Wow, that's quite a trip! Exhausting even for the younger ones. I don't think I have the patience to travel like that with my mom. She's a slow walker and doesn't have much stamina in her late 70s now.
Did you take KTX and express buses to get to one region to the next?
What happened to part 1 and 2 travels with your mom?
I thoroughly enjoy your writing - you have a beautiful gift of wrapping all the emotions of being involved with family. I just helped my aunt get a library card and showed her how to self check out books, she thought it was a marvelous invention 🙃
This was a very timely essay as I read it while on a trip to Europe (not with my mom). Every time I read one of your essays, it feels like it could have been written by myself. The language essay hit home so closely that I couldn't even reply because I needed to sort through so many emotions. So many additional emotions as a child of immigrants! It was a hard trip but glad you did it. Even if it is the last (totally something my mom would say!!) you'll both remember it fondly.
I'm exhausted just reading your wonderful account! My mother died at 51, when I was 22, so as I've aged (I'm 73 now), I've often wondered what our relationship would have been like. We had a typically tense relationship, but when I read with some envy about mothers and daughters with close relationships, I have to catch myself and remind myself that such a relationship would have been unlikely for us. Your account is fascinating to me because if she'd survived to older age, I think our relationship might have been similar to yours. Still, I think you're much more tolerant than I would be (no headphones?!?)! The language story cracked me up, btw, after your earlier concern about your lack of great fluency. Simply put, this was the trip of a lifetime, and how fortunate you both were to have each other as travel companions--and as mother and as daughter!
A reversal of roles
Audiobook with no headphones 😨
Wow, that's quite a trip! Exhausting even for the younger ones. I don't think I have the patience to travel like that with my mom. She's a slow walker and doesn't have much stamina in her late 70s now.
Did you take KTX and express buses to get to one region to the next?
What happened to part 1 and 2 travels with your mom?
I thoroughly enjoy your writing - you have a beautiful gift of wrapping all the emotions of being involved with family. I just helped my aunt get a library card and showed her how to self check out books, she thought it was a marvelous invention 🙃
This was a very timely essay as I read it while on a trip to Europe (not with my mom). Every time I read one of your essays, it feels like it could have been written by myself. The language essay hit home so closely that I couldn't even reply because I needed to sort through so many emotions. So many additional emotions as a child of immigrants! It was a hard trip but glad you did it. Even if it is the last (totally something my mom would say!!) you'll both remember it fondly.
I'm exhausted just reading your wonderful account! My mother died at 51, when I was 22, so as I've aged (I'm 73 now), I've often wondered what our relationship would have been like. We had a typically tense relationship, but when I read with some envy about mothers and daughters with close relationships, I have to catch myself and remind myself that such a relationship would have been unlikely for us. Your account is fascinating to me because if she'd survived to older age, I think our relationship might have been similar to yours. Still, I think you're much more tolerant than I would be (no headphones?!?)! The language story cracked me up, btw, after your earlier concern about your lack of great fluency. Simply put, this was the trip of a lifetime, and how fortunate you both were to have each other as travel companions--and as mother and as daughter!