Wally in Real Life: A Very Korean Thanksgiving... or two.

Since Thanksgiving was last weekend, a bunch of the Incheon English teachers from August EPIK program (sometimes aptly titled the Incheon family) got together and celebrated by having a feast of sorts at Bennigans. Now, Bennigans, as you may well know is all but out of business in the United States. However, Korea is probably single-handedly keeping Bennigans afloat via their financial support of this American "institution." Now, they don't have a whole lot of turkey (think a club sandwich with turkey on it), but they DO have pumpkin soup and mashed potatoes. Unfortunately, no gravy and no pumpkin pie. However, given the circumstances it will do. It was super fun and a big group of about 15 of us rolled into Bennigans and had a great time! I ate to my heart's content (chicken and green beans and mashed potatoes and pumpkin soup-- not too shabby for a foreign thanksgiving), and laughed and enjoyed good conversation with friends. It wasn't the same as being home for Thanksgiving, but honestly, I couldn't have asked for better circumstances for my first Thanksgiving away.

After going to Bennigans (which had a tree decorated for Christmas-- since they don't gauge Christmas season by Thanksgiving, they can bring out the decorations a touch earlier), we went to the underground near Bupyeong station and saw a Christmas tree and some wreaths that had been put up right in the center.

On Saturday, I went to Myeongdong for some shopping (as per usual). I got a white coat (omg, so cute, pictures coming soon) and a ring and pair of earrings. Afterwards, headed to Bekahs (also as per usual). At Bekah's, the frisbee group was having a big festive Thanksgiving dinner. Bekah had ordered (from the USO) Thanksgiving dinners complete with Turkeys, and enough stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberries and gravy to feed a small army. Plus, everyone brought a little something extra to share, so in addition there was mac&cheese(thanks Melly!), green bean casserole (a la Canadian Allie), amazing mashed potatoes (Carne), chocolate cake (beth), tiramisu (Julie) and lots of appetizers like cheese & crackers and veggie platters. Let me tell you what, it was AMAZING. I was so happy to be able to have a *real* Thanksgiving dinner and be with the people I am closest to here in Korea. Honestly though, I love the people I play frisbee with. Such a good, warm group and I feel like in 3 months I have melded right into the group and it's so wonderful. Here are some pictures from our big evening:

These are the people who live in the apartment and hosted the Thanksgiving dinner. L to R: Bekah (go gators!), Dave & Beth

This is disc hotel. These are the people that live in this apartment, plus the people who live in this apartment on weekends.

This is most of the people who were at the Thanksgiving dinner. Note the adorable small children at the bottom. More on them later.

Oh captain, my captain. Chase, one of the Korean Team captains, teaches us how to model. For this I am thankful.

These boys are very thankful and very full.

I only posted this picture to show off my new ring. It is bling-tastic. If you can't see it, just click the image for a bigger size to show up. ^^

Korean boys first turkey! Junseok and Heejeong. They are SO MUCH FUN.

Ben (middle) is teaching Dave and Tweezy some trick with two wine corks. Ben is full of tricks. He rides a unicycle. He can juggle anything. He often juggles while unicycling. His mother is the only person in his immediate family that cannot simultaneously ride a unicycle and juggle. Fun facts, right?

We decided to allow two Korean boys (heejeong, left & Jihoon, right) pull the wishbone, since they naturally had never done it.

The kiddies. On the Right is Jihoon and Jae-eun's son, and to the left Aaron and Yoonee's son. THEY ARE SO CUTE OH.MY.GOD.

So after eating a ton of food, we all got ready to go out. And by we all got ready, I mean Bekah did my hair and make-up and made me look BEAUTIFUL. She also did Beth and Cat's eyes. And then we went out. Pictures of everyone on their way out: