only now i have gotten the chance to begin retelling this adventure to the Park family's old stomping grounds in the country town of 보성 (boseong). the tale actually begins one day before arriving here, yesterday, when i met my friend 원철(wonchul) and his family in the city 안양 (anyang) which is southwest of 서울 (seoul). i transferred immediately from the bus to their car as soon as i arrived in 원철's neighborhood.
the trip from 안양 to 보성 where wonchul's grandfather lives traverses nearly the entire length of south korea from north to south. on a normal day, this trip takes only a few hours, but at this time of year, one can not expect such fortuitous conditions as the roads and highways are entirely choked with the countless families attempting to make it home for this very important holiday - 추석 (chuseok), the mid-autumn festival - one of the two most important, traditional holidays in korea (the other being the lunar new year). as a result, we couldn't possibly hope to make it all the way to 보성 in one evening...
with the electronic GPS mapping computer (essential to every korean car) mounted on the dash and making vague announcements of the road ahead every 10 seconds, wonchul's father piloted us haltingly south, cradling the wheel in his thumbs and softly singing traditional korean folk songs. the darkness outside was dimly illuminated by hundreds of pairs of red breaklights, endlessly blinking in a stop-and-go rhythm. wonchul and i dozed intermittently in the back of the car. other than a brief stop in 아산 (asan) for dinner, we made it without trouble nearly all the way to 광주 (kwangju) - the only major city in southwest korea, leaving only a short leg to 보성. we encountered a bit of trouble just outside of 광주, however, when the engine started overworking itself and we had to stop for half an hour to fix it. we discovered that it was out of water but we called a korean AAA-equivalent to be on the safe side. some guy in a truck came and told us we were out of water. unfortunately, he had no other assistance to give, as his truck was seriously lacking in tools, equipment, and most importantly, water. luckily water is relatively easy to acquire. we did, and headed for a nearby 찜질방 (jjim-jil-bang) - a large public bath and sauna - to spend the night.
i was greatly anticipating this. during my last sojourn in korea, i had the pleasure of patronizing one of these luxurious communal bath/spa houses in 대구 (daegu). they are actually really cheap - 7,000 won ($7) - and popular in korea. once you pay the entrance fee, you can stay as long as you like. and it is quite possible to stay inside a 찜질방 for days, at no additional cost.
well, now was my chance to experience the intriguing notion of sleeping in one. i had discovered in japan 4 years ago the joys of communal bathing. relaxing in a hot bath, casting off the anxiety that accompanies being naked within the view of others - it takes some getting used to if you've never done it before. but it is such a freeing feeling! it makes me wonder how people in america would be different if they could regularly practice such detachment from the outside world of appearances. for that is really what it is - a refuge, a sanctuary. the outside world in korea is just as superficial as america, and even more homogeneously, but the occasional deliverance from such a world does wonders for the spirit, not to mention engendering a healthier view of oneself and others.
before jumping into the bath, i first shared a round of beers with wonchul and his father. when you enter the bathing area (which is separated by gender, of course!), you first must wash yourself. this consists usually of sitting on a very short stool at a 'shower station', equipped with a bar of soap, a scrubbing cloth, and a bucket for rinsing. then you are free to move about the place and get in any kind of bath you like. i enjoy moving back and forth between hot and ice baths. talk about exhilarating! i feel so refreshed afterwards.
after drying off and putting on some of the loose clothing provided for us, wonchul and i walked around the upstairs where the men and women are joined again and where everyone goes to sleep or sweat out a stint in one of the sauna rooms. actually, a 찜질방 has all kinds of amenities, including an arcade room, cafeteria, smoke rooms, an internet room, massage rooms and massage chairs, sleeping quarters, and a large common area. the sleeping quarters consist of little cave-like holes in the wall, large enough for one or two people to lay in. the common area is basically a huge, open floor-space upon which countless people were sleeping. actually, you can find people sleeping just about anywhere - massage chairs are a popular spot, as are the massage beds; if these are taken, people will choose landings, stairways, hallways - pretty much any floorspace is fair game. eventually wonchul and i chose a small alcove to stretch ourselves out on. the warm, marble floor is quite comfortable despite its hardness.
