hawaii continued

my apologies for the delay, but i thought i needed to record the events of our hawaiian vacation before i forgot. we ended up staying at the hale koa hotel (in waikiki) for 10 nights and loved every night of it. we were right by the beach and were within walking distance of a lot of cool restaurants and shopping. we spent a few nights just being lazy beach bums. we woke up, walked to the beach, swam, took naps in the sand, ate lunch at the local beach hut snack shop, walked back to the hotel, swam at a pool, showered and went to dinner. it was great.

other days we weren't so lazy we...

went hiking, biking, snorkeling, and sailing. on the hike we were able to see rainforest that is off-limits unless you have a permit. our guide, christian, was great and let us explore, pick fruits, and answered lots of our questions. our feet were covered in mud by the end of the hike!

we followed our hike by a bike down the mountain, which was awesome! we circled down the mountain for a few miles and enjoyed spectacular views of the island. lastly we took a sail out near waikiki to do a snorkel as well. the captain's dog was on board the boat and he, ironically, was afraid of the water. he would bark and bite at any splashes that landed on board to show his disapproval. it was pretty cute. once we got out pretty far, the captain let us jump out for a snorkel and swim. we saw many types of fish and several sea turtles....huge ones that swam right underneath us!

on other days we drove around the island to find good places to snorkel. we ended up purchasing our own snorkels and fins so we wouldn't have to rent them everywhere we went. we snorkeled at waikiki, shark's cove, the famous hanauma bay, and on the north shore. we saw so many kinds of fish...it's really remarkable to see so many colors and varieties of one animal. we maybe want to get scuba certified so we can have even better views for our next vacation! the snorkel at shark's cove was perhaps our favorite. the rock is lava-like and very sharp, so it's a bit dangerous, especially since the tides change and can be quite strong. peter, the daredevil he is like to go swimming inside the little caves to compete with the speed of the tides.

we also drove around and stopped at interesting places. one of our favorite towns we visited was hale'iwa, which was this quaint town with little art boutiques, great restaurants, and a nice quiet little beach. we stopped a couple times for a shave ice....the BEST shave ice i've ever tasted! it has three layers of vanilla ice cream, azuki beans, then shave ice on top with the different syrup flavors on top. it doesn't sound too tasty, but it was so delicious! we went back twice to have it again (and it was quite the drive to get there!). we also enjoyed coffee shops, a great burger joint, and they had several food trucks that served very yummy foods. one truck we visited was called "opal's thai food" which was owned by a guy named opal. he was extremely personable and would ask you what kind of food you like and if you have any allergies. then he would proceed to say.."ok. i got it. i'll take care of you." and he would start cooking and bring out some homey, tasty, love filled dishes. he made us a fresh green papaya peanut salad with chicken curry and sticky rice. yum! we felt like we were invited into someone's home it was so hospitable. if we ever go back, we definitely want to see opal. opal also has a little boy, probably around 6 years old, who was at the truck. i overheard him ask one of the patrons if he had ever had an out of body experience before..."where your body is sleeping but the inside of you wakes up and goes outside?" pretty deep stuff for a six-year old to ask you about.. : ) shortly after he hopped over to my table and leaned toward me a little bored and asked, "do you have any kids?" Sympathetically, I responded, "sorry, bud. nope. i don't have kids. do you have any kids?" i teased. he responded with a great amount of seriousness and confusion, "no. i'm too young." then he hopped and skipped away.

another place we stopped was on the northern part of the island. it's a famous spot where pirates of the carribbean is being shot as well as a famous scene from the movie "from here to eternity". we climbed down on these giant rocks to get to this beach and took a swim. the current was crazy strong. the water was foamy and turbulent, crashing against the rocks. the current was so strong that when i was standing on the beach, only knee deep in the water, a strong tide came in and totally wiped me off my feet, drew me in to the water and spit me back out, putting about 5 lbs of sand in my bikini! : ) ha. anyway, it was a very romantic spot and just gorgeous.

after our 10 nights at hale koa, we spent our last few nights at bellows air station in a cabin right on the beach. it was gorgeous. we could hear the crashing of the waves when we slept...heavenly. we swam in the water or just enjoyed the view. we had a great evening where we bbq'ed some steaks and cooked our dinner on the grill. it was fun and nice to cook since we had been eating out for almost 2 weeks at that point! we also were able to see some good friends we hadn't seen in years....mara and quinn tate. they are stationed on base in hawaii and we got to see their super cute babies, eat dinner, and just catch up on life in general. it was a perfect way to end our trip since we hadn't had a chance to see any of our beloved family/friends the whole trip.

