This personal essay recounts a recent trip to South Korea for Christmas, exploring themes of family, change, and the transformative power of travel.
It is incredible to me that only hours ago I was in Busan, South Korea , enjoying a bone broth soup for late lunch with my family at the Gimhae International Airport. Then, before I knew it, it was time for the farewell hugs—see you soon, ingat sa biyahe—that, despite plenty of practice the past few years, never gets easier.
With my carry-on trolley bag and backpack, I breezed through security check-points and long, brightly-lit terminal hallways in Gimhae, then Incheon, Seoul, then Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. Suddenly I am waiting at gate D41 for the final leg of my long journey home to Austin—because, yes, the United States is home to me now too, a fact that surprised me when an immigration officer stationed by the US citizen and Permanent Resident inspection line greeted me with welcome home. Astonished is the feeling that seems to glow from my body when I think about this past week and the rest of my 2024. Let me begin with the impulsive decision to travel to South Korea, which I made on a whim on the tail-end of November so I could spend Christmas with my family. The trip takes over 20 hours and 3 flights one way, so by the time I’m heading back home, I will only have just begun to adapt to Korea’s time zone. It is a grueling, inefficient journey—I lose two precious PTO days just traveling—but one I am glad I had the opportunity to pursue. As I get older, Christmases will continue to look different in both welcome and sad ways. For most of my life, noche buena was celebrated with my family, cousins, and neighbors packed in our small house in Mandaluyong, playing loud games and always eating earlier than we planned. I always looked forward to this time of year, to the warmth and laughter of it. Already the group thinned these last few years as relatives moved elsewhere, to other provinces or abroad, passed away, or began to celebrate with the new families they now also belong to. I’m part of that now; my last Christmas in the Philippines was in 2021, and with the recent death of my grandmother this year, the glue that held the family firmly together during the holidays is gone, and things will never be the same again. A kind of sadness, yes, one that no one is spared from, but from that tenderness grows new, equally beautiful things, like creating new traditions with other loved ones, or traveling abroad for Christmas Eve, something we don’t normally do. Like most families, my parents, siblings, and I don’t have much in common, in truth. But traveling—and the dining and shopping that comes with that—is our common ground. Together this past week we explored the port city of Busan, a place I had first heard about through the 2016 hit Korean zombie flick. We indulged in plenty of good food (Korean barbecue and fried chicken, fresh seafood, sot bap, honeycomb ice cream are some favorites), walked the length of Haeundae Beach and several nearby markets, shopped at souvenir and skincare stores (hard not to do in Korea), visited the Gamcheon Culture Village, and even had some tea at ZM-ILLENNIAL, formerly Magnate, the café owned by the father of Jimin from BTS (I’m a huge fan!). We even made a two-day trip to Seoul via train. In the big, glittering capital, which appeared to me like a vision of what Manila in the future might look like, we explored the grounds of Gyeongbokgung Palace (outside of which pro-Yoon mobilizations were ongoing when we visited), and walked through the streets of Myeongdong, Hongdae, and Gangnam. A day is barely enough time to really know a place, much less a metropolis like Seoul crawling with the usual city traffic and crowded public transport, so going from place to place took a significant amount of time. Still, astonishment. That I was in a new country for the first time, one that, in the span of just a few weeks, impeached both their president and acting president; one that has touched my life even before I set foot on its soil through music, food, literature, and film; one that now lives in my memory as a place that once generously held my family and I, even if only for a brief period of time. Between my visit to the Philippines last February, Slovenia in May, and South Korea this past week, I have been on a total of 17 flights. 2024 also marks my second year of living in the United States, and the first time I published a chapbook, did a writing residency, and adopted a cat. More than ever, I felt myself truly at the helm of my life. Strangely, what all this taught me is to nurture my capacity for awe. To continue to feel astonishment
Personal Essay SOUTH KOREA CHRISTMAS FAMILY TRAVEL AWE NEW BEGINNINGS IMMIGRATION USA
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