i awoke fresh and rested, if a little stiff and groggy. we took a taxi to find some food for breakfast, which proved to be more difficult than we expected as many places had been closed for 죽석, no doubt their owners gone to visit their own families. we then met up with wonchul's father's brother and his family who lived in 광주. before leaving for the countryside, we stopped at a fruit and veggie market to pick up some fresh fruits for 추석 (for koreans, there should always be plenty of fresh fruit available to munch on at family gatherings such as this). the whole place was enormous! several incredibly large warehouses were filled with countless fruit sellers peddling domestically-grown agriculture. we sampled s few tasty fruits and carted off a whole pile of them. wonchul and i still had enough time to take a look around. we saw a building where veggies were being auctioned off.
then, we were finally off into the countryside! the rolling mountains and small villages tucked into the valleys before which spread streams and patches of farmland really give one a feeling of returning to someplace home-like. it took about 45 minutes to reach wonchul's grandfather's house which lay on the slopes of what i later learned to be something like the 'park-family mountain'. the house was smallish, but very welcoming. several other small buildings surrounded it, housing any number of things, including a tractor, cut bamboo, firewood, and goats (wonchul told me there used to be cows, chickens, and pigs too), but most of which i could only guess. we met woncul's father's other brother (1 brother and 2 sisters would be unable to make it) and then we all paid our respects to wonchul's grandparents with a buddhist-style 5-point bow. i sat and listened for a while to all the catching up that was going between families before we ate dinner, sitting on the floor, korean-style (the method for all future meals and one to which i was already much accustomed, not the least reason being that i have no table in my own apartment, nor did i in alaska, for that matter). lunch was delicious 삼겹살 (samgyeopsar) - fried pork belly - my favorite! we lounged around for a bit to encourage digestion. then wonchul told me we would be taking a trip up the mountain to a spot where many chestnut trees grew.
할아버지 (grandfather) gave us a ride up in the tractor, a luxury im sure was arranged for my benefit, although unnecessary. at the top were, indeed, many trees, planted no doubt purposefully by someone long ago. the late afternoon sun glowed through the patchy canopy onto the grassy forest floor, creating a lazy, surreal atmosphere. 할라보지 instructed us to put on some heavy gloves and demonstrated how we were supposed to extract the 밤 (chestnuts) from their dangerously spiky seed cases, making sure to only do so for the shells that were already peeling back from the ripened nuts. the other men in the family joined us and the nut-hunting continued for a couple hours, full-force.
after a while, wonchul and i wilted our gloves and washed our hands and heads in a small, nearby mountain waterfall. we then headed back down the mountain on foot. upon returning home we got some water and collapsed under a pavilion that lay next to the road. in the rays of the setting sun, we chatted for a while, idly watching the pavilion's resident spiders construct their webs, and napped until suppertime. the rest of the evening was consumed with continuous conversation, almost continuous eating and drinking, and intermittent resting and napping. i later learned more fully from my students that this is generally the practice at family gatherings. you feel like you are in one of those greek paintings where everyone is just laying around idly talking and surrounded by food and comfort. superb.
around 10 pm, wonchul and i headed over to a neighbor's house, who happened to be 할라보지's uncle, despite being younger than him, where the two of us would spend the night due to lack of space in wonchul's grandparents' house. sleep, however, would not come until wonchul's great-great-uncle's son (who was just a few years older than wonchul) was satisfied with our 소주 (soju - a strong korean alcohol) drinking ability and our listening ability. the man was a young father (his 2-year old daughter promptly urinated on the floor in her sleep when we entered the house) and an extremely accomplished architect of traditional korean buildings, including the magnificent house in which we were now sitting and the lovely pavilion where we had been napping earlier that day. he talked for a long while about the art of constructing houses and of the (apparently) large 박 (park) family tree. i sat patiently through this, trying to be as polite as possible and trying to get used to soju again. finally after we had each finished a bottle of soju each (more than i wanted at the time), we retired to a nearby, smaller building and slept as if dead. even wonchul's snoring (a noteworthy ability which is louder than most people can scream) could not wake me...