so...leaving hawaii was the hardest part. not only because we didn't want to leave, but because we couldn't seem to get out! we tried to get on a flight going straight from hawaii to osan, korea, but were warned the plane had some maintenance issues. the flight was delayed and we spent the night at the air terminal. the next day we were told the plane was good to go. we got on a bus that took us to the plane and were told we couldn't board the plane because the maintenance issue wasn't yet resolved. so we waited until the next day. again, we checked in, loaded our luggage and even boarded the plane. once we were on the plane, the crew told us shortly after that we needed to deplane because the maintenance issue was still a problem. we got off the plane and checked into the hotel on base. the third time we learned the plane was ready so we checked in and boarded the plane. the plane even took off and we felt home free. except 45 minutes into the flight the pilot said, "sorry folks. wish i was joking, but we need to turn around. the maintenance issue is still a problem. we are returning to hawaii." so we returned to hawaii and tried to wait patiently until the the plane was fixed. we had about 2 days until they thought the plane would leave....so we got a rental (that was a whole trial in and of itself! they were sold out of cars and with a little pleading and begging, we were able to get a car for a day!). getting a rental was a lifesaver because we were so tired of being stuck in a terminal for hours upon hours and enjoy hawaii. we drove all around the island...ate an amazing meal in chinatown, drove to the ocean, and just enjoyed the gorgeous scenery. then we got on the plane for the last time and it finally took off and we landed in korea! we made some very good friends along the way since we all had grown to know each other quite well through the entire process of trying to get to korea. we're even planning to visit a family that we met next weekend.

so....i know this may be a bit crazy, but here are some of the details of the trip. i hope it didn't cause too much of a headache for you to read it! wish i had the time or energy to make it a bit more poetic, but i had to get something going before it all was forgotten! love you all!

5 years!!!!

we've grown from being middle school pals to best friends to husband and wife. i love you more today than i did the day we were married. i never really understood when people said marriage gets better with time, but i can say it certainly has over the past 5 years of our marriage. apart from my redemption in Christ, being your wife, peter, has been the greatest gift. you are a wonderful reflection of God's love and mercy. i love you dearly. cheers to another 50 years!

vacation of a lifetime

we had an aaammmaaaazing vacation to hawaii. it was filled with beauty, adventure, craziness, amazing food, and lots of laughter. i'm going to do my best by recapping all that we did...starting from the top.

we planned to fly space a, which is basically a free flight to various cities around the world where military planes are flying. it's a fickle system, so you have to be flexible and willing to abandon any travel plans you might have. the schedule for outgoing flights changes by the minute, flights are constantly delayed or even cancelled, and they may make unexpected layovers in random cities. we decided we wanted to be adventurous and give it a shot. it was a crazy ride, but it was all worth it.

we started out driving from busan to daegu, daegu to osan to catch a flight somewhere to the u.s. we were hoping to first fly to california, do some traveling in the mainland and then hop on a flight to hawaii from california. it took us a few days to even find an available flight out of korea, so we decided we would just take a chance and fly to tokyo and hope they would have something going to CA or HI. luckily, we made a flight to tokyo and on the way met a man named james. he was an older gentleman, been retired from the military for many years and he was also trying to fly back to the states. it was a miracle we met him because, being space-a newbies, he gave us a huge wealth of information on how the evasive system works. seriously, i think they keep things super complicated just to make people confused. i even leaned over to peter and asked, "is james an angel?" anyway, our casual conversation continued through our flight all the way until we landed in japan. he was a fascinating man. he spoke korean fluently (his wife is korean), he lived in korea for many years and was kind, interesting and funny. in fact, we even shared a hotel room with him our first night in tokyo. we phoned the terminal together to check on outgoing flights, ate some food, and even watched oprah together.

aside from becoming friends with james, we had other adventures in tokyo. we ate some amazing meals: sushi and soba. we roamed the streets just looking to taste some of the culture. it was great to have an outsider's view into the country and culture. my experience in korea has always been so intertwined with my personal experience and identity that it's been hard to separate myself from what i saw and learned while there. in japan, i felt like i could just be a good ole' foreigner, soaking in all the unfamiliar and enjoy. i could finally empathize with peter on what it must be like for him when he tries to navigate around korea. the writing on the menu and billboards looks no more legible than scribbles and doodles, the language sounds no more understandable than tolkien's elvish. it was neat to be in a state of ignorance for a little bit...to kind of zone out all the external and just breathe in everything new.

