I met my mom at the airport this morning. Per our previous discussion, she brought with her the son of a next-door neighbor who is named Jacob – a 15 year old Australian. She lives out in the middle of nowhere, so neighbors are close there – like family. So she interacts with him and his family a lot. It's kind of a chance repay some kindnesses from her neighbors, and also to allow him to "see the world" or at least one part of it – it's the first time he's been out of the country. This kind of generous gesture is hardly uncommon from my mom, so in fact when she suggested it earlier when we'd been planning her trip to visit I was in no way surprised, but I guess I wasn't sure it would really happen so I held off announcing it to blog-land.
So in fact I have two guests. Jacob is of course wide-eyed and interested in Korea, though a bit worn down currently from the long flight and I think a bit culture-shocked, as is to be expected. After taking my mom to the HomePlus store this morning, we had lunch at the Soupy restaurant that I discovered with Mary and Wendy a few weeks ago, and then when my mom lay down for a nap, I took Jacob on an extended walking tour of Ilsan – we saw Jeongbal Hill, my cancer hospital, the Madu neighborhood, the WesternDom mall, and part of Lake Park. We covered 8 km. Now he's exhausted. That's good. I didn't take any pictures, because it was all pretty familiar territory I guess. Today was a holiday – the newly minted "Hangeul Day" which was long ago a holiday but was out of fashion for several decades and only last year re-instated. So everywhere was crowded – especially the park. I like being a tour guide, but I ended up talking too much, which is an actual risk with my mouth in its current state – at least a risk for more discomfort.
[daily log: walking, 9.5 km]
