Thanksgiving Day

Spending Thanksgiving as a Korean

Thanksgiving  Day is a national holiday in the United States celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. People gather around with their families and close friends to share a food that they cooked. Usually, people have roasted turkey, pies, and cranberry sauce as a dinner in Thanksgiving. Different from America, there is no Thanksgiving Day in Korea; therefore, when I first had my Thanksgiving day, I was astonished by the tradition and the food.

During my sophomore year, I was invited to my sister in law’s family Thanksgiving dinner. I was nervous and excited to meet her family and to celebrate my very first Thanksgiving day in America. My sister in law’s mother invited me and my brother over to her house, which was on Vashon Island. When I went to her house, the entire house was full of delicious smells. My sister in law’s mother offered us some crackers with cheese and apple cider. As she was finishing up the dishes, me, my brothers, and my nephew went out to play. We played with arrows for a while and we tried to chop woods for the fire. After a while, more of my sister in law’s families arrived and we spent time talking to each others. They also brought some foods that they prepared and shared it with people during dinner.

When the dinner was all ready to be served, everyone gathered around the table and grabbed their own plates. We were responsible for serving our own food from the big plates and sharing with the others. My favorite food among them was mashed potatoes with gravy sauce. It was savory and easy to eat, even though I was not familiar with American food at that time. While we were eating dinner, I was able to talk to my sister in law’s families and get to know them more. After talking to them more, I felt closer to them as a family and I was glad that I joined my sister in law’s families Thanksgiving day. Everyone in the house was joyful and loving, which made me feel even warm from the cold November weather. Therefore, I think Thanksgiving day in America is not only a day for appreciating and blessing the next harvest season, but also a meaningful day for people to gather around and share their love to each other.

Tteokguk

Tteokguk

On the first day of the New Year, our family, including our grandparents, gather around one big table and share breakfast with each other. This is a tradition in our family that we have been doing since I was a baby. On New Year's Day, we eat traditional Korean food such as kalbi stew, dumplings, kimchi, and rice-cake soup. The food that is always on our table every year is the rice-cake soup, called tteokguk.

Tteokguk can be a very special dish for lots of people, because it differs based on what ingredients the cook puts into the soup. My mom, the cook in our family, adds sliced eggs, seaweed, dumplings, cooked beef, and green onions as a topping to the broth. Sometimes the rice-cakes that my mother uses are in the colors of pink, green, and white. The toppings and the rice-cakes make the dish more beautiful and full of various tastes. It is also the best combined with kimchi, which everyone in our family enjoys.

I like to wake up to the sound of my mom chopping up the carrots and the appetizing smell of her freshly cooked tteokguk. I love to have tteokguk as my first food for the new year, not only because it tastes delicious, but also because it helps me to realize that the new year has come and I have grown as a person. In Korea, people believe that by eating tteokguk, they will get a year older. Unlike how birthdays are celebrated in American culture, in Korea we grow one year older as the new year comes. My Grandma always told me that if I finish the whole bowl of tteokguk, I will become more mature and successful.

For me, tteokguk is a very special food because it gives our family joy and a strong bond. The warmth of the tteokguk brings our family an opportunity to get closer to each other. As the heat of the tteokguk spreads out throughout my body and makes me warm from the cold January weather, the chewiness of the rice-cake will follow and make a perfect harmony in my mouth. When I chew the rice-cake, it will move around my mouth like a slippery snake. The unique texture of the tteokguk will entertain me and help me finish the whole bowl. Tteokguk also means a lot to our family, because we believe that as we finish the whole bowl our New Year's wish will come true. We will gather around the table and make a wish before we start eating the delicious dishes that my mom and grandma made. Even though tteokguk is just a bowl of rice-cake soup, it is a dish that contains my dreams and the love my family gives me.

Intro

Hi! My name is Seo-young. I am from Seoul, Korea. I have been in Seattle since 2014 and I am currently a senior in the Northwest School. Before I came to this school, I attended a really big public High school and actually it was pretty chaotic for me, not only because I was a freshman in that school, but also I was new to Seattle. I was born and raised most of my life in Korea and almost everything in Seattle was very interesting, yet still terrifying for me. However, it has been almost three years since then and now I am completely used to this new culture and the city. I actually love being in another country and experiencing new culture, food, and education. One of the things that I do on my leisure time, is shopping! I even just like to walk along the downtown area and browse around the stores. Most of my friends come from many other countries and some of my best friends are from Taiwan Too! It is really nice to meet you guys all even though it is via online! I am looking forward to get to know all of you and I hope this opportunity will help me learn more about France, Ethiopia, and Taiwan :))