***stay tuned for the 2nd 1/2 of chukseok***
Friday, September 19, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
last days in fairbanks, interim in portland before the plunge across the pacific's waters
i know i know
im a slacker for not posting in a long time
especially with all that has happened!
i can't believe the last post was about a month ago...
so many things have changed since then, im not sure where to begin
i guess the best place is when ginny and i were leaving alaska
after our adventure at the chena hot springs and my last day of work at open arms, there was just one week of classes left - finals week
actually i dont really remember what that was like...
i took my test...
and i didn't study at all really...
actually, now that i think about it, i dont think i ever checked my score or final grade...
oh well, not to worry!
i dont remember the test at all, but i DO remember talking to pete after it was over
i suggested heading to the local bar that evening to celebrate
im pretty sure he said 'how about tomorrow night' and i said fine and went home
well, the next day while ginny and i were chatting with pastor K who lent us the pair of bikes we used all summer, i got a call from pete
he was SERIOUSLY hungover
i was somewhat shocked as he explained his predicament
apparently, he had told me that he DID want to meet that night (yesterday) and that he went to the bar and was waiting there by himself
he then promptly got drunk alone and when his wife picked him up, they picked up some more alcohol and he got drunker at home
so the next day, today, he was really tired and not feeling so hot
i felt sad to say the least - partly shame over pete having to drink alone, partly jealousy over missing out on the fun
so we agreed to meet for a more quiet evening that night
they picked up ginny and me and we got some beers and chinese food and just hung out at their cabin, several miles outside of fairbanks
it was better than a bar, by far, and that's my style!
their cabin was so AWESOME - i would totally dig living in one for a while
no running water, perhaps, difficulty showering, and outhouse-bathroom, and danger of bears, but the coziest feeling of home EVER
we loved it
other than that, ginny and i didnt do too much for our last few days in fairbanks
we actually started packing so much earlier than i've ever packed before
i didnt have to rush at all!
for a while, it was kinda touch and go as to whether we'd get our deposit back for the apartment, but harold, our landlord, forked over the cash in the end
and rightly so, cuz we cleaned every inch of that place, and i can say with CONFIDENCE that bathroom was way cleaner than when we moved in
anyway, it all worked out in the end
i remember i was rushing to finish up a painting before we had to go
i wanted to give it away to david and chisato as a parting gift and a thankyou
it's a pretty sweet painting, i must say; especially i liked how the colors turned out
i'll post a picture of it once i get the internet on my laptop
well, ginny and i made it out of fairbanks easily enough
luggage fees were moderately-annoying
and we were completely unprepared for the GREATNESS that awaited us in seattle, where we would be landing
i knew tim would be trying to pick us up
and i knew he was having a 24-hour going away party (for himself)
and i knew that that party was largely mobile, taking place primarily in a camper
and i knew we were arriving at around 1am
but even with this knowledge, the ensuing festivities took us on such a wild ride, people will be talking about it for generations to come
words can not describe the awesomeness of being picked up ON TIME at an airport curb-side by a MOTORHOME filled with partying wild-kids
we somehow managed to get the luggage on board and squeeze ourselves in
despite being HUGE, there were perhaps a dozen+ people crammed in there
some were asleep, some were playing some WICKED live music on an electric keyboard with unknown percusion, some were just laughing and drinking
a bunch of tim's friends whom i had hung out with before were there (and with whom i shared such memorable experiences just months before when i was heading out to fairbanks, such as seeing the new indie movie and the 'who's the wizest wizard?'-party
that evening we witnessed amazing displays of thunder and lightning, delicious and horrifying drinks (including this one liquor named 'stroh' which, when i drank a shot of it, did such terrible molestation to my throat, i felt like i had smoked a whole carton of cigarettes), and beautiful evidence of the wonderful bonds tim had made with his great friends in seattle, tacoma, etc
it was sad to see how hard it was for him to leave that place (for he was heading off to go to grad school the next day)
it made me realize how long he'd stayed around his college buddies - and realize how different my experiences were - living in different places all the time, saying goodbye to friends all the time, never staying in one lifestyle or home for long...
i wondered about the things i had gained by making such choices, and about the things i had lost...
hmmm
well mom and dad picked us up in seattle and we headed home
ginny and i would stay there for almost 2 weeks before heading our separate ways
but many things happened that we couldnt have planned better
one unexpected surprise was meeting the reitmeiers!
