one of the first things i did when i was president of my korean students association during my junior year at columbia was to change our club’s september bbq event into a Chusuk (or as John would write – Chuseok) Festival. growing up as a pastor’s kid, i remember my dad was very big on korean cultural celebrations at church, especially as a reverend in America, where Koreans often found most of their cultural exchanges on Sundays. i would always look forward to this time of year, knowing one of the Sundays would have a lot of bulgogi and song pyun, the little rice cake that seems to taste especially good on this holiday. of course, never having really cared about the Lunar calendar, i wasn’t too keen on the meaning of the holiday, and every year, I’ve had to ask my mom to look up and see when the next Chusuk would be.
this year, because of work, not living on campus, and infrequent contact with the parents, i almost forgot about Chusuk entirely. melanie had emailed me the previous day and told me a bunch of things about some sort of “Moon Festival” that was going on in Taiwan, but I couldn’t quite put two and two together, especially since Chusuk, at least in my mind, has a distinctively Korean quality to it. so i sat mindlessly in front of my computer on a Sunday night, wondering if it was really necessary to have crunched numbers on Bloomberg on a beautifully sunny day. i receive an IM from Jeff Hsieh, my Chinese buddy who currently dates a Korean girl, and he asks me if I had done anything for Chusuk. doh! i looked up at the clock and it was still 10:30pm. i suddenly had a craving for song pyun and maybe some dduk guk. i was ready to just go to k-town solo and satisfy myself before i realized that company would enhance the experience. speaking of company, i asked my “Lehman Bro” (oh man, looks even cornier when written) Brandon if he would join me. he surprisingly said yes and trekked all the way from the financial district to meet me at Kunjip for a late late meal. as i waited for him on 32nd Street, i called up my dad, whom i hadn’t spoken to in a long time, and let him know about my craving and my late trip. he reminded me to ask for song pyun and seemed to love that i was still korean, unlike my sister who probably doesn’t even know what Chusuk is (haha, big mo).
inside, i ordered dduk guk as planned and Brandon ordered dwen jang jigae. we also had two rounds of OB beer, the ultimate complement to a Korean meal, in my opinion. i also asked the waitress if they had song pyun and she said she would check for me. she returned and gave us four pieces. during the meal i realized i missed my family and wished i could’ve been at home eating with them. at the same time, it was nice sitting with a co-employee (we work in different departments) chatting about our company’s success, our crappy hours, and whether or not we would look shady if we went to a college party this coming Thursday night. those few minutes of heavy breathing after the bowls have reached bottom and only one or two gulps remain in the glass of beer – and yet, you still find yourself picking at some random piece of banchan – i think it’s a Korean moment that has never ceased to make me feel both happy and proud. our waitress also gave us each a small cup of shikhae, a sweet traditional Korean drink, which seemed to clinch the deal for me.
when i returned to the apartment, i told Warren about how i realized it was “Korean Thanksgiving” and rushed to K-town for food. “You mean, Chinese Thanksgiving,” he said. moon cakes? no thanks.
***
one side note. i went to Boston (Cambridge, rather) this weekend to visit Jina, and it was a great time. i’m actually thinking about making a mini-website using the photos i took on the trip since i seem to like doing that with all my Boston visits (winter 2002, summer 2002, 2003, 2004). thanks to Jina for a wonderful weekend – i really loved the coffeeshop Finale, Little Italy, and Baker Library. and the showers in her dorm reminded me of Wien’s awesome pressure showers, the ones that sting when you first get hit with water.