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Matthew Kang

Professor Fucularo

English 103-17

12 December, 2015

To the Homeland

BOOM! BAT! CRacK! There were gunshots everywhere. He couldn’t get out of the line of

fire, so he climbed down rugged rocks, a spot undetectable by his enemies. There he laid,

severely injured by the gunshot wounds. I was seeing the whole thing unfold in front of my

eyes, yet I could not help him. His enemies were closing in, and he was cornered. Gun shots

sporadically continued, but none hit him. A muffled voice lingered in the distance. He then

stood up and ran across the rocks, hoping to make it to the other side, while bullets whizzed

past him. Another voice. I ignored it. A shake and then another shake. Maaaattt Maaaattttt Maatttt

Maaatttttt! I looked up; it was my mother. My left ear continued to hear the gunshots, while

from my right ear I heard the voice of my mother, “Get up and turn off the movie. We’re here.”

The weather felt like a sweaty sauna, and it became difficult to breathe. Sweat dripped

down from my body, yet not from my face; I thought that was quite odd. My family and I had

only traversed the inner part of the airport, yet I wanted to get back on the plane and head

home. This new place, my supposed homeland of South Korea, was nothing I had experienced,

and only 30 minutes had passed since my arrival. I knew this that this would be a long

“vacation.”

“Why did we have to come in the summer?” I asked my mother.

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“Because this is only time we have for our family to go vacation this year,” she replied.

“But it’s soooo hot. I’m going to die here,” I said with sweat dripping down my face.

“Okay. At least you die in Korea,” she sarcastically said.

My mother’s friend picked us up from the hell forsaken airport, and thankfully her car

had air conditioning. She drove us to our “hotel,” but this hotel was more like a big building

filled with dorm rooms. My mom’s friend worked in the building next to our dorms so I guess

my mom wanted to stay close to her friend. The dorms were cheap, the beds were

comfortable, and we had a TV. Also, small restaurants and marketplaces filled the labyrinth of

roadways that were right next to us, so buying food was no problem.

My first night there was relatively fine, except for the hot weather. However, my room

contained mosquitoes buzzing like vultures awaiting to shrivel me up. I got bit several times the

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first night, but I refused to get bit anymore. In the morning, I found every mosquito and killed

them with a calendar. After my brutal vendetta, the room became filled with red blood spots.

The rest of my family thought it was disgusting, but to me it was art: a reminder of my hard

work.

We had breakfast in this dinky little shop, and while I thought we were going to eat

eggs, cereal, and such, my mom’s friend ordered a full on Korean meal. Dang-Jang Chi Ge

(bean-past soup with tofu and meat), rice bowls, and a variety a side dishes flooded the table. I

was astonished.

“Do Koreans eat lunch for breakfast?” I asked my mother.

“In Korea they basically do. It is a bowl of rice and soup usually,” she replied.

“But I never ate breakfast like this at home,” I said.

“Of course. We live in America,” she replied.

“Geez. I guess breakfast really is the most important meal of the day…” I said in my

head.

With my belly practically on the verge of exploding, our family rode a taxi to one of our

relative’s house. (Taxis in Korea are dirt cheap. They literally cost like a dollar per mile). As soon

as we entered their home, hugs and handshakes lasted for like 10 minutes. I was happy to see

relatives I had never seen before, but I just wanted to sit down and rest.

“Okay. Lunch time!” my uncle exclaimed.

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“You got to be kidding me…” I groaned.

My belly was not capable of more food, but thankfully we did not eat at their house. We

drove about an hour away to a restaurant, and within that time, the food digested. However,

the restaurant was a buffet and my stomach resisted from going in. I still ate a whole bunch of

food to be respectful, but now I was in the “food coma” stage. I just wanted to fall on the floor

and sleep. It was only 3 pm by this time, and I did not know what was to come next in our

supposed “vacation.” Actually, by this time, I realized that this trip was mainly to visit relatives

and eat food. To my mom, this was a vacation, but to me it was hell. I thought we were going to

travel the wonders of Korea as a family and go sightseeing; I was quite wrong.

After our goodbyes with our relatives, we rode a cab back to our dorms, stomach full

and ready to sleep. I napped for about an hour until my mother woke me and told me that we

were going to visit her friends.

“I would rather let the mosquitos eat my flesh alive, than go to your friends,” I said.

“Okay. At least you die in Korea,” she said.

