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.