Return to the Family Farm

After leaving Seoul, we made a brief stop in Daejeon on our way to Kunsan, the ancestral home base and my dad's hometown. Some of you may remember my shock on my last visit four years to discover the tiny traditional Korean house in which my dad grew up and the accompanying family farm plot (You can read that blog post here). The farm's still there, but unfortunately my dad's old home was washed away in a flood several years ago. Here's a shot of the farm from the 10th floor of my dad's cousin's apartment:

Notice I said "10th floor." Due to a growing population and limited space, Koreans crowd into highrise apartment buildings, even in small-medium sized cities like Kunsan. Kunsan still has a lot of agriculture activity, but it's a rapidly growing city, and the port area has exploded recently due to its access to China. We went on a tour of this area, and lo and behold, what did we see but MASSIVE FREAKING WIND POWER GENERATORS??!?

Trust me, they were huge, and there were a ton of them. Needless to say, my dad, having been away for over 26 years, was shocked to see all the development going on around him.

Back to the family matters: one of the highlights of this trip was visiting the ancestral burial grounds, which I was unable to see the last time I was here. My grandfather, who died shortly after my father's birth, is actually buried here:

Notice the mounds. No headstones or any other markers, so we had to make a best guess as to which one was my grandfather's. It doesn't look like much, but in some strange way, it helped close an open loop in my perception of the family history: my dad did in fact have a dad, too, but he's buried here and has been for a long time.

On to living family members: I found it easiest to interact with my younger relatives, since A) they were eager to practice their English with me and B) I felt less self conscious compared to talking with adults.

These are my high school aged nieces. They call me "samchon" (which means uncle), which I find both hilarious and kind of touching.

Oh dear, this is the "little terror."

Seven years old, way too much energy, and what a mouth. He's my dad's cousin's grandson, and since he's the eldest son of the eldest son of the eldest son, he's the future "head of the family." During my first conversation with him, we had this exchange:

LT: You don't have to go to the army? (NB: All Korean men are mandated to serve 2 years in the military)

Me: That's right, we don't have that in the US.

LT: 좋겠다! Which roughly translates to, "Man, I wish!"

This was both a bit shocking, but mostly sad; that a 7 year old kid already knows what he has in store for him when he's 18.

There were about a million other relatives as well, and the effect was similar to that of the Seoul family reunions, but more intense since we stayed several days with my dad's cousins and got to spend more quality time with relatives. It just felt good to belong to a part of something much larger, older, and well established that just my self and my immediate family, which is the way things often felt growing up.

Next stop: back to Daejeon, where we visit a Buddhist temple and score crazy karma points.