I’m actually on the plane writing this, but things are still pretty fresh. Today and yesterday are all sort of the same… I knew today would be harder, but yesterday was pretty tough, too.
The day started pretty easy… I slept in (which means I slept to 9:30), cleaned up a bit from the night before. I nibbled at a little breakfast, then closed my eyes again… The only two things on the agenda for the day was lunch with Rebecca, and then the host family farewell dinner.
We went to a Japanese restaurant and got some tasties…
Curry tonkatsu and a sashimi donburi... Mmmmmmmmm...
Lots and lots of salmon, with a shrimp tempura...
Yeah, the Japanese food in Korea is better than the Japanese food I've had in the US, too....
She's so pretty. :)
Well, by now I knew she liked my company because she seemed happy to go with just me. After lunch, she had to teach her kindergarten class, which included Ju-Eun and her two friends. I joined her in ‘teaching’… I didn’t really do anything because I didn’t know their level for one, and two, them kids are crazy! I was pretty surprised to see how high their English level was… Seemed to me like it was about as high as American kindergartners'. Pronunciation was a little rough, but I could tell the kids were being lazy. They were really cute, but also pretty wild. It was sort of late in the day for them, and they had a ton of energy and had been studying all day, so they were pretty distracted. That hour and some odd minutes went by pretty quickly… YoungChai came and picked up Ju-Eun and I.
I came home and played some guitar because Rebecca told me to bring it to the farewell dinner… I wanted to make sure I remembered how to play. :P In not too long, it was time to leave for the dinner.
The Dongan church went pretty all-out for us…
I know I felt pretty special with all of this fan-fare... I'm sure the others did, too.
Mark was our MC...
We had assigned tables, like a wedding... Haha... Youngchai had me sit in the middle seat, between herself and CK... And then she jumped tables and had Rebecca sit next to me. :P :) She was looking out for me! :)
The Deputy Head Senior Pastor (can't imagine the title getting any higher than that!), Rev. Na Kwang Hyun giving us his greetings...
...Then we went out of order, and we had to give an 'extended introduction' of like, 2 minutes, instead of 10 seconds, like usual.
We were supposed to reflect a little on the trip... Just thinking about all we had experienced and all the people we met, and I was wondering if I'd end up crying on stage. :P Started to get a little choked up, already.
Mark, our main translator for this... In addition to good-general-all-purpose MC. :)
Kevin, resident photographer and Pastor Jason JDSN.
Aren't these thingies cute? They're actually scrubbers for dishes... But, Nick's host mom hand made them for us! I don't think I have the heart to use mine to scrub dishes, though...
...And we're off! We decided to do reverse-chronological order, so Raia first...
I had something that sounded pretty good in my head, but when it came time to actually say it, I got thrown off by having to have it translated and it came out pretty rough. :P And then after, I realized I forgot a whole bunch of thanks after. Oh boy. I hope they got the message, though...
It wasn't Shi-bong taking the cute-kid pictures this time... It was Rebecca. Haha... Which is why the kids might be making crazy faces... Or maybe the kids are just crazy... Haha...
Pastor Park introducing Sarah, the first adoptee to take the trip to Korea with KAM Center.
Ju Eun is a funny girl... She only makes crazy faces in front of a camera... And then she only talks to you if she's super-comfortable with you, else she just makes noises. It's too bad I couldn't get a picture of her making her usual cute-face. :P
Sarah, sharing a bit. She ended up visiting Korea after her first trip, and then married a Korean guy and had kids and now lives in Korea. She also now speaks really good Korean. She shared first in Korean, and then shared in English. All in about 10 years... Guess there's hope for us! Pastor Park is very proud of her and says that she's the ideal example of what he wants this program to do for adoptees... Well, I think we just need to get the language down. And gosh, I'd love to live in Korea.
Everybody's attentive...
Hehe... Except an always hyper Jong-hyun... Haha...
After, Nick shared his testimony...
...And CK translated for him.
Then we were presented with gifts...
They were actually pretty practical gifts... English-Korean dictionaries! I needed one...
Elder Kim spoke a word or two...
Then of course, the mandatory group picture....
Then it was time to eattt... The food was pretty awesome.
I dunno why, but it still makes me smile seeing how similar Sunny and her mom look... Haha...
Youngchai's new table... :) She's so awesome/mischievous....
While we were eating, there was a picture slideshow of all the pics Pastor Park took... I have to admit, it made focusing on eating pretty hard. :P I was too busy watching the slideshow!
After dinner... We were tested about what we learned about Korea! You got a point for every question... And if you didn't get at least three points, there was a punishment. :P
Host families could help a 'tiny' bit...
David got off to a good start, but ended up not making three points...
So, he had to sing a duet with Mark... :P
This is Elder Kim's family... They came from pretty far away to say 'hi' to us... Sadly, this was also their 'goodbye,' too...
Elder Kim's daughter and son... I was looking for it... And sure enough, his son has his dad's eye-smile. It might just be me, but I think it's really cute to see family resemblance.
MeriKim's host family...
Stuber's host family...
My host family... :)
About half of Raia's host family...
Pastor Park, Elder Kim and Sarah and kids...
