a family reunion

december 19 & 20~

the next weekend was a family reunion. my good buddy, 민명기 (min myungki, or 'min'), informed me of plans to unite the family of five who had shared a house together in hilo for half a year. although i did not live with them, i often visited them for barbecues, go stop parties, or planned weekend trips with them around the big island in hawai'i. i had just meet min for an hour during his lunch break at work since i came to korea, and the others, 여진, 현주, and 민우 ('yeojin', 'hyunjoo', and 'minwoo'), i hadn't met at all since hilo days. i mentioned five, but woojin wasn't able to make it due to a family wedding. as housemates in hilo, these five had really lived as a family sharing responsibilities and spending time together. they cooked for each other, ate together, drove each other places and picked each other up, always hanging around each other at school and looking out for each other kkk they were a real testament to korean solidarity (and by this i dont mean clustering with people who are like you, but the way koreans naturally support just anyone who happens to be around them and a part of their lives.

min told me that we would be meeting in a hotel. he explained that these days it was becoming popular for young people in korea to have parties in fancy hotels. although it's expensive, if you split the cost with a bunch of other people, it's not so bad. i guess it's like 'urban camping'. anyway, i got there as quickly as i could after work on friday night, but even so, it took well over an hour from suwon on the train, and i didn't get there until after 11. minwoo came to meet me at the elevator, and it was quite a warm welcome, seeing my old buddy again. as soon as i entered the room upstairs, it was like time travelling back to hilo days during that semester. the beef was already frying in the frying pan... yeojin had already made a huge pot of tasty kimchee-jiggyae... and before i had even sat down, there was already a glass of cold beer with my name on it right in front of me...

[hyunjoo admiring minwoo's 'baby']

[me and yeojin]

[starting to make 'somek' - tasty beer and soju fusions]

the girls went to bed in short order, and i couldnt help regretting that i couldnt get there earlier. the three of us men stayed up to tell stories and give each other, literally, a run for our money playing go stop (an inevitable activity when we get together). eventually, we too began to fade as the morning hours tallied up...

the next morning we all got some coffee in the starbucks in the lobby, getting ready to say our goodbyes. everyone is working these days, and it's hard to ignore that new reality that comes with the passing of time, especially with everyone working in different parts of korea.

[morning smoke, hazy memories seem a little less distant than they did yesterday]

[the ever-camera-shy yeojin - she works for a recruitment office now]

[yours truly]

[vogue hyunjoo - she works for a design company]

shortly after, one by one, everyone had to say goodbye until it was just min and me left. we decided to walk around insadong a bit before parting.

[giant calligraphy brush - friggin' sweet, man]

[this side street antique seller is off the beaten path and had a fascinating array of random aged trinkets and doodads]

insadong used to be a very traditional market street in seoul, until it was redeveloped and marketed as a very traditional market street in seoul. now it all seems a little contrived, although it is possible to find some more authentic wares if you stray from the main road. but there are always interesting things in insadong, even if they are more commercialized now.

[canon - you can actually buy this, even though it seems like it should belong in a museum]

[min wearing the hat he picked out for me]

as we were walking along the streets of insadong, we began to notice that there was more of a hubbub then usual. eventually we came to a large congestion of people and realized that today was 동지 ('dongji' - the winter solstice, which in korea is celebrated on Dec 21st). as a part of the festival, among making prayers on small strips of paper and taking a family holiday, people eat 동지팥죽 ('dongji patjook'), red bean soup with balls of rice flour, and there was an immense pot of it being cooked by a hoarde of elderly women who were also serving it out to everyone walking by in styrofoam bowls.

[this man gave me a free donji calendar for 2009]

[acrobats vaulting off of a wooden 'trampoline']

christmas, new years, seollal

january 27~

soon after this weekend, it was christmas.
and quite a christmas it was...
i wrote about it before, but now i can put up a few more pictures from the time ginny was here. one day we went into yeouido to meet sunyoung. we hung out at a tea place and chatted over some tasty 치주떡볶이 (cheese ddeokbokki). it made me so happy to be able to finally introduce my girl to my sister in korea.

[im still not exactly sure what possessed us to develop a sympathy for this plastic cow]

december 28~

the following sunday (this is still the weekend after christmas), ginny and i met up with sojin, who had been in portland with us just one year before. in a superior feat of memory power, i managed to locate the tea shop i had been introduced to by youngmin, and it was a lovely spot to sit back and enjoy each other's company.

in a not-so-spectacular defeat of memory, i managed to get us subsequently lost, trying to find a way up to the fortress wall... instead we got stuck below it, and there was no access to the top. it did, however, leave us with a more intimate exploration of the community below the wall which provided us with its own source of curiosity.

