Back from Gunsan

Just got back today from Gunsan to visit my mom's side of the fam. What a riot they are! My mom is the 4th sister (out of the five), with an addition of two brothers... my mom's mom (my grandma that is!) had a busy time having all those kids! Anyways, a 4-hour drive later, we were in Gunsan eating seafood, talking and laughing with my mom's brothers and sisters. It was definitely weird seeing my cousins after all these years (especially Soeng Hyun oppa), but it was great to learn about my mom's past (apparently she was really beautiful and guys used to stalk her all the time! Can you believe it?!)... the best was seeing my grandmother. Though she was (and still is) sick, her spirits were high and she was sooooo glad to see me. She kept saying how much she regrets letting her beautiful daughter (my mom that is!) go to Canada (I think she wishes she could've stopped my parents from immigrating to Canada), I told her how we (Steph, Sara and me) thank our parents all the time for immigrating to Toronto (better opportunities... you know... the whole deal)... I think she felt a bit reassured and compensated the fact that she has not really been able to see her fourth daughter as often as she would've liked. All of my mom's family were gathered around the straw mat, talking, laughing and sharing old memories... it was sooooooo great! Can't wait to tell mom about all the inside info that I learned about her ;)

Sunday, we (the young ones) went to the beach and breathed in the ocean air, before heading off to the set where they filmed a Korean movie called, The King's Man. It was unbelieveably hot, so I couldn't enjoy the sight-seeing as much as I would've liked... but the most important part was just spending time with my cousins. I remember playing with them when I was young and it was weird re-uniting with them after over 20 years!!! Man... it was weird.

Monday morning, we (my 5th aunt and her daughter) set off to Seoul... We finally made it back to Seoul and rested a bit. Got to see the Olympic Stadium (she lives across the street from the Olympic park built in '88) and found another place to exercise tomorrow morning! Saw lots of rollerbladers and badminton players (so funny to see so many peeps playing badminton in the middle of the street!), before heading back home ... got a full day tomorrow... meeting up with Eun at Coex and later with Jeremy and his friend for Dongdaemun Market... Man! It's gonna be so hot tomorrow!!!

J

P.S. I can't seem to post pix on this computer for some odd reason... Perhaps I'll try again tomorrow...