Meet the in-laws...

Joo and I have been in Korea for about a week now, spending the days diving into complicated governmental and financial labyrinths and the evenings with her family in their Seoul apartment. This post will just be a quick introduction of her family because our camera is getting fixed at the moment so we don't have many pictures. Above is DalKong, the poodle that gets to come with us everywhere (some times secretly if dogs aren't allowed) and gets into all sorts of mischief but is of course lovable at the same time.

Next is Changmonim (her real name is KimSooJa, but whenever I call her that everyone just bursts into laughter at how awkward it sounds since Koreans refer to other adults by their relationship to you rather than their name - "changmonim" means "honorable mother-in-law")



Then we have Kiwi, who I can call by his real name (or nickname) because I'm older than him, but he calls me "brother-in-law."



He's 26 and just starting his final year of undergraduate university (normal timing for Korean men since they have mandatory military service thrown in there). We're quite close and spend a lot of time hanging out and critiquing music/TV/movie together while the girls shop, get their hair done or sleep (he's a night owl who typically stays up until 5 or 6). One of our main ones this time around has been Flight of the Conchords...

Then we have Jusu (who's older than me, but for some reason I can call her by her real name too). She's 31 and has been the central focus of this visit to Korea because she just graduated from a master's program in art in France and is putting together her first exhibition this week back in Korea.

The father is quite hard to catch on camera as he doesn't like any pictures to be taken of him when he's not in a suit (Korean tradition), but he is an architect with a keen interest in traditional Korean foods that are supposedly very healthy (lots of bones, blood, roots, etc.) So, that is the core family- more about our actual time here in the next post when we hopefully have our camera back!