FAMILY MATTERS

Last weekend we traveled to the foothills of Mount Jirisan, where our friend Mrs. Shim's elderly parents live, along with their brothers and sisters, in three identical houses several feet apart. Each weekend their children and grandchildren make the two-hour drive from Busan to spend time together eating, talking, watching television, and helping out around the farm.

The family matriarch, who we were instructed to call "mother" (top picture), spent the weekend tirelessly cleaning the house and cooking massive piles of meat for us in between her 6am hikes and late-night gabfests with the in-laws. Her take on us, according to Mrs. Shim, was "They're taller than us, but they're very weak." It's true: As both a Westerner and an introvert, I find this kind of familial closeness exhausting. When we were getting ready to depart, Mrs. Shim's mother announced, "You can think of me as your mom too." Just as long as I don't have to live next door.

CHERRY BLOSSOMS

This weekend we attempted to escape Korea's "bali bali" (translation: Hurry up!) lifestyle with a trip to the countryside with our friend Mrs. Shim, her husband, their two sons, her father and mother, and about ten other members of their extended family. But more on that once I've sorted through my photos. In the meantime, here's a few shots from when the cherry blossoms opened and fell last week. For some Koreans, the cherry blossoms are a painful reminder of subjugation by the Japanese, who planted them when they colonized Korea from 1910 to 1945. But to most--me now included--it's the most anticipated and most beautiful time of year.

MAKING COFFEE

We own both a French Press and a conventional coffeemaker, so when our friend Mrs. Lee offered to teach me how to make coffee I wasn’t really sure what to say. Turns out that in Korea “dripping coffee” is more about the process than the final product, a labor of love akin to a tea ceremony. It begins with meditatively grinding the beans, followed by breathing deeply, adjusting your posture into the pouring stance, and dripping the water in a spiral motion without actually moving your arm. I guess I’m not that adept at coffee-making after all.

On an unrelated note, if you’re the type of traveler who fancies power breakfasts and bespoke suits, be sure to check out my business traveler’s guide to Hong Kong in April’s Global Traveler.

OLD BOOK ALLEY

One of our favorite places in Busan is Bosudong, i.e. "Old Book Alley". It's a narrow alley at the base of a mountain, densely packed with used bookstores whose volumes (both Korean and English) are sometimes stacked waist-deep and spilling out into the street. Needless to say, Joe can spend hours debating between a beat-up copy of Aesop's Fables or a study on the principles of language learning, and I'm pretty happy with the old editions of National Geographic. But mostly we go because it's one of the few spots in Busan with a strong sense of place--full of familiar comforts (coffee, doughnuts, books) but unlike anywhere we've been before.