Thursday, January 01, 2004
I've been doing well in Seoul, so well in fact that I've decided to cancel my trip to visit Galwang in China in favor of staying longer in Korea.
Today I spent most of the day traveling south to Gunsan. The trip was quite pleasant... rural Korea consists of serene mountains clouded in mist, and quiet farms deserted in the winter. I am visiting my grandmother in Gunsan, who raised me for the first year of my life, and still calls me "infant". It makes me sad to think of her lonely widowed existence in this sleepy port city on the western coast; her son is negligent and her daughter is halfway around the world. And I don't think my mother was kidding when she told me that this will probably be the last time I see my grandmother. It makes me think again about my strained relationship with my own parents.
Today I spent most of the day traveling south to Gunsan. The trip was quite pleasant... rural Korea consists of serene mountains clouded in mist, and quiet farms deserted in the winter. I am visiting my grandmother in Gunsan, who raised me for the first year of my life, and still calls me "infant". It makes me sad to think of her lonely widowed existence in this sleepy port city on the western coast; her son is negligent and her daughter is halfway around the world. And I don't think my mother was kidding when she told me that this will probably be the last time I see my grandmother. It makes me think again about my strained relationship with my own parents.
