Sunday, August 31, 2008

Happy but Hawjawnhada


Riding the bus back to our hostel from the airport after dropping off the boys, we met an author named Carlos... He was a funny character who had brought his son to the airport three hours away just to check and see how everything looked to prepare his nerves for his first flight ever the following week. He writes about all the lingering effects of the guerilla-dictator wars throughout South America in the past half century. I would detail more of it, but I´m only on page 3 of the book he gave me since he uses a lot of Argentinian slang in his writing.

Anyway, when we finally arrived back in our hostel, Tango City, there was a very heavy stillness. We then realized that it was the first time we had been truly alone for the whole trip (our first two weeks were with Wes and Jenny, and the next five were with Kiwi and Gyu). It was a good feeling romantically, considering that it is our honeymoon, but at the same time there was an emptiness. I had been especially touched by Kiwi´s final words at the airport- normally a fairly unemotional guy, he had teared up and said, ¨Daniel, I respect you a lot... take good care of my sister.¨

There´s a Korean word, hawjawnhada, that perfectly describes the feeling of having someone leave while their footprint remains on your heart. I think it hit me then that the two boys weren´t just friends, but are now my family, and will be for the rest of my life.

In honor of them, I thought it would be appropriate to show some highlight photos from their journeys with us from Gyu´s camera (I burned them onto a CD the day he left). Here are the pictures of them with their respective mothers (the first one is Kiwi with my mother-in-law)


Gyu´s look before he became a weathered traveller...

Gyu, in Heaven, after finishing off his first Inca Kola (bubble gummy CocaCola specialty of Peru)

Me giving Kiwi his first travel tattoo...

Kiwi´s first appearance as ¨Inca Man¨on his trek in the Amazon...



Peru´s healthy dish to go with the Inca Kola, salchipapas (cut up hot dogs, french fries, lots of grease and condiments)

The effects of too many night buses...

Balgan yangmal (red socks) takes Kiwi down in a wrestling match (I think he may have been sleeping though so it probably didn´t count)

Kiwi reflecting over Ollantaytambo ruins in Peru...

The boys´trip to Machu Picchu...



The night dance on Lake Titicaca´s shores...

A typical South American fruit market in Arequipa, Peru

Gyu finishes every last drop of his sundaekuk (stuffed pig intestines) in the pseudo-Koreatown of Buenos Aires...

Kiwi´s final night in South America, out pondering the journey on our balcony in Buenos Aires...

And the overall summary of our 6 weeks together... a chart of every town-city we went to and our combined ratings of several categories.

Since it may be hard to read on your computer, the top five were Amantani, Peru (147), Arequipa, Peru (144), Ollantaytambo, Peru (144), Buenos Aires, Argentina (141), and Cordoba, Argentina (131) and the last place by far was Puno, Peru with a resounding 63. Ironic that our very lowest and very highest were a mere 3 hours away from each other by boat.

A few people had asked me how it was to have multiple people along on the honeymoon, when it is traditionally a two person event. It was honestly wonderful. I really enjoyed the time getting to know the two guys more, and was very sad to see them go. On our first meal that we cooked after they left, we had way too much rice left over because we were so used to cooking for four. And when we moved on to our next destination, I kept thinking of things around us that they would like to eat, see, do, etc. Backpacking with someone brings you very close in a short time and virtually guarantees a sense of hawjawnhada.

On the day after they left, JooYeon and I made another attempt at Koreatown and this time found it (the REAL it) within a block from a nearby subway stop. The real Koreatown was quite large - maybe 5 blocks by 3 blocks - but had a very eerie feel to it, almost like a ghosttown. At first we thought something was wrong because all the doors were closed and almost no one was in the streets. But it turns out that it´s a more dangerous section of Buenos Aires and the Koreans are known as the rich people of the area, so I think that sets up a situation where there is a fair amount of theft, attempted theft, and mistrust.

But we didn´t come for socializing, we came for some key Korean groceries and for another good Korean meal, both of which we found easily. We even stumbled accross a HUGE Korean Internet room which allowed JooYeon to type Korean characters for the first time in two months, an important step because she could finally write her family and also signed us up to start translating again as we travel (we had taken some time off while the boys were with us). The following pictures are humorous and interesting, but only for our Korean counterparts, so sorry about that...




As we were leaving Koreatown, I noticed that several cars had jugs of wiperfluid, coolant, etc. on top of them...

I asked a nearby local, who told me that this was the sign that something was for sale. So I took my waterbottle and put up a nice new car for sale myself...

After filling our stomachs and grocery bags with mashitnun food, we spent one more night in Buenos Aires, and then packed our drastically heavier bags and headed across the river to Uruguay, but that shall be detailed in the next episode...

4 comments:

  1. Just curious who all comments on your blog. Other than Heather,Rick,or myself I don't see any comments. Do they just email you? Mom

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  2. Yes, some have emailed and others send messages on facebook, but since I check this more than facebook it´s a good way to comment (email is better for anything private)

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  3. Miss You!!!!!! - GYU!!

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  4. Lol... miss you too! Have you adapted back to the world of studying and tests yet? Dan

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