Mom's visit, up to the point that my blog got accidentally deleted.

On May 19th, my mom came to visit for nine days.
These have possibly been the busiest nine days of my life. No joke.
Friday, May 18th: Vanessa came to Gwangju. Actually, she came on Thursday, I think... oh man, blurry month. We went to a student art gallery downtown, and then out for some tea. Yeah, it was definitely this date for these activities... it was fun. After work we met for Shabu Shabu with some Munhwa figures, including Jim, the new teacher!
Saturday, May 19th: Said goodbye to Vanessa, hopped on a bus to Incheon, which I almost missed, to go pick up mom. Arrive at Incheon about one hour early. Spend most of the trip back discussing Vanessa, cartoon characters painted on the sides of buildings, and my Uncle Brian's gas problems.
Sunday, May 20th: Head to the Bong Sun Si Jang, the local daily market to pick up some food supplies. Return to the apartment for a meet-and-greet with my friends for my mom. I said it started at 12:00, so I am expecting guests to arrive at around 1:00 or 1:30. Ee MeCha breaks with convention and arrives on time, which means that my ice-run leaves her alone with my mom. Awkward! She was surprisingly shy to speak English to my mom... so my mom played Foose with her son while we prepared snacks. Around 1:30, people started showing up, and it was a great time. I'll try to remember who came:
Ee MeCha and her son, Jim, the new teacher at Munhwa, Vanessa Reid and HangBin, Carol, Mel, Mo and Darren, my young neighbour and his girlfriend, and Vanessa (Sweeney) of course. It was a great little gang! My mom was pretty impressed with everyone, and everyone enjoyed hearing all the blush-worthy stories. We hung out at the apartment untl about 4:00 or so, and then we headed to the North End of Gwangju to a youth festival where Darren and I were scheduled to play. Now, in Canada, youth typically means high-school, teens, maybe young university students... here it means kids. tiny kids.
So... our set was not ideal for the audience, but it was what we had practiced, and it was maybe best for the parents and other volunteers. haha. We wound up playing "Blue" by the JayHawks, and a medley of "Dry the Rain" by the Beta Band and "Take Your Mama Out" by the Scissor Sisters, and Darren even worked in a little "Free Radicals" by the Flaming Lips into the outro. And yes, it sounded just as awesome as you are probably imagining. I did some vocal looping, so we had simultaneous "I need love"-ing, with the super-high falsetto of the Scissor Sisters going under Darren's claims that although you think you are so radical, you are in fact "fanatical", and not really so radical at all, and his reassurances that if there's something inside that you've got to say, you should say it out loud and it will be okay, he will be your light, he will be your light, he will be your light, he will be your light.
After the music, we headed back to the apartment, and then finally downtown for "Shabu Shabu", again, this time with mom, Vanessa, Carol and Mel (and me, of course). It was delicious, and mom fared well with her first introduction to spicy-ish Asian food.
Monday, May 21st: At around 10:00, HangBin came and picked us up and brought us to BoSeong to see the tea plantations, and idea that he had just brought up the day before. The tea plantation was breathtaking, huge, and green beyond all belief. He was an excellent tour guide for us. And a good photographer as well!
After the tea plantation, we headed into BoSeong the town, and picked up Vanessa from work. Then we all went out for a local specialty "boribap", which seemed a lot like Bibimbap, but with Barley instead of rice, and more ditch food (shoots and ferns). It was delicious, but a little spicy... I was worried about mom, but then I looked over and she was scarfing it down no problem. haha. After that the four of us went to HangBin's family's home and his mother served us Green Tea. It was delicious, and a great experience for mom, I am sure. Then we dropped off Vanessa back at the school, and we headed to DaeWonSa (I think!). It was a beautiful little temple, that seemed to be Tibetan Buddhist. It was full of beautiful gardens, and the lotuses were in season, so it just just a treat for the eyes.
Then he brought us back to Gwangju (our visit to Damyang was cancelled due to time constraints) and I rushed to get things ready for school, because I arrived home twenty minutes before my first class... School was an easy night, the assignment for that day was to make questions and/or presentation for my mom. I tried to order us a feast of Korean food, but they were no longer delivering, so we had... PIZZA.