[where to go?]

['heh heh.. sorry guys...']

[a random escaped pet bunny cautiously eyeing us]

since i already wrote about much of ginny's time in korea with me (i.e. our trip to haenam), i'll skep ahead a bit...

january 08~

before ginny had to leave to go back to hilo, we took a walk along the suwon fortress wall (this one i was able to more successfully navigate) - it was the same place to which i first visited, seeking solitude back in november when ginny and my long-distance relationship was most fragile and painful. symbolically, it was nice to bring that memory full-circle and visit this place together. the sunset was gorgeous.

[playing with our shadows on the wall]

[suwon city below]

january 17~

it was about a week after ginny left that i got the great news that i had a new job in seoul at hankuk university. shortly thereafter, i got a call from sunyoung with even more good news: our friend hyejeong was in seoul! she was here to take a test for licencing to teach korean as a second language, which she has been doing at a university in daegu to students from china. we arranged to meet up in seoul station on saturday. although we had only a few hours before hyejeong was scheduled to return to her home in daegu, we managed to fit in a dinner and a lot of good talking. not having seen hyejeong for 2 years, i was overflowingly happy.

[권혜정 - hyejeong and sunyoung]

january 23~

as my days in suwon were drawing to a close, i took every opportunity to hang out with fellow teachers and students. one night i planned to meet up with my free talking class. we were a little disappointed when only 2 showed up, but we made the most of it, eating samgyeopsar with soju (actually i drank the soju and got considerably drunker than the other two which caused my mouth to continuously flap embarrassingly, as is typical). we came back to my apartment for more of my rambling, punctuated by a hand or two of gostop. gil and seohee didnt seem to mind, though.

[me, gil, and seohee]

january 26~

the next few days were 설날 ('seolnal'), the lunar new year, one of the two most significant holidays in korea (the other being juseok). wonchul invited me to visit his grandparents again in boseong, and although i wanted nothing more than to go, i decided to stay in suwon, and to begin preparing to move into seoul. on seolnal day, i had become claustrophobic from all the packing and decided to walk around suwon one last time even though the conditions were unfavorable (cold as ever, windy, and snowy). i walked along inside the fortress wall, in the center of the city. all the chops were closed, the owners gone to be with their families. i chose a chain bakery that was still open to plop myself down for a while, away from the cold. i had brought along my laptop and decided to do a little writing, a cup of coffee and small loaf of bread at my elbow.

[paldalsan]

going away... *sob! goodbye, suwon!

january 30 (and the next morning)~

3 days later, it was finally friday, and my last day of work at gukje. i have to say that i was really looking forward to never having to see mr. kwon's face ever again, but at the same time, leaving all my friends at gukje was going to be a big loss. on the last day, i took pictures with each of my classes, had lunch with my interchange one class, dinner with my interchange two class, and then a party after work with teachers and students from all my classes.

[free talking class: seohee, me, gil, ]

[interchange three class: susan, stella, alicia, jiyoon, lillian, gil, jun]

[speaking class: b, veronica, erica, roy]

[interchange 2 class: christian, heesun, bokyung]

[danny-boy]

[interchange one class: alice, nayae, karen (sarah taking picture) - they brought me a cake!!!]

[i didnt do much teaching on my last day... :)]

the after school party begins - same kalbi place as always

[japanese teacher youngeun and english teacher seunghee]

[rebecca (also teaches intro english), youngeun, and seunghee]

[^______^]

[me and donggeun]

[after a few drinks i begin giving armond, a new teacher at gukje, a boatload of info regarding my old boss, mr. kwon]

[as is strangely typical for korean kids, nayae was extremely camera-shy - but we were able to finally convince her to take a picture; sadly she didnt show her winning smile]

[back at my place for my last night as host in suwon - it was a gathering to remember - looking back now i dont know how we managed to fit everyone in there]

[we played dice - lucas, you would be proud of me teaching your game to everyone - even now donggeun still calls me with questions about the rules kkk]

[later the games evolved into some kind of rhythm-clapping-pointing game where you had to drink if you made a mistake or lost the rhythm - this game quickly became hysterical]

[the end]

well, there you have it.
i have to admit, all of the blog entries i posted today were broken down from a HUGE post that was begun several weeks ago, and just finished now (i began writing before i started my new job and now it's already been 3 weeks). so im already behind again on the latest update, but i think i deserve some credit, getting this out there finally.

a new stage has already begun to unfold in my life - it will be interesting to see what happens...