the couple who were our (tim, rachel, and my) youth group leaders throughout high school (and middle school for tim and me)
truly a pair of such wonderful people
and their kids are equally important people in my life, specifically with scott and lisa i have spent two different 'growing-up' periods of my life
well hal and deni (mr & mrs reitmeier, sr) met us for coffee one morning, and when they heard that ginny and i would be in town for a while, invited us to come up to their home in sister, OR to spend a few days to relax
i quickly jumped at the offer and we took a bus out there 2 days later
sisters is far out in the mountains, in a desert-alpine region of the cascades
and the town is just this dinky little touristy place - only 2 main streets and some surrounding housing neighborhoods
after the always luxurious greyhound ride up, hiuyan and i met hal and deni for brunch and then we wandered around town for a while, stopping in a few shops, the cute little public library, and a quilting joint
we then went to hal and deni's house
it was SUPERFINE
totally luxurious and welcoming
we chilled the rest of the day, chatting with the reitmeiers, watching a little olympics, reading, etc
the next day we decided to go on a hike at a nearby trail
hal drove us there and hiuyan and i made our way along this pretty river which passed a fish hatchery and several places where the water poured right out of the ground into the river!
the weather was so pleasant - it sprinkled a little sometimes and was sunshiny sometimes - really magical
before getting picked up, we realized that the trail was closed due to fire risk, so our arranged meeting place would be inaccessible to hal
this left us quite in the proverbial 'pickle'
well, it took over an hour of walking back along the road before we could reach the hatchery again and give hal a call
we were TIRED
but everything was fine and we made it back alright to a nice dinner and some cards
that evening ginny and i went to see 'tropic thunder' at the local mini-theater
hilarious for me, confusion for ginny
we had to leave the next day, sadly
after getting some coffee and oatmeal, we waited at the bus stop for a 1/2 hour+
when the bus finally came, it passed us by without slowing (we were waving our arms, the driver saw us, no apparent reaction)
another 'pickle'
id rather not go into the details of the subsequent 'adventure' we had trying to get home to portland; suffice to say, we were able to take a dip in the swimming pool in sisters, lost $55 bucks to an extra ticket, had to take a bus to EUGENE and wait 3 hours+ for the next bus, witnessed a man getting arrested in a park in eugene likely for possession of copious amounts of drugs, and i got to sit next to a visiting monk from thailand on the way home with whom i shared stories and thoughts about buddhism in america (at one point he asked me if hiuyan was my son)
upon returning to portland, we had a party for rachel and dad's birthdays
i started driving like crazy so that i could take my driver's test and get my lisence in 3 days
when i did take the test, my driver was totally chill, not really even paying attention to my driving, mostly just chatting with me about language, culture, etc - probably cuz i looked older than a baby
passed with flying colors
that afternoon mom let me take the miada to take ginny out to lunch
it was a 'real date' - sort of a strange feeling
but the day was beautiful and so was hiuyan and it felt so nice to share a new experience (for us) together like that - the food was fantastic at Murrayhill cafe
the next day we drove up to seattle for my interview at the korean consulate
i took the first leg - an hour of driving at high speeds exhausted me - c'mon, im a newbie!
we located the consulate, my interview was a snap, and we had hours to kill until the visa was ready
so mom and i tried to find this fish and chips place we visited a few years ago when we went up to seattle to pick up my friends bobo and kay who were staying with our friend justin (all from hawaii)
we found it!
and then i thought of calling justin let him know and see how things were going
we were able to meet up that afternoon at the 'gas works' (see previous post) and hang out for a few hours
i was so glad to hear about the choices he was making - it sounded like he really was deciding what kind of things he wanted to do with himself, despite some other problems going on around him
such a super guy - so friendly and sincere - he wants to do social work and i think he's the perfect person for it
we then met up with jocelyn, tim's SUPER-ROCKIN' girl, her sister, and a couple of her friends from work
after dinner hiuyan and i just hung out at jocelyn's apartment and stayed up late talking
mom had already gone home, but ginny and i couldnt come to seattle without staying with jocelyn even if just for a day
i was so glad we had that chance to spend time together again before i had to leave
it was too short, but definitely a great time
when we got back to portland the next day by train (amtrak kicks greyhounds ASS any day) we had just a couple days to get ready to leave
but enough time still to meet rachel for lunch in portland at 'the bleu' (a RICH FEAST of excellent foods prepared by the culinary arts school students)
after that, on a whim, we decided it would be just splendid to round off the day with a trip to the beach
after several 'hrmmm...'s from mom, we got the green light and the four of us piled in dad's car with sarah, rachel and leland's beautiful, ferocious, quizzical dog
my first drive to the beach!