Tuesday, May 22nd: We woke up, and we headed downtown where we met up with Ryan, Brooke and Darren for lunch, at the usual "Spicy Pork" restaurant. It was delicious, as per usual. Then mom and I headed to Art Street, and we checked out all the little shops, and ate at this little "down the rabbit hole" basement tea shop that Rodrigo, Sarah and I discovered last year. Then we headed to E-Mart, because mom wanted to see if she could find some Konglish clothes, but it was unsuccessful. Then, I dropped her off at home, and headed off to Mokpo.
I had a great last night in Korea with Vanessa. We went out for Kalbi, then we watched a movie, although now I can't remember what it was... maybe it was just TV... anyways, it's just nice, everything seems very natural with her, and even though it was our last time together for two months, it didn't feel pressured at all, which was really nice. It was just another great night, just with tighter hugs.
Wednesday, May 23rd: We headed to the bus terminal in the morning with all Vanessa's worldly belongings, and had a good bus ride. A very old woman across the aisle from us tapped me on the shoulder to let me know that Vanessa was "Sexy". I said "Thank you, yes, she's very beautiful.", and nodded, but the woman felt the need to reassure me several times that Vanessa was, in fact, very sexy. Then, a few minutes later, she busts out with "SOUTH CAROLINA!" and some rather aggressive pointing. Okay, I said, but she's from Canada. "Canada Saram Imnida!" But... she insisted that she was a sexy South Carolina lady. She asked if she was my wife, and since we both agreed it would be easier to say yes than to deal with the questions following a "no" answer (Vanessa was draped over me snoozing a bit at the time) we went with yes. Later we got shushed because we were really laughing a lot. Oh, and we got congratulatory (although belated) corn bread for our happy marriage.
We said a tearful and at times a little cheesy goodbye (I managed to refrain from putting my hand against the bus window, which was harder to avoid than you might imagine) after a small Dunkin' Donuts picnic on the floor of the bus terminal. Man, I really miss her. We have a lot of fun together.
At one, Gumi picked us up, and she brought us out for lunch in Damyang, and then out to an old Korean garden that was once a meeting place for scholars. It was another really great afternoon, and I was glad that my mom got to meet Gumi, because she is super cool. We got back to Gwangju at around 4:20 or so, so mom and I stopped at Provence for some lemonade. Then, it was into the mix with mom.
The grade sixes did a pretty good job, but I was disappoint with their effort. They had the names of things to tell mom about, but they hadn't really tried to make any sentences ABOUT things. Mom did a good job of introducing herself, but every once in a while, I had to stop her and repeat what she had said using some simpler language.
The grade fives were, awesome, as expected. They're really low-level, but they want to talk, so they are always fun. One highlight was the kids asking where dad sat at the table, because they didn't think that a normal chair would hold him.
The next class of grade fives were dominated by the three new girls who really dug a bit in an effort to get some good stories about canada and me. I was really proud of them.
The first class of grade sevens, or my "dentistry class", was brutal, as would be expected. It's pretty bad when they don't even pay attention to a guest, especially their teacher's mom. They even turned up their noses at the pictures of our house, just barely acknowledging them. If nothing else, it made me feel better, because I realized that it wasn't me.
The second class of grade sevens was better, but unfortunately mom had started to feel pretty worn out by that point, a problem that was compounded by the soul-sucking previous class. It always happens, even to me, that I am shorter with the second class because I am still mad with the first. Gotta work on that.
The grade nines really turned the night around. They had such good little presentations, and they had obviously put a lot of time and effort into it. Mom was laughing, and she had the laughing a few times (and me turning beat red). Her response to the questions "Did Matt wet the bed?" was classic mom. "Not after he turned fifteen!"
They also asked about me as a student, and they asked about mom's dreams before she had a family. It was really a great class, and a great way to end the night. After that we headed out to the gimbap house for some kimchibokkumbap, sogogibokkumbap and mandu, a meal I like to call "The sampler". Unfortunately, the kimchibokkumbap was ridiculously hot. But I ate it anyways, because last time it was too hot, and we had to send it back, and I felt bad about ordering it again, because last time they had replaced it with another dish for free. Then, we crashed for the night. I actually woke up on top of the covers the next morning in a "getting into bed" position, suggesting I had fallen asleep rather quickly.
On Thursday we had a leisurely morning and then met Mel at the train station and we all headed to Seoul together at noon.