Dear Laura’s Friends & Family,

This posting, as I believe you will immediately notice, has a slightly different “voice.” This is Emilie, Laura's youngest sibling “speaking” - and I have been commanded to... I mean... given the privilege to write a blog entry about my holiday adventures in South Korea. Frankly, I hardly know where to begin. My time in Korea was short (I was there for barely a week) - but there was certainly no shortage of adventures.

A full 24 hours had lapsed between the time that my morning alarm went off in Berkeley, California and the time that my morning alarm went off during the taxi ride in Daegu, on the way to Laura's apartment. And perhaps the journey seemed longer than 24 hours as I greatly anticipated seeing my sister. Constant turbulence stretched every minute of the flight and caused me great concern for the pristinely dressed flight attendants, all wearing high heels!

When at long last I arrived at Daegu airport, words cannot express how wonderful it was to exit the airport terminal and rush into the arms of my sister. We both exclaimed and hugged and just savored being together again. That moment remains prominent in my memory - things are rather a blur after that, in fact, almost my entire visit now seems blurred. If one only has 1 week in Korea, then each day and each evening needs to be lived to its fullest potential.

On Christmas Eve morning, we hailed ourselves a taxi and I found myself learning to speak what would become the extent of my Korean vocabulary: hello (anyan haseo), thank you (cum sa hanida), & yes (nay). Laura and I began the holiday festivities by attending a party at a fellow English teacher's apartment, an Australian named Kirsty. Kirsty’s apartment could be considered rather large in comparison to Laura's mini-studio apartment...but fitting 12 people into a couple of tiny rooms, created a squeeze.

At that point, dear friends, I had yet to understand the true value of western delicacies. Laura and I made an anti-pasta of sorts...perhaps not the most authentic, but it certainly was popular. People constantly asked if I had brought the cheese with me and when I responded that I hadn't, they exclaimed, "Wow, so that means you can actually buy this stuff here!" By 6 pm, we were full and ready to head back to her place. But of course we had to do some last minute shopping...although last minute shopping in Korea doesn't quite have the same meaning because most shops and restaurants in Korea are open on Christmas Day as well.

Christmas Day was another grand affair with friends dining and gifts to open and of course our favorite story, “A Year Without a Santa Claus.” In search of a favorite family custom (bagels for breakfast), we found ourselves at Dunkin’ Donuts on Christmas morning. We splurged on donuts and crossed the street for coffee. Coffee in hand and holiday spirits high, we headed back to prepare for our company. Okay, so we missed the traditional mark, but it was still fun! We had five guests and a Thai feast for dinner: the Pumpkin soup was so good that everyone was practically licking their bowls clean and the curries were heavenly. Ohhh, what a feast...it's making hungry again just thinking of it. After dinner and guests, Laura and I opened our Christmas stockings and watched our favorite Christmas film classic – although Laura put me to work helping preparing for her next day’s class. But who said I'd come to Korea for a vacation? I knew better.

Tuesday. Just because I had been put to work, didn't mean I couldn't play hookie. So while Laura went to work on Tuesday, I decided to explore downtown Daegu. My big goal was to visit Seomun Market, a giant outdoor market where they have everything from bedding, to clothing, to cooking utensils, to live chickens, to fresh octopus. I wandered through the various buildings and streets for hours...enjoying the sights, buying various gifts, and trying some of the street foods. Surprisingly, I never got lost or turned around the entire day. As dusk began to fall, I headed to actual downtown from the market - and Laura and I had arranged to meet at 6:30 - we met & went to get me my first real Korean meal of babimimbop and kimchi (one of the few Korean vegetarian meals). After dinner, we roamed to some of Laura's favorite places, snapped a few photos, and then headed home.

On Wednesday morning, Laura dragged me out of bed for school. Believe me, at 8 am I was wondering why I had ever agreed to go to work with Laura. But with coffee in hand, we walked the whole 2 minutes it took to get to campus and began the introductions. That was the day that I began to understand why Laura loves her life so much. The students were wonderfully motivated and attentive, the faculty so welcoming and kind...I found that it didn't matter that with some people I could only exchange smiles...the universal attitude was a welcoming, unlike any I have ever experienced before. So many times, Laura had said that the true beauty of Korea is found in the hearts of the Korean people and I quickly learned to whole-heartily agree with this sentiment. My day at Taegu Foreign Language High School was just delightful. Laura then dragged me out to dinner at an Indian place with her friends. For details...you'll have to wait for my memoirs...or at some point, corner me.

