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Published: January 12th 2019
Hey everyone! l hope you all had a wonderful holiday season!
As many of you probably know already, l was able to travel home for the holidays to visit the family. l have signed on to teach for another year here in Korea, and during the negotiation of my new contract, I was able to get a little over a week off to go home and visit my family for Christmas. Just for fun, I wanted to keep my visit a secret from Sarah, although at times it felt like she was basically the only person who didn't know I would be home for the week of Christmas. There were a few occasions when the secret was almost revealed. She kept asking when I would be home next, and finally I told her I would probably be able to visit in February, during the lunar new year vacation. This little white lie made it easier to keep the secret, as I was able to say things such as, "when I am able to get home, I can help you figure that out," or, "whenever I get home, I'll need to remember to get…" Somehow we managed to keep my homecoming
from her. The evening I arrived in Denver, my parents told Sarah that they would be going out to dinner with some friends of the family, knowing she would probably decline to join them. Of course, they weren't really going out to dinner, but were driving to the airport to pick me up. When we were about five minutes from the house, I sent Sarah a message on Facebook messenger, asking if she wanted to video chat in five. She said sure, and five minutes later, I walked into her room asking what she was up to. Needless to say she was very surprised. After the fact, I realized she had sent me a message letting me know that our parents were home when she had heard the garage door open, which I think is hilarious.
Anyways, I had a really good time at home, and while in some ways it was kind of weird how little things there have changed, it was also kind of nice in its predictability. It was so nice being able to curl up on a couch—I honestly can't explain how much I miss having a couch to sit on; it's probably the weirdest
thing I miss—with a book. I won't lie—it was difficult to be home without George there (for those who haven't heard, he passed away last May), but whenever I go home it always feels like a relief being back in such a familiar place. I'm not sure that will ever be enough to keep me there, since there's always an exciting adventure to be held elsewhere (sorry parents), but just knowing that it's there gives me those same warm, fuzzy, sentimental feelings that songs about family and holiday music gives me.
While I was home, I spent as much time as I could with Lianne, who flew home from Chicago for about a day and a half just to see me (I'm just so awesome she couldn't stay away ?). But actually, I was so glad we were able to meet up, because she's awesome, and video calling just isn't the same as hanging out with someone in person. As movie buddies, in order to make up for lost time we were able to fit three movies into our time together (
Mary Poppins Returns,
Mary Poppins, and
The West Side Story), ate at two Asian restaurants and one Mexican
one, got Ben and Jerry's, and still managed to have time to just chill. It was amazing, and Lianne if you're reading this I miss you already!
My holiday ended on January 1
st, when I had to catch a crazy-early flight back to Korea. I arrived back late on Wednesday night, and was at work the next day; no time for jet lag here. After work on Friday, I took a bus back to Seoul with Natanya to meet up with her parents, who came to visit for a week. We spent the weekend in Seoul, exploring and eating good food, and they came back to Gwangju with us on Monday morning. This past week we spent our mornings hanging out with them, showing them around downtown Gwangju as well as the 5-18 Memorial Park. Unfortunately it was bitterly cold while they were here, so hot packs (basically hand warmers with a sticky side to stick to an under layer of clothing) were an essential.
Tanya and I saw them off from the Gwangju bus terminal Thursday morning, and decided to hang around the terminal and wait until lunch time so we could have food options, rather than
traveling back to our apartments right away. Originally, we had planned to spend a couple hours at the jimjilbang (Korean spa/bath house) in the terminal, as we had passed by it before on multiple occasions, but apparently it was under construction, or they had closed it, because the area we remember it being in was closed off. We then remembered there is a movie theater at the bus terminal, so we decided to see if there were any interesting movies showing. We found a showing of
Wreak It Ralph: Ralph Breaks the Internet playing in 4DX that started in about five minutes, so we decided to go watch that, although we had no idea what 4DX was. Apparently 4DX means the seats move and wind and water blow at your face with the movie, which isn't something I would necessarily search out in the future, but was definitely an experience. Since the movie is by Disney, we had naively assumed it would be in English with Korean subtitles, like
Coco had been, but it quickly became apparent that it was in fact dubbed in Korean, so we ended up understanding very little of the dialogue. To be fair, it was
well animated though, so I wouldn't write it off as a complete waste of time.
Anyways, I expect things will start to go back to normal now, and it will be back to the same old, same old! I wish you all a very happy new year, and until next time!
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