4 days of life in Korea

Remember that time, a month and a half ago, when Z and I went to Asia for two weeks as our belated honeymoon?  One of the places I really wanted (and needed) to go was South Korea, my home country.  Unfortunately, we were only there for about 4 days and was completely jam-packed with meeting as many relatives as possible; however, it was the most fulfilling trip of my life.  

I have missed my home country for quite some time.  Part of it was the curiosity of how things have changed since I left, but mostly it was missing my grandparents.  I had missed them so much.  I remember visiting Seoul every now and then and grandma always made this indescribably delicious homemade dumpling soup made from scratch.  It's things like that I missed.  I knew meeting other relatives and family friends were just as important, but my priority was to spend time with my grandparents as long as I can.  

For your reference, I grew up in Dae-Gu, which is southeast of Seoul.  My parents are native Seoul and spent most of their time there until my dad's job relocated them to Dae-GU.  So, honestly, I am not very familiar with Seoul at all.  Thankfully, my dad was nice enough to coordinate all of our transportation and meeting arrangements through his friends.  What would I do without him?  (LOL)

We were picked up my one of dad's closest co-worker at the airport.  We briefly stopped by at our hotel to drop off our luggage, and then he took us to a Korean BBQ place.  Boy it was sooooo good!  The Korean places in US didn't do justice after this, according to Z.  We probably gained about 5 pounds after that meal. 

The next day, my dad arranged us and the grandparents for lunch at Hyundai Department Store.  Z and I had an early start of the day - took a subway to Hong-Ik University station because that's where my parents met and fell in love.  :)  We grabbed a cup of coffee and took a bite to eat.  Once we realized that our meeting place was only one station away, we decided to start walking instead.  We looked around the busy traffic, countless of city busses and taxis passing by, the tall apartments, kids strolling with their moms... It seemed all foreign and yet surprisingly familiar to me still after 12 1/2 years.  

We got to the restaurant a little early and pretty soon after, saw my grandparents heading towards our direction.  I could tell my grandparents were a little nervous, especially my grandma, but I just ran and hugged her without any hesitation.  I really think she didn't notice who I was  until 10 seconds into hugging. It has been my first hug with them since the day at the airport.  I was age 15 at that time, and now 27. The first thing that struck me was that 1) my grandparents haven't changed one bit in appearance and 2) grandpa looked very good after his cancer battle.  Grandma, who is tech savy, and I immediately started texting my mom about the reunion.  I really wish my mom had the chance to see her parents.  My cousin, who attends a university in the area, also arrived later for lunch.  This was the first time I met my cousin as she spent most of her life in Singapore.

After lunch, we spent the rest of the day with my cousin.  She took us to the Book-Chon Village, which still has traces of Korean traditional architecture.  I got to learn about my cousin more - her education, dreams, where she hangs out and etc.

We kept walking until we arrived at Kyung-Bok Palace, which is the biggest ancient Korean palaces remaining.  Tourists from China were everywhere.  This day was also Children's Day which is a national holiday.  I had very little memory of this place; the entrance is merely what I remember.  We walked around various parts of the palace for a couple of hours.  Even with so many people, the deeper we went the more peaceful it got.

We started walking towards the busy downtown area because I wanted to check out the Chunggyecheon, a 7-mile creek along the downtown.  It appeared like an oasis in the midst of chaotic city life.  The stream drowned the sound of the honking cars.  It occurred to me then that Buddha's birthday was the next day and the entire city was preparing for a massive lantern ceremony.

A statue of the king who created the Korean language

We met my uncle and aunt (my dad's older brother) the next day and had a lovely lunch.  I also got to see my older cousin and his new wife.  After lunch, we came back to their apartment and attempted to catch up on everything in two hours.  

That evening, we took the subway to Gangnam (obviously getting famous due to "Gangnam Style") to meet with one of the family friends.  Mr. Jung was my dad's boss for a long time, but also one of his best friends. He gave us a tour of the City of Gangnam and we explored trendy restaurants and beer brewery places because he was so considerate of our age...LOL  We had some really insightful and interesting conversations.

The final day in Seoul, I decided that we were going to spend most of our day with my grandparents.  That lunch on the first day was not enough to fulfill the longing I had of them.  We took an hour and a half subway ride to where they live, to the new apartment complex for elderly individuals that they recently moved.  Grandpa greeted us at the subway station while grandma was up since 2am making lunch for us from scratch.

We had assortment of Korean rice cakes, my favorite soup, and vegetable rice noodles.  It was so delicious, and I was simply happy to be having this time with them.  We talked, showed all the pictures we took, watch TV together, walked around at the nearby park, and ordered more food from a Chinese restaurant before we had to head back.  We spent the whole afternoon together and it just didn't seem long enough.  It wasn't long enough to fill the 12.5 years of absence.  It's possible that some tears were held up in my eyes.

We had one more thing to do before we had to fly back to Malaysia for the rest of our trip.  One of Z's closest high school friends, Aric, was now living in Seoul teaching English to Korean students.  He is an excellently fluent in Korean by the way; I was highly impressed by his linguistic aptitude.  We walked around the city and stopped by at the temple and watched as they were preparing for the big ceremony for Buddha's birthday.  So colorful, so beautiful.  The nice thing about Korea is that the city is filled with nightlife.  Koreans may not wake up at 6am to start their days, but they stay up all night, including coffee shops.  Aric, Z, and I stayed up until 2am (our flight was 9am that day...) at a coffee shop talking - anything from philosophies to reminiscing old high school days.  I may have been falling asleep at some point, but I'm glad the boys had their time. 

At the end of this adventure we were both tired.  My heart was full, though, and happy.  It was short and intense, but well worth the trip.  Will I go back again?  Of course.  This visit was good for my soul, and it helped me connect to my roots again.