rice or tomatoes. We unpacked the car and I could faintly hear voices coming from somewhere behind the field so we started walking towards it, I looked for a path and saw nothing but a mudslide which my mother started charging up. Let me tell you something, I was wearing flip flops but then was told to change into rainboots and it is a miracle that I didn't fall on my face into the mud because there was NO traction. A short walk around a the field and a turn around some bushes and we came across 3 mounds in the earth and 4 Koreans raking up grass. They turned out to be the brother of my dad, his wife, and my dad's aunt. Their reaction to me ranged from not caring to excitement. Jihyea and I were told to essentially go sit up on a hill somewhere (which we did) and were then attacked by bugs. Sol was trimming some bushes then came and we played cards. More and more relatives arrived to help with "Grave Management". It was funny because when we first got there I thought the uncle had been smoking then in an attempt to hide it threw the cigarettes onto the grave but it turns out that they were for grandpa, and G Grandpa and G grandma.

After everyone had gotten there and the graves had been managed some of the aunts put food out in front of the Great Grandparents. The men all then went and bowed to them a couple times. I then had to go up with the women and do the same thing.... kind of awkward because I don't think Grandma liked that very much.

We did the same thing in front of Grandpa's grave this time my dad took pictures (see facebook!!) After all the bowing we went to the top of the graves and ate... a lot. as per usual. While eating one of the cousins threw a FIT. I don't know what it was over but he was screaming and crying and threw a frozen water bottle which tipped over and started spilling on the mats... My mom gave him a death glare which was really funny for me but his parent's didn't really do anything... actually they for real didn't do anything. THIS MOMENT I realized how lucky I was to have the family that I have. Some of the ETAs have talked about their spoiled siblings and I cannot imagine living a year with this kid. After we ate the boy cousins and Sol went down to the cars and Jihyea and I followed. We stayed there until the older relatives started coming down with boxes but when I asked if we should help Jihyea shook her head so I just tried to help load cars.

My dad told me we were going to an aunts apartment for an hour so we did that which was nice because I got to see what the inside of an apartment looked like. My dad was amazed at their wine selection and how much clothes they had. At the apartment I ate (and then drank, VERY sloppily, as in spilt it all over myself) black garlic. I guess it wasn't that bad for eating it raw then drinking it... I don't know. They said it was good for me and I have this chronic cough in Korea that I'm trying to get rid of so I did it. I also got to eat chocolate and walnuts though so that was nice. My family then told the relatives we had an appointment (this word is gold here, if you have an appointment everyone understands). They were given loads of food and then we packed into the car for our next stop which turned out to be...

II. Temple!!

A thousand year old temple!! We stopped the car and I was like... this isn't home... dad told me to bring my camera and I was asked if I knew about temples. I told them I took a buddhism class but I don't think they cared but they DID want to show me the temple. My dad was joking that we were doing it Korean Style, (the way he likes his coffee too) where we go in see it then leave. That's basically exactly what we did. That and take pictures. haha but I was glad because we had our first Korean family photo! Actually my other brother wasn't there but I don't know him yet.

After pointing out some flowers and another statue we piled into the car for our final destination.

III. Baseball Game Hanwha Eagles vs. Samsung Lions

Jihyea, Sol and I got out of the car at the baseball stadium, tigers hats on and met up with Juyoung and a new friend who I actually don't remember his name. We bought some chicken then went into the stadium to find that there were NO SEATS. Literally. People were sitting on the ground and on the steps so we went with it and sat down on the steps right by the batter and it was great! The Eagles were the home team and losing until the last inning when they got to runs and we beat the lions! yay! That was a nice end of the game except then it started RAINING. which sucked. Especially when you have a cough. So at 11pm we all got into the car, dropped the friends off then went home. When we got home my dad informed me that I get to sleep in until whenever I want which turned out to be 11:30am :) solid.

So that was my yesterday.

Today not much has happened except as I was typing this a woman I don't know came up to my room and gave me trailmix. RANDOM.

Dan and I are also going to try to find downtown today so we'll see how THAT goes.

Look at the photos!!