i loved it, and fell in love with the oregon coast again
the tide was so LOW, making the already SUPER WIDE oregon beach OUTLANDISHLY IMMENSE
i couldnt believe it
we jumped around in the waves for a while, then sat and watched the pelicans and seagulls fly back and forth
it was a priceless encounter with time standing still
then it was time to come back and face the world again
packing was... an adventure
especially with mom and dad wanting me to go through all my boxed CRAP from the old house whose lease was apparently up and was taking up valuable space in storage
many a trinket, many a memorabelia made its last appearance in my life and was chucked into the trash
nevertheless packing was again accomplished ON TIME - twice in a row - perhaps an unbeatable record for me
departure was sad, but not as sad as before
this time id be gone for a lot longer than ever before - at least a year
but i was going to some place familiar, some place that had already become a home to me once before, a place where i had friends and families waiting to welcome me - korea, of course
tears fell at the airport, but i wasn't bawling shamelessly like last time :)
hiuyan and i have done this before, and we had the christmas break to look forward to
still, we were both going to places where we'd encounter new experiences and challenges, and that was a little scary too
we had decided to not call each other right away
we knew that we would have to face our new challenges head on, in order to make our new lives meaningful and real for us
that meant we could be looking back
we just had to put our trust in each other and apply the gifts we'd given each other through our relationship to the new places we were going
so we boarded our planes
and said farewell...
***aimless journeys in korea will begin with the next post***
***we appreciate your patience and apologize for the lack of photos - these will appear in subsequent posts, once internet becomes available in our headquarters***
im a slacker for not posting in a long time
especially with all that has happened!
i can't believe the last post was about a month ago...
so many things have changed since then, im not sure where to begin
i guess the best place is when ginny and i were leaving alaska
after our adventure at the chena hot springs and my last day of work at open arms, there was just one week of classes left - finals week
actually i dont really remember what that was like...
i took my test...
and i didn't study at all really...
actually, now that i think about it, i dont think i ever checked my score or final grade...
oh well, not to worry!
i dont remember the test at all, but i DO remember talking to pete after it was over
i suggested heading to the local bar that evening to celebrate
im pretty sure he said 'how about tomorrow night' and i said fine and went home
well, the next day while ginny and i were chatting with pastor K who lent us the pair of bikes we used all summer, i got a call from pete
he was SERIOUSLY hungover
i was somewhat shocked as he explained his predicament
apparently, he had told me that he DID want to meet that night (yesterday) and that he went to the bar and was waiting there by himself
he then promptly got drunk alone and when his wife picked him up, they picked up some more alcohol and he got drunker at home
so the next day, today, he was really tired and not feeling so hot
i felt sad to say the least - partly shame over pete having to drink alone, partly jealousy over missing out on the fun
so we agreed to meet for a more quiet evening that night
they picked up ginny and me and we got some beers and chinese food and just hung out at their cabin, several miles outside of fairbanks
it was better than a bar, by far, and that's my style!
their cabin was so AWESOME - i would totally dig living in one for a while
no running water, perhaps, difficulty showering, and outhouse-bathroom, and danger of bears, but the coziest feeling of home EVER
we loved it
other than that, ginny and i didnt do too much for our last few days in fairbanks
we actually started packing so much earlier than i've ever packed before
i didnt have to rush at all!
