My brain has had a hard time shutting down here. The visit to the nursery really effected all of us.
I woke up at 2am. Noel woke up at 3am. And Olivia even stirred crying in her sleep all night long. At one point she woke up crying and said something. Noel told me the next morning that she asked where her birth sister was. She thinks she was referring to the babies in the nursery as she had a lot of questions for Noel. "Where are the babies Mommys?", etc.
Noel gave me about 77 pills with naturalistic relaxing elements in it and it did help me fall asleep finally around 4am. Poor Noel did not fall asleep at all.
Thankfully it was a beautiful sunny day and like the day before…it was appropriate for the day ahead of us.
We headed in to Seoul around 1pm after another family Korean lunch. Noel is going to slap me for saying this…but I wouldn't be surprised if I come home 5 pounds heavier with all the food we've been eating and I haven't worked out once since we got here. (I love you, Noel! ;)
Seoul is a magical place. It's high energy puts Vegas to shame. We headed over to Dongdeamun...heaven for anyone who likes to shop…literally 5 districts of shopping. Shopping centers, outside shopping venders, a food shopping area…pretty much everything and anything you can think of.
At some point during the trip I was admiring some Louis V bags and Ol-Kay even offered to give me her bag. This family is beyond generous. The first place we headed was to find me a Louis. It took some running around and Chagen Opah to barter a good deal for me. I didn't want to pay real Louis money but the bag I wanted looks pretty dang convincing. I was a happy girl.
The entire day the family wanted to make sure that Noel and I went where we wanted to go and asked if there was anything specific that we needed or wanted to see. Our nephews, Minho and Junho, were such gentlemen and carried all of our bags for us all day, and sometimes even our purses and Olivia. :)
Somehow the day turned from 1pm to 7pm and it was after 9pm when we finally sat down to eat at a restaurant in Seoul. Noel's family feeds us so well that I never have a chance to get hungry and most of the time I have to force myself to eat so they don't worry or get offended. They ordered us some soups. All of us got a big black bowl of steaming hot soup. Noel and I had a beef soup with what we found out was beef cartilage. Oye. We looked at each other…ok...We're trying it. And it actually wasn't horrible. It was almost like a thick chewy noodle. The rest of the family had soup with what looked like huge dumplings. And…of course... we just had to know what was in those dumplings. They replied with a Korean word and then pointed to their elbow. And then promptly offered us some. Sometimes I wonder why I have to ask so many damn questions. :) My name is Jennifer…and I ate elbow soup. LOL…actually it wasn't too bad. Tasted like chicken. (that was for you, Noel)
After dinner we were getting ready to walk back to the car finally...it was late and we were all tired. There was street vendors out. One was a Caucasian girl singing both American and Korean songs. The next one we passed was a man who was creating asian scrolls. This is something that I had read you could come across. I really wanted to get my Korean name and some souvenirs for friends and family of their names in Hangul (Korean writing) so I was very excited to see him. Noel (she fits right in with the generosity of this family) stopped the family so I could get one done. Unfortunately it turns out that he was writing what appeared to be Japanese letters. No Hangul. Ole Kay and Chagen Opah tried to get them to write my Korean name (Kim Young Ae) in Hangul but he refused. The script still looks neat.
As we were walking down... we noticed another street vendor who had drawn portraits all over his tent. Chagen Opah talked to him for a little bit and all I could understand was "Kim Young Ae" over and over. He asked me to sit and before I realized what I was agreeing to... he told me to sit still. What seemed like an eternity...he was finished and he had written my name in the lower right hand corner. He asked me to write my American name on top of it. Wish I think messed up the whole picture as it didn't really belong...but it was kind of a fun thing to have from my day/night in Seoul.
We finally got home after midnight and got ready for bed. After we laid down the siblings asked Noel to come in the other room. They had purchased some things for Olivia while out shopping. Anything child related (clothing, toys, etc) is really expensive. Again...this family is beyond generous.
Noel's phone starting chirping so I popped my head out to let her know just as I started hearing a flurry of them saying my name (Jenny-pah is they way they pronounced it...I just LOVED hearing them say it :). They all asked me to come and sit with them. They were using google translate to help with the conversation and showed me their phone which said, "Jennifer is family". They told me that I am their sister. Now the baby of siblings.
This journey has opened up so many emotions for me and really made me yearn for a connection to the Korean part of me. And it's funny...I made this trip 12,000 miles away to find out about my past and to ultimately find my Korean family. And I did. It doesn't matter that they are not my own birth family. They consider me blood and are embracing me as their own. And I'm touched, honored, and feel the same. I've been careful to make sure that Noel was comfortable with all of this as I know she missed out on many years with her family and would never want to get in the way of her ever blossoming and evolving reconnection to her own past. And she has been amazing...happy to welcome me as family as well. I can't help but feeling blessed. I responded to the family with my own google translate saying, "Thank you for being so welcoming and that I had found my Korean family after all."
This would be our last night together as an entire family this trip. It was very bittersweet and both Noel and I were just trying to keep it together. They kept telling us not to cry. Koreans don't like to cry. God, I am so Korean.
We stayed up until after 2am laughing and spending our last moments together.
I really am thankful for this experience and it feels like fate was right to delay my trip so that I could experience it with Noel and meet her family...now my family as well.
Love and Joy,
J
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