Surprise!

4/19
Today was the trip I've been waiting for. The country house. The morning started out a little slow, both b-parents were at work for the half the day. My b-sister was having bad cramps, hence the questions about my own menstrual pains. I spent the morning finishing the third Hunger Games book. Side note - that is definitely not a PG13 movie whenever they make it. Good series though. Back on topic. I tried to be a good sister and gave her ibuprofen and a heat pad. She did look miserable poor thing. I was told the night before to pack light for the country house. My b-parents drove separately since my b-dad and I would be site seeing without her. This is something I haven't figured out yet. She never seems to go anywhere with us, but is worried the entire time we're gone. She calls my father every few hours to check up on us. Before we left, she was worried I hadn't eaten and this sums up about every conversation we have:

"are you hungry?"
"no, not right now"
"yogurt?"
"no thank you?
"yoplait?"
"no"
she gets a spoon, opens it , and hands it to me.
"eat"

So we left about 3pm and my followed afterwards. On the way, he asked me questions about the similarities of America and Korea. Like, do we have highways? tolls? speed bumps? (He got a kick out of the word speed bump). The scenery was beautiful. Mountains everywhere, cherry trees interspersed. He said Korea is 73% mountains, and I had read somewhere that if you were to flatten Korea out, it'd be the size of China. He asked about Yellowstone and if it's big. I told him it was, and asked if he would come to America to see it. First he laughed and said no like usual, then explained they have a trip to China in the fall, Germany next year, and then maybe America. So I'm third on the list. There are many highways in Korea, and as we passed an exit he explained it was an "intermediate" highway and the speed limit was 110kmh. Laughing, he said my mother would be taking that one. We both know commented she is a crazy driver. he said when they travel together, he does not sleep in the car. Good thinking. But, he noted she has not been in any accidents which is very surprising to me. 

It takes 4 hours to get to the east side of Korea. Or it should have.(Korea in size is about the same as Washington state)  We stopped for coffee, we stopped to eat dinner and he took a "mountain road". Anytime I eat with just my b-dad, it's always noodles of sorts, or bibimbap.

There's nothing wrong with any of this, only the fact that we do not eat the same as when my mother is with us. It's a full on meal with her around. Just him it's sort of ... the fast food Korean style. Once we got to the country house he told me to wait in the car.

This was not what I was hoping for. He went inside, turned on the lights, and was playing with the thermometer trying to get the boiler to work. He came back saying the house would be too cold and that my grandmother (mom's mom) told us to go "there". My b-parents tend to be vague about details. So it was about 9pm, in the car for 6 hours, and I just wanted to get out but we were going "there". About 20 minutes later we arrived at what looked like a motel-ish building.

In my head this made sense since the house was too cold. My b-mom's car was already outside and a light was on in the building. As soon as we stepped into it, my b-dad says "oh, you are meeting your grandmother and grandfather". Now, I had just been told the day before my grandfather knew nothing of me. And now we're meeting face to face? All this is going on in my head as I'm being pulled down a hallway. My bags are put in our room, we walk further down and a door slides open to a crying older Korean woman. She also doesn't speak English but is saying all sorts of things. I hear my Korean name mixed in alone with "saranghe" which means I love you. My b-grandfather was sitting on the floor with no expression on his face. He didn't really look are try to talk to me much. I understood though. Like mother like daughter, my b-grandmother started rubbing my legs immediately, and asking if I was hungry. She says that we have the same face, and that I look like my b-brother Ho Sung. It was like I was looking at myself 60 years from now. I agree I definitely look like my b-mothers side of the family, which is a little unfair since I haven't met all of my fathers.

They were all talking amongst themselves when the sliding door opened again to my uncle (mom's 2nd brother). He is a mountain rescue-national park officer at Juwangsan National Park. He looks almost identical to their other brother, who I met the last trip here. He spoke a little English, and his first question to me was when are you getting married? I thought to myself I'd like to know the answer to that questions myself, instead I just said I didn't know. He asked if I had a boyfriend, I also said no, and he responded with "you make boyfriend". Yes, that would solve a lot of problems.

I have to admit I wasn't the most ... gracious person that night. I was drained. I had been in the car for 6 hours, meeting people I didn't know, and wondering what they were all saying. Anytime I'd ask, my b-dad would just shake his head. My b-grandmother was still patting me, my mother  feeding me, and I was losing patience. My uncle told me I need to learn Korean. I just said yes, I was learning. But really, in my head I was thinking they all need to learn English. It would benefit them to learn it than me learning Korean. Anyways. Finally, we went to to bed and I had to ask. They explained this was their guest house and restaurant they run in the summer. I asked if my grandfather knew who I was. After a short conversation between my parents, my father answered simply "yes". I asked when did he find out, and they just said I don't know. We slept in one of the guest rooms, on the floor which is heated, with comforters. So all night I was trying to keep the comforter off and my mother kept putting it back on. Such is life.