I'm... not sure who these ladies are. :P Actually, I'm kinda confused as to exactly who Stuber's host family was for Seoul. :P
The party seemed kinda short, though I was really surprised to see how long we were actually there. * sigh * I felt like this was just a party, and not a farewell-party… It hadn’t registered that we were leaving in a handful of hours. People cleared out, and Rebecca played me some piano…
She’s quite amazing. Good enough for me to not want to play anything… She definitely outclasses me by far, but I was kinda surprised (and disappointed) that we couldn’t really jam. :\ Guess that’s the difference between a classically-trained pianist and a self-taught hack. :P Kevin stuck around, probably longer than he should have (he was supposed to go to a meeting downstairs right after dinner) and was chatting us up… Apparently, nobody in DEW knew Rebecca played, much less played so well. Kevin kept trying to name songs for us to play together, but it wasn't working. Eventually, he went off to his meeting...
I kinda lost track of things, b/c when I finally looked up, everyone was gone, including my host family. :P They had left to give me some time with Rebecca. So, now that it was just the two of us, she turned around, looked at me and told me to play her some guitar. I.... Haha... Well, I played 'The Answer'... I was kinda nervous, and kinda sloppy........ And not brave enough to actually sing the song, but at least I didn't butcher it like I did 'Signe' at Daegu. :P * sigh * I need to have a 'I-can-play-this-song' song. But, she said that she never heard anyone play guitar like that before... Given what I've seen/heard of guitar players in Korea, I'd like to believe her, but I still think she was just being nice. :P Ahhhh... Someday, I will woo her with a proper song.
Well, everyone was gone, and it was time to skedaddle. So we went out, first to help her pick up some gifts for the guys (she gave gifts to the girls already), and then we grabbed a bubble tea. It was sorta drizzling, and this would be my last time walking around, carrying an umbrella for her... We wanted to find a place to talk, and just ended up going to a coffee shop and then talked for a few hours…
She really liked this design, and wanted me to take a picture of it...
Our bubble teas... We got taro flavored. They were really good! No mushy bubbles, here. First... and last... bubble tea in Korea.
She wanted to see an American dollar bill... So, I gave her the crispy-est bill I had in my wallet. I told her to keep it... And in exchange, she gave me a 1000 won bill.
She looks unenthusiastic in this pic, but it was her idea! Haha...
Maybe I look a little too enthusiastic. :P Yes, that 1000 won is still in my wallet. Leave me alone. :P
She apparently doesn't like pictures...
...But, I knew I only had a couple of her, so I wanted to take more while I could.
I knew she was a mature person, but I learned a whole lot more about her… We shared our struggles and bits about our past and outlooks. She’s been through a lot… More than I would have figured from the bits I already knew about her. To see where she is now, especially where she is in God, is really quite amazing. We talked and talked… But, periodically, I’d run out of things to talk about because I was thinking about how I was liking her more and more, but our time together was getting shorter and shorter. Not the easiest thing in the world to accept…
Eventually, the coffee shop closed and we walked out to her car. She drove me back… the car was pretty quiet. Except the radio. Which started playing love songs on the English station… I didn’t recognize the first one, but it was something about ‘don’t forget me’ and going away and how love is life, but sometimes love just hurts. I wanted to kick the radio, but sit and sulk at the same time.
We pulled up to my host family’s apartment, and of course, this is where it got difficult. We sat there, for about an hour and just let it all out… How much we liked each other, why we liked each other so much, how much we’d miss each other, how hard it would be going forward… Why she should kidnap me and make me miss my flight… How we’d be dating if we weren’t on opposite sides of the world… How we’re both surprised at how much we like each other despite only having gotten to spend time together within a week’s span. Her gentle ‘don’t go’s were killing me. I kissed her. We held hands. Her hands were soft and gentle, very proportionate and cute. Her eyes were a little puffy. I saw a tear or two. I didn’t know how to go about getting out of the car… I just wanted to sit there until I had to fly out, but I knew CK would be up waiting for me and that we all had to get up early, so I got her to walk me to the door. I walked up beside her for the last time, and gently took her hand in mine. We slowly walked to the door... By now, I felt like she were my girlfriend. She was still telling me to stay… In a soft, hopeless voice. My stomach was sinking, and my chest was getting hot, like when you just find out something is really wrong. We stood by the door… We hugged. Her shoulders fit just inside of mine. I didn’t want to let her go… Finally, I get to hold her, but this would be the last time until who knows when. When we let go, we looked at each other, said ‘I’ll miss you’… Hugged again. She kissed me. It’s not like in the movies, where there is a script, where there’s a set and you know when they’re going to stop. This was goodbye, and neither of us were willing to say it. Some random resident was walking towards the apartment… She went off, and I followed him in.
No... There was no speech about waiting... There was no talk of moving forward. Neither of us wanted a long-distance relationship... It seems hopeless. Who wants hopelessness? The next few days would be difficult, for sure. Feelings will settle, and we'll see where we'll take things...
I know God has a purpose and a timing for everything… I have no idea why He chose now. Why couldn’t I find a girl back home for more than three years? How come the first girl that ever reciprocated my woos has to be thousands of miles away? What a cruel bit of fate… But, I have to trust that God knows what He’s doing… Even so, I am going to be moping and sulking for a while.
