My grandmother (on my father's side) passed away today. I don't think I ever posted this in my Korea 2004, but our extended family found out that my grandmother was terminally ill during my last week in Korea. It was a total damper on what was to be a joyous week there.

Being separated from my extended family in America has meant that I've remained pretty distant from all my relatives. Whenever I visit Korea, they always make me feel welcome ... but there are just certain things you miss. Growing up in America, you get a certain idea of how extended families act; in Korean society the interactions are different than those I imagine ... so in general it's a very odd feeling.

But there is no doubt that my grandmother took an interest in me when I visited. I remember one specific incident when I was with her, and she was trying to buy me some fruits. I politely declined (I didn't want to haul the fruits back on the 40 minute ride back to my apartment), but the lady who was selling them said, "You can tell she loves you; just take the fruits!" (or something along those lines, I honestly can't remember the exact quote). I ended up hauling the fruits back and then eating them later that day for dinner.

In any case, I'm glad I spent a lot of time with my grandparents; I took the hour ride out almost every Saturday morning to visit them and have lunch with them. Given their traditional Korean attitudes and my horrible Korean ... we didn't communicate much. But it's the time spent that's important. I certainly feel that I had some closure with my grandmother ... and that's what's important when someone passes away.

. . .

On a lighter note, since I don't like to dwell on deeply personal things on this journal anymore, the passing of my grandmother has suddenly thrusted me with a bunch of responsibility and a new role as Mr. Mom.

My father recently moved to Kansas City to start a new job. And as such, he cannot go to the funeral. So my mom bought a flight tonight that flies out at 8am tomorrow morning to Korea.

Now, this isn't so horrible. I mean, I can take care of my sister and the girl who is staying at our house alright, right?

Well, might I mention that my aunt and uncle from Korea (from my mom's side) are arriving tomorrow at roughly 2pm? Oh, excellent.

Roy must now TRANSFORM into Mr. Mom... taking care of the house while running tons of errands for two high school girls and two Korean relatives!

I will be taking bets on how fast I break down (over/under is 3 days) or how fast I burn the house down (over/under is 5 days). They should record this and make this a sitcom.

Even better, perhaps I can claim some distant kinship to the Ashlee/Jessica Simpson family and have my OWN show which would be infinitely more exciting than Ashee's show [I just LOVE Newlyweds]. Would you rather watch Ashlee talk about how she had a picture taken by paparazzi with Andrew or would you rather watch me desperately try to communicate in broken Korean to two tired relatives?

Come on, be honest.