From Seoul with Love!
In This Week’s Newsletter
Ahn-nyoung (안녕: hi!)
This won’t be a long newsletter, as my family and I are currently gallivanting through Seoul! Just wanted to drop in and say “ahn-nyoung” (안녕: hi!) and provide a few highlights from our trip!
- We spent the first three days in Korea in Jeju-do, the famous island that is the setting for some of the most popular K-dramas (Hometown Cha-cha-cha, Our Blues, Welcome to Samdal-ri). We climbed up to the tippy-top of one of the smaller peaks of Hallasan Mountain (an inactive volcano), ate a lot of humongous mandarins, and went swimming in the hotel’s pool a lot!
- We then zipped on over to Seoul and the first order of business was going to my cousin’s wedding. I’d never been to a Korean wedding before–there were over 400 people in attendance! One of my youngest cousins, Seunghyun, got hitched and it was the first time in decades that we (we being all the Lee family cousins) were reunited!
- Afterwards, my father hosted a small dinner for just the family, right before which I shared the video I made for him for his 80th birthday party. I’d made some substantial additions and I added Korean subtitles. The Korean subtitles made a MASSIVE difference–my father started sobbing at the end. Sharing the video in Korea was quite special–my grandmother’s nieces and nephews were able to see photos of their aunt, grandmother (my great grandmother) and listen to how stories that started in Korea wound up building stories in America. Many of you already watched the first version, but if you want, you can watch the new and improved version below.
Video: Celebrating My Dad’s 80th Birthday!
To close, here are just a few photos from our adventures thus far. I’ll be back with a more fulsome missive of our trip next week. Until then, ahn-nygoung!
-Joanne
Photos
Comments & Questions
June 10, 2024
Joanne, Wow! How great to see your photos and listen to your podcast on Jeju!!! My son and I just got back @ end of May from 2 weeks in Seoul and we spent 4 days in Jeju as well. I see from your photo @ FourSeasons Seoul — we stayed there while in Seoul; a splurge, for sure, but worth it. This was such an amazing trip for both of us, one that we had planned for years. Let me know if you want to see some of our photos and I will send you a link.
Having a problem accessing video- it’s telling me it’s private?
Hi Lori! I made the share temporary as it was meant to be more for just family. But you can still watch it here: https://youtu.be/eqaGD5Q-3jc
What a treasure you have shared with us.. bless you
Beautiful story and a beautiful father. How nice of you to share this with us. You are pure sunshine.💛
That was a beautiful tribute to your father. I am sure he is so proud and grateful to have His story told.
This was such a moving tribute that I can only imagine what this meant for family and friends. What a beautiful family. Your voice is lovely to the ears and I would like to have more mini videos of the world through your eyes.
This was such a moving tribute that I can only imagine what this meant for family and friends. What a beautiful family. Your voice is lovely to the ears and I would like to have more mini videos of the world through your eyes.