An interesting phone call

came my way tonight. It was from a woman I had never met before, yet, a woman whom I share a truly unique connection. The woman's grandparents are the sweet Korean couple I sat next to on the plane to Seoul last summer. They were the couple who invited me into their home after I had missed the last bus of the evening to my final destination. They even invited me into their home for a week, taking me on a personal tour of all things Korean: we made kimichi, ate bulgogi, toured the Korean Hanok Village, went shopping in Suwon, visited the beautiful gardens, rode the rides at Everland (Disneyland), and we even visited my birthplace, Wonju. Mr. and Mrs. Shim, what lovely, lovely people. They were happy to teach me--a Korean without a clue--all about Korea, even though we had a large language barrier. I think the phrase that convinced me to come stay at their house went a little something like this: "You. Come. Homestay. My house." They'd ask me what I wanted to eat for dinner, "Pizza. You want?" They'd ask me what I wanted to do, "Everland. you want?" And so, you can imagine the difficulty, in a situation like this, to keep in touch over the months spent apart. So it was much to my surprise that I would recieve a phone call from them tonight, delivered by the sweet voice of their granddaughter Sunkyung Park. She told me about how her grandparents wanted to thank us for the book we mailed them, but they didn't know how to communicate that to us. So, our messenger was in perfect need! Sunkyung and I chatted for quite a while tonight, and we discussed future plans to meet in Korea later this summer. Perhaps, we can even have a big reunion with Young Ok and Kie Sup Shim! It's funny how a series of fortuneate events could bring people like Sunkyung, Young Oh, Kie Sup and me together.