My parents turn 70!

My parents turn 70 this year (Korean age, of course). I can't believe that so much time has passed and that they are already 70 years old. It is hard to grasp what that means! 

My sibling and I hosted a party in Seoul at a hip cafe called Maria Jung's Garden located right outside of Seoul Land to celebrate their birthday this April (this post is delayed).  Maria Jung is a quick 10 minute drive from our home and they had a great 7-course meal (so delicious), decorations, and desserts.  

My parents invited roughly 60 of their closest friends and family, and my dad of course found Pop-Opera singers to come sing at the event for 1 hour. Initially, I thought this was a little bit insane, but in the end, of course my dad won out- and it was a great idea.  Instead of people sitting around having to socialize with others they didn't know very well (not all their friends are friends from the same life period), they got to listen to pop-opera singers sing old Korean and opera songs and dance.  It was a great event and I'm really glad that my dad had the foresight amidst our initial complaints to set it up!  

I had fun and my parents had fun! Lots of funny moments in which my sister, brother, and I were supposed to know or do certain things that are traditional Korean customs and we were completely lost and confused. We kept telling the MC that we wanted the "American way" but he had a really hard time accepting that.  All in all, I think everyone had a lot of fun, they enjoyed the food, and it was a unique experience --with lunch and a private show. 

I set up a website, made a photo slide to show during the event, and also had some of my parents close friends living abroad/and family friends from Utah! film videos to send happy birthday messages.  I was impressed with the technology:

I used 

- wix.com for the website

- animoto for the photo slide show 

-  tribute.co for easy collection of video messages

A few words about my parents, even though a few words can't capture how much I love and adore them: 

** My dad is such an amazing person-- as an adult, I can understand and appreciate how unique he is in his ability to think big picture and really say to the world---I'm doing this my way (we had one of the opera singers, sing My Way by Frank Sinatra). 

** My mom is the backbone of our family unit, we love and adore her so much and all she has done caring for us and basically giving up her career in piano and ceramics to take care of our family. 

** My parents are the best parents I could've ever asked for or even hoped for and everyday, even more so now, I am grateful to have been born their daughter.  I only hope that one day I can be just as wise, kind, fun, funny, honest, and generous as they are. 

** They have taught me so many life lessons, and they continue to do so even from afar. 

I wish I had taken more pictures, but I was running around or saying hello to relatives. 

Here are a few pictures that I have from the day: 

Seoul highlights

After our intense travel in Japan, we spent four days in Seoul. It was my parents' 70th birthday (they both turn 70 this year) and my siblings and I threw them a party!  I will post about this separately, but a few highlights from our days in Seoul.

Chris and I spent one day meeting friends. We went to Seocho galbi with Jany for lunch (huge galbitang!) and visited the Nike employee store courtesy of my brother. We then went over to Jihae's place to visit with her and her son, and in the evening met some high school friends for dinner.  Even though so much time has changed, at the core we are all still like high school kids! 

The other days we spent at home helping my parents wash Baekho (who has aged so much since I have last seen him) and plant lotus plants. I took a lot of pictures of us walking through the neighborhood and of my house because I can't believe how much it had changed and I was deeply sad and nostalgic for the past and held on to the images of my childhood home and neighborhood.

Do you see all those high rise buildings/apartments in the background of the top photo? Those didn't exist before. Neither did those huge homes on the left side of the photo. The neighborhood is half modern buildings and half older homes, with the newer buildings literally overshadowing older buildings. The high rise apartments took over rice fields and a beautiful view of mountains. I know people need places to live, but do we really need to make 30 floor apartment buildings?

 My neighborhood is so different now...and I hate it. Look at this apartment buildings...its so horrible.

 We went to a baseball game for the first time in Korea!!  It was very entertaining and we all had so much fun. I'm not a fan of baseball and usually find the games so boring, but Korean baseball games are nothing but constant cheering, excitement, music, and dancing. I highly recommend it! You can also eat fried chicken and pizza at the game.

 See the guy in the maroon shirt? He was up there leading the cheer team for the 4.5 hour game!

 Ah...at least this view is the same.

 Chan sung came over for breakfast and dropped us all off at my parent's birthday party. I haven't seen him in years and was really grateful he made time for us in the wee morning.

I miss my mom's cooking! We went home every morning for an elaborate breakfast.