for a while, it was kinda touch and go as to whether we'd get our deposit back for the apartment, but harold, our landlord, forked over the cash in the end
and rightly so, cuz we cleaned every inch of that place, and i can say with CONFIDENCE that bathroom was way cleaner than when we moved in
anyway, it all worked out in the end
i remember i was rushing to finish up a painting before we had to go
i wanted to give it away to david and chisato as a parting gift and a thankyou
it's a pretty sweet painting, i must say; especially i liked how the colors turned out
i'll post a picture of it once i get the internet on my laptop
well, ginny and i made it out of fairbanks easily enough
luggage fees were moderately-annoying
and we were completely unprepared for the GREATNESS that awaited us in seattle, where we would be landing
i knew tim would be trying to pick us up
and i knew he was having a 24-hour going away party (for himself)
and i knew that that party was largely mobile, taking place primarily in a camper
and i knew we were arriving at around 1am
but even with this knowledge, the ensuing festivities took us on such a wild ride, people will be talking about it for generations to come
words can not describe the awesomeness of being picked up ON TIME at an airport curb-side by a MOTORHOME filled with partying wild-kids
we somehow managed to get the luggage on board and squeeze ourselves in
despite being HUGE, there were perhaps a dozen+ people crammed in there
some were asleep, some were playing some WICKED live music on an electric keyboard with unknown percusion, some were just laughing and drinking
a bunch of tim's friends whom i had hung out with before were there (and with whom i shared such memorable experiences just months before when i was heading out to fairbanks, such as seeing the new indie movie and the 'who's the wizest wizard?'-party
that evening we witnessed amazing displays of thunder and lightning, delicious and horrifying drinks (including this one liquor named 'stroh' which, when i drank a shot of it, did such terrible molestation to my throat, i felt like i had smoked a whole carton of cigarettes), and beautiful evidence of the wonderful bonds tim had made with his great friends in seattle, tacoma, etc
it was sad to see how hard it was for him to leave that place (for he was heading off to go to grad school the next day)
it made me realize how long he'd stayed around his college buddies - and realize how different my experiences were - living in different places all the time, saying goodbye to friends all the time, never staying in one lifestyle or home for long...
i wondered about the things i had gained by making such choices, and about the things i had lost...
hmmm
well mom and dad picked us up in seattle and we headed home
ginny and i would stay there for almost 2 weeks before heading our separate ways
but many things happened that we couldnt have planned better
one unexpected surprise was meeting the reitmeiers!
the couple who were our (tim, rachel, and my) youth group leaders throughout high school (and middle school for tim and me)
truly a pair of such wonderful people
and their kids are equally important people in my life, specifically with scott and lisa i have spent two different 'growing-up' periods of my life
well hal and deni (mr & mrs reitmeier, sr) met us for coffee one morning, and when they heard that ginny and i would be in town for a while, invited us to come up to their home in sister, OR to spend a few days to relax
i quickly jumped at the offer and we took a bus out there 2 days later
sisters is far out in the mountains, in a desert-alpine region of the cascades
and the town is just this dinky little touristy place - only 2 main streets and some surrounding housing neighborhoods
after the always luxurious greyhound ride up, hiuyan and i met hal and deni for brunch and then we wandered around town for a while, stopping in a few shops, the cute little public library, and a quilting joint
we then went to hal and deni's house
it was SUPERFINE
totally luxurious and welcoming
we chilled the rest of the day, chatting with the reitmeiers, watching a little olympics, reading, etc
the next day we decided to go on a hike at a nearby trail
hal drove us there and hiuyan and i made our way along this pretty river which passed a fish hatchery and several places where the water poured right out of the ground into the river!
