Mamma Mia

An evening with Mrs. Shim and our family - another great reunion. Our family photo in front of the "musical fountains" at the Seoul Arts Center. Taking a trip down the west coast and watching Dad swimming in the West Sea. Standing on a granite peak and seeing the sun set over the islands off Mokp'o, listening to the loud chorus of locusts. Walking along the boardwalk at night with everyone as the locals fished and cooked their dinner on the rocks. Trying to maintain a steadily dwindling morale as we searched endlessly for the perfect seafood restaurant - only to settle for a solidly mediocre, but still enjoyable, dinner. Doing our best to escape the long reaches of civilization on a boat tour through some harbor islands off Mokp'o, and getting a taste for what might lie just beyond our reach. Ditching the bus for 1st class travel on the butter-smooth 300 k.p.h. KTX train for the rest of the trip. Savoring bibimbap like never before in the city of its birth, Jeonju. "Roughing it" on the floor of a hanok (traditional Korean house) and eating a hearty breakfast including, among other things, dragonfly-wing soup. Enjoying the morning calm in Jeonju - totally oblivious to the fact that a city the size of Seattle was waking up around me. Relaxing in the teahouses of Jeonju with Dad, Mom and Margo. Family dinners back in Seoul, and the nightly quest for the perfect restaurant - restaurants, restaurants everywhere, but not a crumb to eat. Really enjoying the food and the time together once the menus were decoded and food successfully made it to stomach. Getting a tour of the assiduously guarded Poguk skyway in the unrelenting heat - with the latent, nagging feeling that I was in some presidential guard's sniper scope (but forgetting that most of the time just enjoying the amazing views...) Another great dinner with the Hos, with plenty of good food and laughs, our bonds of friendship seeming to patch all the holes in our linguistic connection just fine.

And just for good measure, capping off this great experience most appropriately by snagging some of the last seats in the house for a Broadway show at the Seoul Opera House, almost entirely in Korean, and learning for the first time that my Dad was an ABBA fan. Mamma Mia.

Those are just the highlights that come to mind right now - I'm sure I'll come up with more later. I still can't believe this trip actually happened, and I couldn't be more satisfied. What a memory. Now it's on to my last two weeks and writing the final chapters of my own experience here - though it might be merely the epilogue as it will be hard to top the last two. ~Sean-toki