A Family Trip

A Family Trip            Koreans used to express their busy lives such a phrase as: a life without evening. It means that they can’t enjoy relaxing evening with their family. My family is not much different from it. For years, it was rare for my husband to leave the office on time, and my children were busy studying and either of them left home for his military service for two years. It was hard for all of us to have a meal together even once a week. My children like to stay alone in their rooms along with their cell phones, and our conversation does not go beyond business. Accordingly, we can’t communicate enough. The best thing for us to do in such a dull life is a family trip, I thought. My husband agreed with me. The destination of our travel was my husband’s aunt’s in the U.S. In recent years, I witnessed several deaths: my mother-in-law, my husband’s uncle, my friend’s mother and even my mother. The old generation is drawing to a close. My husband and I hoped it would be not too late to visit her. This trip was a return visit to the U.S. in ten years as well. We flew over to Orlando via San Francisco. During the first week, we spent our time in Orlando. We bought one-park-per-day tickets in Disney World and Universal Studios, and visited six theme parks: Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Universal Studios and the Islands of Adventure. We started our day in a theme park with riding a few roller coasters. In the afternoon, we saw several 3D or 4D movies. We wore headbands having round ears like Mini or Mickey Mouse’. As the proverb says ‘The clothes make the man’, it made us feel better. Individually, Animal Kingdom was the best of the best. I realized that walking among the trees made me how happy. The attractions I liked most were ‘Soarin’ at Epcot and ‘Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey’ at Universal Studios. The former is a motion simulator to fly over several nice locations across six continents around the world, and the latter is the same kind of attraction flying inside the Quidditch stadium to play a game with Harry Potter and Malfoy. We were supposed to go to my sister-in-laws’ on January 22. Sorry to say, Florida was expecting big tornadoes from 21 to 23. We had to arrive at hers before noon at latest to beat tornadoes. My husband and I rented a car at an Alamo office near our place and left for Gainesville in a hurry. After two hours of driving, we arrived there in safety. And we could enjoy a meal with rice and Kimchi in a few days. Happiness isn’t somewhere far away. That was the right time I felt happiness! The next day was my sister-in-law’s birthday. She came over to the U.S in her twenties and finished her doctorate at the University of Florida while working at a hospital as a nurse. Now, she is a professor at the University, and her husband is a professor, too. Besides, she raised her two daughters well: either of them became a physician and the other works for the Disney World in Orlando. Last year, she was even invited to a graduation ceremony of a university as a speaker. She is one of people who achieved the American Dream. My husband and I bought a cake, a card and a few lotteries for her. Unfortunately, most of lotteries turned out to be losers except one, whose prize money was only two dollars. But all of us enjoyed ourselves at her birthday party. After the tornadoes, we drove to my husband’s aunt’s. She welcomed us with a big smile and open arms. She was an old lady, whose age was 80, but still full of energy as she was. She married a U.S. soldier in Korea more than 50 years ago and lived in several countries following her husband’s new posts. Since her husband died 15 years ago, she has lived alone in a big house. But, she is also one of people who realized the American Dream, I think. Her elder son became a successful businessman, and younger one is a farmer in his homeland. Her elder son, Jeff, lived in near her house, and his office also was close to hers. He owns a big mansion and a few buildings, a yacht and two light planes individually. Thanks to him, my family was able to stay in a nice beachfront villa for a few days, and experienced flying in his small plane. Her and her son made us tight-fisted. All was free, and we just enjoyed our holidays. Now, we’re back to our routines. On the surface, everything looks the same compared to before. However, I can feel that we try to be nice to each other. I regard it as evidence that we can understand each other more. In fact, we sometimes came across uncomfortable situations at the beginning of our trip. Most of happenings started with trivial misunderstanding. We again realized a good way to fixe problem was to have a talk directly and the best way to get in with each other was to share time. It was an excellent choice to visit her, and to take a family trip before it’s too late. <img src="https://t1.daumcdn.net/cfile/cafe/2709B04558BD283B27" class="txc-image" width="541" height="383" style="width: 541px; height: 383px; clear: none; float: none;" border="0" vspace="1" hspace="1" actualwidth="1024" exif="{}" data-filename="20170226_134039.jpg" id="A_2709B04558BD283B273B6B"/>