As a child growing up in Toronto, I always wanted more stories about my parents’ lives back in Korea, before they immigrated to Canada in the ’70s. There were many holes that felt like secrets. Over the years, I’ve become more at peace with this (to quote comedian Hasan Minhaj, “Immigrants love secrets!”).
But that doesn’t mean I can’t try a new thing. In June, I pulled our kids from school and co-ordinated schedules for a big, multi-generational trip to Seoul. It wasn’t easy or cheap or relaxing — there was no swim-up bar for me in Korea.
But I’d long dreamed of travelling there with my whole family, including my parents, my kids’ beloved Halmuni and Halabujee, and we were finally making it real. The goal was to see my parents’ country through the eyes of my children. Trust me when I say it was the trip of several lifetimes.
Although I’d travelled to Korea on multiple vacations, along with my husband (who, after 20 years in our family, has honorary Korean status), this would be the first visit ever for our kids, Jasper, 12 at the time, and Leona, 10. Hannah Sung with daughter Leona in hanbok at Gyeongbokgung Palace. Being freed of our usual routines, new patterns cropped up.
We stayed in a residential building — my parents in a one-room apartment, the rest of us in another — in a neighbourhood called Gayang. Every morning, we joined my parents in their room as Mom prepared a breakfast of steamed yams, soft-boiled eggs, Korean chamoe melon and in.