the weather was so pleasant - it sprinkled a little sometimes and was sunshiny sometimes - really magical
before getting picked up, we realized that the trail was closed due to fire risk, so our arranged meeting place would be inaccessible to hal
this left us quite in the proverbial 'pickle'
well, it took over an hour of walking back along the road before we could reach the hatchery again and give hal a call
we were TIRED
but everything was fine and we made it back alright to a nice dinner and some cards
that evening ginny and i went to see 'tropic thunder' at the local mini-theater
hilarious for me, confusion for ginny
we had to leave the next day, sadly
after getting some coffee and oatmeal, we waited at the bus stop for a 1/2 hour+
when the bus finally came, it passed us by without slowing (we were waving our arms, the driver saw us, no apparent reaction)
another 'pickle'
id rather not go into the details of the subsequent 'adventure' we had trying to get home to portland; suffice to say, we were able to take a dip in the swimming pool in sisters, lost $55 bucks to an extra ticket, had to take a bus to EUGENE and wait 3 hours+ for the next bus, witnessed a man getting arrested in a park in eugene likely for possession of copious amounts of drugs, and i got to sit next to a visiting monk from thailand on the way home with whom i shared stories and thoughts about buddhism in america (at one point he asked me if hiuyan was my son)
upon returning to portland, we had a party for rachel and dad's birthdays
i started driving like crazy so that i could take my driver's test and get my lisence in 3 days
when i did take the test, my driver was totally chill, not really even paying attention to my driving, mostly just chatting with me about language, culture, etc - probably cuz i looked older than a baby
passed with flying colors
that afternoon mom let me take the miada to take ginny out to lunch
it was a 'real date' - sort of a strange feeling
but the day was beautiful and so was hiuyan and it felt so nice to share a new experience (for us) together like that - the food was fantastic at Murrayhill cafe
the next day we drove up to seattle for my interview at the korean consulate
i took the first leg - an hour of driving at high speeds exhausted me - c'mon, im a newbie!
we located the consulate, my interview was a snap, and we had hours to kill until the visa was ready
so mom and i tried to find this fish and chips place we visited a few years ago when we went up to seattle to pick up my friends bobo and kay who were staying with our friend justin (all from hawaii)
we found it!
and then i thought of calling justin let him know and see how things were going
we were able to meet up that afternoon at the 'gas works' (see previous post) and hang out for a few hours
i was so glad to hear about the choices he was making - it sounded like he really was deciding what kind of things he wanted to do with himself, despite some other problems going on around him
such a super guy - so friendly and sincere - he wants to do social work and i think he's the perfect person for it
we then met up with jocelyn, tim's SUPER-ROCKIN' girl, her sister, and a couple of her friends from work
after dinner hiuyan and i just hung out at jocelyn's apartment and stayed up late talking
mom had already gone home, but ginny and i couldnt come to seattle without staying with jocelyn even if just for a day
i was so glad we had that chance to spend time together again before i had to leave
it was too short, but definitely a great time
when we got back to portland the next day by train (amtrak kicks greyhounds ASS any day) we had just a couple days to get ready to leave
but enough time still to meet rachel for lunch in portland at 'the bleu' (a RICH FEAST of excellent foods prepared by the culinary arts school students)
after that, on a whim, we decided it would be just splendid to round off the day with a trip to the beach
after several 'hrmmm...'s from mom, we got the green light and the four of us piled in dad's car with sarah, rachel and leland's beautiful, ferocious, quizzical dog
my first drive to the beach!
i loved it, and fell in love with the oregon coast again
the tide was so LOW, making the already SUPER WIDE oregon beach OUTLANDISHLY IMMENSE
i couldnt believe it
we jumped around in the waves for a while, then sat and watched the pelicans and seagulls fly back and forth
it was a priceless encounter with time standing still
then it was time to come back and face the world again
packing was... an adventure
especially with mom and dad wanting me to go through all my boxed CRAP from the old house whose lease was apparently up and was taking up valuable space in storage
many a trinket, many a memorabelia made its last appearance in my life and was chucked into the trash
nevertheless packing was again accomplished ON TIME - twice in a row - perhaps an unbeatable record for me
departure was sad, but not as sad as before
this time id be gone for a lot longer than ever before - at least a year
but i was going to some place familiar, some place that had already become a home to me once before, a place where i had friends and families waiting to welcome me - korea, of course
tears fell at the airport, but i wasn't bawling shamelessly like last time :)
hiuyan and i have done this before, and we had the christmas break to look forward to
still, we were both going to places where we'd encounter new experiences and challenges, and that was a little scary too
we had decided to not call each other right away
we knew that we would have to face our new challenges head on, in order to make our new lives meaningful and real for us
that meant we could be looking back
we just had to put our trust in each other and apply the gifts we'd given each other through our relationship to the new places we were going
so we boarded our planes
and said farewell...
***aimless journeys in korea will begin with the next post***
***we appreciate your patience and apologize for the lack of photos - these will appear in subsequent posts, once internet becomes available in our headquarters***
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