We left our dorms fairly early, as we were supposed to meet my mom’s friends at 8 pm.

Instead of taking a cab, my dad decided that we take the subway, because that was apparently

cheaper. I had never ridden any form of public transportation in my life, and my parents hadn’t

come back to Korea for over 30 years, so much had changed. The subway was a crowded,

claustrophobic hot piece of mess. Some ran to their zone, while others walked, speed walked,

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or just talked with other people. I had never seen such a conglomerate of people in my life

underground and running to their subways. Thankfully, my dad found were we were supposed

to get our tickets and purchased them. We easily rode our first station and got off. However, as

we tried to exit the station to get to another station, the machine would not let us pass though.

I knew my dad had paid for our tickets, so what was wrong? I saw my parents arguing with one

of the subway people, and they said that we had only bought a one-way ticket. We needed to

buy a card that held several electronic tickets for our use. With our bodies sweating and our

minds quite lost, we were all frustrated. We bought the card and headed to our direction, but

on the way there, we got lost in the underground maze and couldn’t find our next station. My

dad looked for 30 minutes and after asking many people, we managed to get to our train. We

did this for several stations and finally we reached our destination. We had left at 6pm, but now

it was 8pm. It would have taken us 30 minutes if we took the cab, but it took 2 hours riding the

stupid subway; I was extremely frustrated. However, after much studying, my dad finally

figured everything out and riding the subway after that was not too bad.

We walked to where we needed to meet my mom’s friends, and I swear a parade of

people came rushing at my mom. I thought we were going to get mauled, but it was just her

thousands, actually like 20, of friends who came to see her. They hugged and hugged, yet I just

shook my hand, because I did not know these people. I knew my mom had some friends in

America, but in Korea, her friends treated her like she was some celebrity. They carried her bag,

asked if she needed anything, etc. Where was my pampering? I was in utter shock. I never knew

my mom was so popular.

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Dinner was at a very nice restaurant, where they served traditional cold noodles. It was

honestly one of the most authentic Korean noodles I had ever eaten. The soup was not salty,

the noodles cooled your mouth as you slurped them in, and the cucumbers just tasted like

dessert. This time I was not stuffed; I was satisfied.

With everyone smiling from a good meal, my mom and her friends decided to go shop

and hang out in the bustling city. My brother, sister, and I decided not to follow them and

instead go do some exploring ourselves. My dad decided to follow us too, probably because he

would not be getting much alone time with his own wife. Plus, we needed a chaperon and a

bank if we got lost or wanted to buy something. However, my dad called one of his close

cousins, and though he told me the name, I could not picture her face. The cousin came shortly

after, and I finally recognized her. She had brought her daughter too and I could not believe

how much she had grown. I remember Daisy (daughter’s name) being a little baby and barely

able to talk. Anyways, we got into their car and drove up this mountain until we reached the

Namsan Tower. This tower was at a pretty high elevation, but the view was spectacular. I

looked down and all I could see were tiny little lights, moving cars, and tall buildings. I felt like I

was watching a light show from Las Vegas, and this was probably much better than shopping.

They took us down and dropped us off at our dorms; my mom did not come back until late-I

knew she didn’t drink because she’s allergic to alcohol.

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Namsan Tower

For several days, our family met with different relatives, ate food, met with more of my

mom’s friends, ate more food, and other such activities. During this interval my dad, brother,

sister, and I ditched my mom and her friends, and again my dad called one of his relatives. This

relative, however, was on the executive board for a multi-billion dollar amusement park. He got

us free tickets, some random fancy towels, and cards that allowed us to not wait in any lines.

Oh how much I loved this relative and how much I loved not waiting in line for 2 hours. This

amusement park called, Everland, had an inside and an outside, and my gosh everything was

very fun. The rides were good, the food was good, and the performances were great too. I

finally had fun on this vacation.

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Everland

Things were actually going quite well during our last days in Korea. My mom’s friend

hooked us up with two rooms in one of the fanciest hotels in the city of Gangnam: Oakwood.

Because of this, we moved out of our little dorms, and my mom became a bit sad as she was

not near her close friends anymore. I was quite happy though, because Gangnam is the city that

basically never sleeps in Korea, so I knew I was going to have fun. My mom’s friend drove us to

Gangnam and I felt like I was in New York City. Cars were basically bumper to bumper, people

crossed the streets as if they were not afraid of death, and honks could be heard for miles. I felt

overwhelmed by the massive population in Gangnam, but I was excited. Imported European

sports/luxury cars also flooded the streets; I knew this place was my cup of tea.

