my aunt surprised me by meeting me at her subway stop on saturday. when we entered the elevator to the ground floor, a woman was already there, holding her emart shopping bag, flowers (fake i later learned) protruding from the opening. they spoke in korean:
my aunt: my, your flowers are pretty!
woman: thank you!
my aunt: how much were they? (koreans are notorious for asking the cost of things.)
woman: blah blah blah (i'm still bad at remembering numbers, i'm very slow when it comes to translating them, but i do know that for fake flowers, they were expensive because my aunt said...)
my aunt: wow! that's a bit pricey.
woman: they were pricey because they are so beautiful.
my aunt: ah, of course.
the woman then remarked on how we resembled each other and asked if i was her daughter. as we walked out onto the street, my aunt explained that i was her niece. since i look like my mother, naturally, i would also look like my aunt, her older sister. (it has been interesting to note the number of people who think i look just like my mother, not only in my facial features, but also in my tone of voice and even how i laugh! imagine that!)
my aunt is very darling. she laughs easily--which i looooooove!--and smiles readily. we spent the afternoon together, eating, chit-chatting and in the early evening, went for a really lovely walk in the wooded path by her house. she showed me her usual work-out routine which consists of briskly walking two loops, with a stretching session in between and (oh yes, get this!) a branch on which to swing! she claims that swinging has helped loosen her tight shoulder muscles. she taught me new vocabulary words (the name of a rather vocal bug is meh-mee and i misremembered is mah-mee, which gave us both a good chuckle as she corrected me and said the bug was not my mother!) and simply enjoyed the trees, the sound of crunching earth and walking with my aunt.
i didn't bring appropriate shoes but since most korean women's feet tend to migrate towards a ubiquitous size (or rather, i should say the shim/chong ladies' feet are very similar in size!) i borrowed a pair of her white sneaks and wore them, per her suggestion, without socks!
