After 3 days in Kunsan, my dad’s hometown, we’re now in Daejeon, my stepmom’s hometown, where the hotel room we’re in conveniently has a computer, which is why I’m able to fill in the gaps from previous experiences now.
Seoul Family Reunion(s)
I plan on writing more later about the general theme of families split in diaspora later, but for now, here’s the update from the big dinner we had in Seoul:
All 3 cousins (first cousins) are married. Two have kids already, and the other one’s wife is pregnant. Way ahead of the other Lee’s in this department. The strangest part, though, is that they’re all bizarro versions of their American counterparts. Once we get home, I’ll try to post some A-B picture comparisons, but trust me, they do look freakishly similar to me, my brother, and my sister.
All told, there was about 20 or 30 Lee’s at the restaurant that night, from 4 generations: my grandmother’s generation, my father’s, mine, and the one below me. Tons of little Korean toddlers running around calling me “samchon” (uncle).
The highlight of the evening was certainly when they put my dad on the spot to give a little speech. Certainly, he was the reason we were all gathered, and they wanted to hear what he had to say about those 26 years away from Korea. Given the opportunity, my dad made (from what I could tell with my limited Korean) moving and heartfelt remarks on how he had missed everyone, how glad he was to be back, and how he planned on making more frequent trips going forward.
And then there was me. I didn’t give a speech (thank God; it would have been painful in Korean), but I tried my best to engage the Long Lost Cousins and their spouses in conversation and catch up with their lives. It was tough to get past the basic with them, but as far as I can tell, they’re thriving and living typical Korean lives. They seemed impressed that I had a New York City government job and that I had attended a little school called Yale (as you probably know, education, particularly, admission to elite American schools, is something of a national obsession these days). Thought we didn’t have too much to say to each other, I think they were just glad that my Korean had improved since they’d last seen me and that I was able to communicate as much as I was.
Next: we hit the road for the countryside.