Not surprisingly, my mom’s friends came one day to visit and hang out with her. My

sister and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes, knowing exactly what was about to

happen. Thankfully, my dad called another one of his relatives, and again got us tickets to

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another amusement park called, Lotte World. We walked to this park as it was two blocks away

from our hotel, and similar to the other amusement park, this one was also indoors and

outdoors. The rides were relatively fun, but I could tell that this park targeted more for

children, so I did not enjoy it as much as Everland.

Lotte World

After Everland, we headed back to our hotel while my brother kept getting distracted by

the $1 socks from the vendors. I thought it was a good deal, so I bought some myself. As I was

about to enter the hotel, my phone rang, and it was my friend from high school.

“Hello?” I said.

“Hey Matt. It’s Kevin,” he said.

“Oh Kevin! How’s it going bro?” I asked.

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“Pretty well thanks. Hey, Facebook just told me that you are like 2 miles away from me,”

he said.

“I’m in Gangnam. Are you in Gangnam too?” I asked.

“LOL. Yeah, I’m in Gangnam too. I’m staying with my aunt for about a month,” he said.

“Oh shoot. Let’s meet up!” I excitingly said.

“Yeah for sure!” he stated.

“I’m at the Oakwood,” I said.

“Okay. I’ll be at your hotel in about 10 minutes,” he said.

Kevin arrived at my hotel in 30 minutes. He said he got lost, and I just laughed at him.

Kevin was my good friend in high school and though we hung out with different people, I still

managed to create a very good relationship with him. After some hugs and handshakes, we sat

on the couch. I asked him where he wanted to go, but he didn’t know. I did not know either as

this was my second day in Gangnam. I expected Kevin to know some places in Gangnam as he

already stayed here for about 2 weeks, but he told me that all he did was play computer games

and play golf at the country club. With nothing really on our minds, we decided to just walk

around the neighborhood. I called it, “Exploration Gangnam,” but Kevin said no, because he

knew we could get easily lost. My exploration hopes had crashed, but all was still well. We

talked and walked for a good mile, and then we sat down on some steps. I could tell he had

some things on his mind, so I told him to just say what he needed to say. He told me that he

recently broke up with his girlfriend, of which I did not know. Usually, I would not feel

sympathetic, but because he was my good friend, I tried to comfort him. We talked for hours,

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discussing his life, his mistakes, and other such matters; it was a very vulnerable time. I honestly

was not aware about some of the things he told me, so I appreciated his honesty. I would say

that we bonded more as friends that night, as he shared deep things and as I shared some of

my own problems. It will never forget that night.

It was the last day for our Korea trip, and I really wanted to do something as a family.

However, my mom told me that she was going to meet with more of her friends. At this point, I

became very irritated. I began shouting at my mom, telling her that she was selfish for only

bonding with her friends and not with us. I thought this was supposed to be a family vacation,

yet it turned so separate. My siblings, my dad, and I did our own activities, while my mom just

hung out with her friends. But my mom told me something that I did not think of at the

moment.

“My son (She literally talks like this sometimes). I am sorry that we could not do more

things together as a family. But you know that I have not been Korea for 30 years. Before the

war, I had many friends. My family fled soon after, and I come to America. You know how many

friends I had in America when I first came? Zero. I made more friends in America after I met you

father, but life was very hard because I did not have good friends. Everyone was so different

than I. So when this year when we come to Korea, I was excited. I finally saw my friends that I

did not see for 30 years! Korea is my home, and my friends are a part of my home, just like how

your friends in America are a part of your life. Please try to understand.”

I stood in silence. “I’m sorry mom. I…I…didn’t know.”

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I understood exactly what my mom said. I just did not realize how important this trip

was for her. I only wanted to have fun and do whatever I wanted; I realized that was quite

selfish of me.

We arrived at California the next day, and I apologized to my mom again.

“Let’s go back to Korea next summer mom. I want to meet your friends too,” I said.

“We can definitely do that Matthew,” she said with a smile.

“And if the weather sucks like before, don’t worry; I’ll gladly die in Korea.”

MORE PICTURES!!

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Meh-oon-tang (Spicy Seafood soup) Live Octopus (They wiggled around)