we stayed in tokyo for two nights and three days. we couldn't really see any flights that were going to the u.s., so we decided we take another hop on a flight to kadena, which is in okinawa, japan. had some issues with my passport and we actually had to run to the u.s. embassy to resolve the issue and then run back to the terminal just in time to catch our flight. the aircraft we flew was the same kind that peter had actually flown on when he went to airborne school (he jumped out of these planes!). it was neat to see what the plane looked like in the interior. we had seats made of nets and we could see the skeleton of the plane with all its wires and pipes sticking out. the roar of the engine is so loud they give everyone a set of ear plugs. we had a family of four sit across from us. we noticed their younger son, who was about 7, not look too well. he actually spent a good chunk of our 2 hour flight vomiting in a grocery sack. good thing we had ear plugs. : )

when we landed in kadena, we got off the plane (just like you see the president does!) and we boarded a school bus which took us to the terminal so we could go through immigration. our friend james also took this flight to kadena, and being the experienced space-a bulldog he was, he immediately started questioning the airman who drove us to the terminal if there were any outgoing flights to hawaii or california. to our dismay, the airman said there was a flight going out, but check in was already in session and it would probably take us another 30 minutes before we could get there. : / well, peter the ambitious thought we still might be able to catch the flight if we ran...so we did. we ran to the terminal, grabbed our bags and approached the check-in desk sweaty and out of breath, hoping we weren't too late and we weren't! they checked us in and we waited patiently for them to call our names telling us we made the flight to hawaii. we found out we had indeed made it and got two seats on the flight. it was a total miracle!

when we landed in hawaii it was a rush of total joy and exhilaration. we couldn't wait to jump into the water. we were hot and feeling kind of sweaty in our long pants and tennis shoes (you have to fly with closed toe shoes and warm clothes on a space a flight because it gets really cold), but until we could feel the cool ocean water, we needed to find a place to stay.

we had been calling hotels from korea for the past couple weeks, but found their hotels were always booked. it was difficult calling them too, because they seem to let the phone ring for about 10 minutes before they even pick up. we called again from the hawaii terminal and they again told us, "we're sold out." they told us we could come by in person in a few hours and maybe they would have a cancellation. so we jumped on two different shuttles that dropped us off at the hale koa hotel and we just prayed there would be a room. we spoke with a lady named dolly first. she told us they were totally sold out. we could stop by later to see if anything opened up, but she couldn't guarantee anything. so we dropped off our bags with the bell hop and we walked to the beach in our jeans and tennis shoes. the water was beautiful and we were itching to jump in the water. we checked in again and, miraculously, a room had opened up and we were able to stay for 2 nights. not only that, but we were able to extend our stay for 10 nights at the hale koa.

the hale koa hotel is open only to military and their dependents. it's on waikiki beach and it's on a beautiful property. there are huge gardens and banyon trees, two pools and a short walk to the beach. the water was really calm at waikiki--perfect for swimming or just laying by the water. we had an excellent view of the ocean from our room as well as the lush gardens around the hotel.

world's naughtiest puppy...

this picture was taken by my friend, jen, of her puppy who just happens to look almost identically to my childhood pup, goliath "goli" kim.

he was, perhaps, on the top 10 list of world's naughtiest dogs. any bad thing a dog could do, goli did. he chewed up shoes, chewed on the walls, pooped in the house, ate my school supplies (he chewed up my favorite green eraser which i thought i lost until i took goli out to go to the bathroom and saw what he had done with it), knocked over trash cans, attacked the vacuum cleaner, got up on the table to eat food at Thanksgiving, begged for food like no other dog i've seen. he would crawl under the table and rest his head on your lap and make cute whimpering noises, but if you ignored his gentle whimpers for a couple minutes, they became loud moans that sounded like "come on, man. come on! give something up, puhhlease?" he was like a harry houdini in dog form. he could get out of any cage, fence that you put him in. when he was a puppy, only a few months old he chewed through a thick plastic crate in a few hours. when he was only a couple months old, he got out of a fenced area and followed me on my school bus.goli also was notorious for running away. when the door opened he would try to squeeze out of that door like a criminal from prison. once he caught the scent of fresh air, he was gone, especially if there were small animals around. he loved to bark at squirrels and rabbits. if we were outside and squirrels were visible i would always do my best to distract him so he wouldn't try to chase them. heck, i would have thrown down a $50 steak in front of him to avoid an attempted runaway squirrel chase. he was super fast and, to add to the list of all of his "naughtiness", he had terrible obedience skills. when he'd escape we would chase and call him to come to us and he would turn and begin running toward us, giving us a sense of relief, but then at the last second he would dodge us and start running another direction just to "sike" us out. he was kind of a punk. it often took the whole family to catch him. i'm sure we were quite the spectacle running around our neighborhood with treats in hand trying to lure him back into his collar and leash. sometimes my mom or dad would drive the car around with the doors open to try to get him to jump in because he loved car rides.