By Thursday morning, the weather had turned bitter cold, but I reluctantly ventured out anyway as Laura had booked me into a Daegu City Tour. I took the subway and flagged a taxi to get me to the tourist center. Laura had been on a similar tour, but where her tour had a bus packed full of visitors...we had a group of 5 people. The kind tour guide was desperately worried that I wouldn't enjoy the tour without some English, so she personally walked with me a bunch and made certain to find me English translations whenever possible. At first, I was a bit uncomfortable with all the extra attention, but soon found myself joking with the tour guide. That day we visited Yangneongsi Medicine Market, the Daegu Confucian Academy, the Daegu National Museum, the Medical & Missionary Museum, and Dalseong Park. It was a fun day, but I was worn out and chilled to the bone by the end of it...the tourist center was way off the main drag, so I couldn't avoid the cold by catching a cab back...plus there was the added problem of not knowing the Korean word for subway. And for the first and only time on my trip I got a bit lost...the map indicated what looked like a short way back to the main road...but well the map showed a road that in reality didn't connect to anything else so I had to double back and take a longer way. I managed though and rushed gratefully into the subway station.

Thursday evening Laura and I decided to hike to a church on Kiemyung University campus for what promised to be an excellent view. The day had been cold, but the night was even colder...being famously wimpy about the cold, I had bundled up as much as possible while Laura, who is much tougher than I am, shivered a bit too and was grateful for remembering her scarf. However, the view of Daegu was breathtaking, so we did what any tourist would do...snapped pictures. While in the midst of photo taking fervor, a security guard came around to inspect the premises... he knew about as much English as we knew Korean so communication was fruitless. He motioned for us to follow him, we obeyed wondering if we were going to be arrested. But no, this kind gentleman wrapped on some glass doors to attract his partner and brought us into an office to warm up. He and the other security guard proceeded to attempt communicate something to us - which we never fully understood even with drawings and gesticulations. But the generosity of the experience thoroughly warmed us so we abandoned the idea of getting coffee and marveled about Korean kindness all the way home.

Friday was not as cold as the previous day (naturally - because I was not scheduled to spend the day outside). I had promised to return to Laura’s school again but I declined to arrive on time and instead slowly drank my coffee before heading to campus about 30 minutes behind Laura. Again, I spent another day chatting with Laura's sweet students, listening to delighted squeals as we passed through the halls and even crashed the home economics class while they made what seemed to me the most unorthodox pizza with shrimp, pepperoni, corn, and green pepper. This, incidentally, was the last day of school for the Korean school year (which runs from March to December) - so Laura and I had all sorts of errands to run around school.

I don't have the words to properly express life at the school, but I want to impress you faithful readers that Laura has truly scored... she teaches at a great school with fantastic students and superb faculty members.

Saturday, my last day in Korea, we decided to head out of town... and traveled further than I had ever before to simply take a bath. Specifically, we took a train to visit the public baths in Busan, the second largest city in Korea. The Korean countryside looks similar to the New Jersey terrain, but the architecture is certainly different (last I recall, they don't build giant cement skyscrapers in the middle New Jersey fields).

The public baths themselves reminded me a bit of Hearst Castle... I think that this impression perhaps came from the dome in the center of the main room, or perhaps the combination of white & blue tile was vaguely reminiscent of Hearst Castle. We spent roughly 3 hours exploring, soaking, eating, being scrubbed until our skin was pink, and relaxing. It was the perfect way to spend a day, especially since I was fairly worn from a week’s worth of adventures. And before we got on the train to head back, we dropped into a Korean fast-food chain where I tried a Kimchi burger - which I would order again- it was different but good.

And that about sums of my one week whirlwind Korean adventure. There certainly were lots of high points (those described and more) and maybe a few low points – it was certainly difficult being a vegetarian in Korea and large amounts of red ginseng did not agree with my system. Also, visiting a time zone that has a 17 hour difference is a bit challenging (I was grateful for sleeping pills). But the Korean people were incredibly warm, I have never been more welcomed by a society. And I found the Korean culture proud and remarkable in so many ways. And the shopping! I loved the light-hearted “Hello Kitty” found everywhere. But there is so much more to Korea than cutesy slippers and fluffy hats. The inescapable energy and optimism is infectious and at the heart of the country are the fantastic Koreans...the true Korean treasure.

I returned to the States, safely, happily, and the journey took a bit more than 24 hours. I know because my alarm rang… Happy New Year to you all!

With harmony,
Emilie the Drumm