For those of you who don’t know what Chuseok is, it’s Korean Thanksgiving, and a time to celebrate the year’s harvest. I wrote about it here.
For people in Korea, today’s the last day of work until a sweet five-day break! Wednesday through Friday is the Korean Chuseok holiday. It’s a busy time for many Korean families as they travel to relatives’ homes, prepare food, and all the other general stuff that comes with holidays.
As teachers, that means we have a long break to rest, meet friends, travel, or do whatever we want. Basically it’s some time to ourselves without having to plan lessons, deal with unruly kids, overbearing parents, or administrators. It’s common for people to give gifts to their employees, family members, and friends over the holiday. This year, my co-teachers and I received a SPAM gift set.
While I appreciate the gift, it’s just kind of funny that SPAM is considered sort of like a “luxury gift” in Korea, whereas in other countries (such as the US), SPAM is like the fruitcake of canned meat. Nobody wants it. In reality, SPAM isn’t that bad if you have it as part of an omelette or with scrambled eggs. haha! Anyway…
To all the teachers here in Korea, I wish you all a happy and safe holiday!
Take care,
-Ketan