he loved to snuggle and sleep with you. even though he was a pit bull he was really just a big cuddlebug. he would nose his way under the blankets and wanted every inch of his body covered. i sometimes slept with an electric blanket and he loved it. he would cuddle underneath and stay there for hours. he liked to be comfortable when he slept. he didn't like to walk in the grass after it rained because he didn't like to get his feet wet. he wasn't allowed to get on the couches at home, but he would always sleep on them while we were gone. as soon as we walked in the door i would hear the rattle of his collar and i'd see his ear pressed against his face where he had be laying against the throw pillow. he would have this look of "i didn't do anything wrong. i'm just hangin' out...", but then we'd walk over to the couch to see his body print embedded in the cushion, still warm.

he had other endearing qualities. he was super smart and knew dozens of tricks. he knew how to give kisses where he would press his lips against your face. he could jump in the air and twist (i called it the triple axle), he could play dead and pass out, he high fived, could give hugs and dozens more tricks, he enjoyed music and would lay at my feet when i played piano. he would try to sing along when my mom played guitar. he loved to be scratched. he would sulk when he got in trouble. his sulking hiding spot was under my parents' bed and if you tried to pull him out he would nip at your fingers.

goli eventually got sick and we had to make one of the hardest decisions of my life. we had to put him down. we loved him so much and i still miss him and think of him all the time, especially every fourth of july. whenever he heard fireworks he would hide in the bushes because it scared him so much. it always made us laugh. in between the booms and pops he would muster up the courage to come out and bark at the sky to show his indignation, but eventually he would end up back in the bushes and there was no coaxing him out.

i don't know if dogs really do go to heaven, but i hope i'll be able to see him again. when he died, i was so sad and i prayed God would let me see him in my dreams and i do. every once in a while i have dreams of playing with goli, running around and laughing at his quirkiness. he was perhaps the world's naughtiest dog, but i sure do love and miss him.

busan sand festival and the army ball

happy father's day!

to go along with my earlier post, i have been wanting to make a point of thanking my parents for all they have done for us kids. they have overcome many difficult obstacles and have sacrificed a great deal for my siblings and me.

when i hear the national anthem of Korea or the U.S. I think a lot of my parents. as i listen to the melodies and words, i reflect on what it means to love a country or to feel patriotic.

my dad, is one of the most patriotic people i know. he still affectionately refers to korea as "my country" when he references it. he loves the land; he loves the people. i know he must miss his home country terribly. i can only imagine how difficult it must have been for my parents to leave all of their family and friends behind to move to the u.s. having moved to a "foreign" country, i can finally empathize with him. i understand the frustration he must have felt with the language barrier, the cultural differences and misunderstandings, missing what he could have "back home" or giving up a comfortable life so he could provide a better life for his family.

my dad is the hardest worker i know. he worked so hard to be sure all of us could have a beautiful home, an excellent education and the opportunity to go to college. we've all gone to college and even graduate school. we are all healthy and have never been in need. I owe both my dad and my mom a lot of gratitude for those gifts.

dad, happy father's day! you came to the u.s. as a 20-something newly wed, probably not sure what you were getting yourself into and you've been so bountifully blessed by God. thank you for being so brave and all you have sacrificed. you are a great example of the american dream.

tearing up at the movies

have you ever gone to a movie on a military base? well, if you have you know that they play the national anthem before any movie they show. the lights dim a little and a loud crackling recording booms through the speaker system and immediately everyone in the theater jumps up and stands at attention. i learned this this the hard way...i was already in my movie lounging position when the lights dimmed and i saw people standing and i scrambled to stand up from my folding seat without spilling popcorn all over my lap. i wasn't sure what was happening and my date didn't offer any explanation. afterward peter looked over at me and said, "sorry...i forgot to tell you they do that here." well, what i once thought was a strange formality has become something i really enjoy and even look forward to.

since we are in korea our movie theater plays the korean national anthem first then the u.s. anthem. the theater plays an old video featuring different landscapes of korea with an old recording of a large korean choir singing and orchestra playing this beautiful song. every time i hear the korean anthem i tear up. the melody is so rich and lovely. the anthem moves me. i think of the tragedy this nation has experienced, how families were broken apart, so many lives lost from war and how, even still, this nation remains in a state of division.

if you want to hear the anthem, here's a video.

and these are the lyrics in english:

Until the East Sea's waves are dry, (and) Mt. Baekdusan worn away, God watch o'er our land forever! Our country forever!

Rose of Sharon, thousand miles of range and river land! Guarded by her people, ever may Korea stand!

Like that Mt. Namsan armored pine, standing on duty still, wind or frost, unchanging ever, be our resolute will.

In autumn's, arching evening sky,crystal, and cloudless blue, Be the radiant moon our spirit, steadfast, single, and true.

With such a will, (and) such a spirit, loyalty, heart and hand, Let us love, come grief, come gladness, this, our beloved land!