I was at a new year’s day party a few days ago, and someone asked me what I enjoyed most about  my two weeks in Korea visiting my  family. A standard question like  that usually has a boilerplate answer.  However, on this occasion, I realized  that no standard answer would  apply:

• The people? Not since Tonga did  I meet a population that was  so friendly but so difficult to  communicate with. Outside of my parent’s multinational apartment complex, it was a challenge to  connect with anyone.  You could not get around with just English.
• The food? I didn’t enjoy any of the  traditional Korean cuisine. I thought  Korean barbeque and soju were unique but I had a hard time  with anything else. This has never happened to me before!!
• The city? I think Seoul is amazing.  It reminds me of Wellington in New Zealand  as it is surrounded by beautiful  mountains. The public transportation  is fantastic and there were tons of great galleries. However,  the narrow alleyways and the  amazing density of people above  and below the ground made me  claustrophobic.

What I really enjoyed most was being my family on vacation in another country.  We used to vacation together all the time when I was growing up; however, our last family vacation was twelve years ago.   Even though I could feel all of us returning to our old roles in the “Koorse family unit”, I realized how much I missed us sharing an adventure together.

New Year’s Day was incredible.  I was swarmed by thousands of people in front of the bell towers!  My claustrophobia hit me very hard but I needed to be huddled with the masses to stay warm on that ridiculously cold night.  The fireworks were going off inside the crowd but surprisingly no one seemed to care.  At one point, I joined a  group that was chanting and I followed along. .  In ten minutes, we were surrounded by police.  Unfortunately, I don’t think my crowd was yelling holiday wishes.  Fortunately, no one was hurt and I learned a valuable lesson.