As many of you know I come from a large family. Thus the October Tour had a lot of my family members along since I strong-armed many of them to join the trip. But we did have some brave souls who were bold and brave enough to join the group.
*These included a dear friend from Germany who has known my family for 39 years.... so she gets points for being partly brave.... but I mean, she knows the family so how risky is that?
*Then we had a Mother/Son duo from Romania who knew only 2 of the family members. Brave yes, but there were 2 of them.. Since they flew in from Istanbul they provided us with some exotic flare to the group.
*But the WINNER of the BOLD & BRAVE AWARD goes to a total stranger ... Barbara, from Minneapolis! Readers of this blog may remember that Barbara is the Kdrama fan who was featured in a Minneapolis Publication that Pat got wind of. Barbara recommended that Pat and I attend the Stanford Conference that Lee Byung-hun spoke at, and Barbara is a follower of our blog. But Barbara really knew none of us!
Would you go on a trip with a group of total strangers? And even share rooms? Barbara took the leap (with some nudging) and she has now been adopted by my family. She was great fun, knowledgeable, and even joined in on some of the ridiculous things that we took part in.
I suppose we were brave too. Barbara could have turned out to be a dowdy, midwesterner, who had fireplug legs and refused to eat anything other than macaroni and cheese. Whew! We dodged a bullet on that one, didn't we?
Barbara knows about product placement too!
I didn't go on a trip with someone I don't know and I never will because I love travelling alone. Last April / May I was in South Korea with my oldest daugther for three weeks and then two more weeks alone. September / October I was there for four weeks alone. And I will continue going there on my own. Only short trips with my daughter but longer trips are mine, all mine. I did go to LA in November 2022 for five days because of a concert of The Rose (which I newly discovered) and came in contact with several BTS / The Rose fans, which I met there irl. One of them was from San Diego and without…
I love it!
It was a very meaningful for everyone involved and making a new friend was a bonus!
Awwww ❤️ You guys are the best! As I said, as an only child, I always wanted to know what it was like to be part of a big family, and I got to experience it in the best way. You all made me feel so comfortable and welcome. It was the perfect tour group: such a mix of ages and statuses (single, married, etc.) I loved the co-generational aspect of it (I mean, people from 19 to 70 doing BTS moves together?), and this was so much more warm and personal than going on a standard packaged tour. I'm so glad I happened upon Crash Landing that one January night, which led me to love kdrama and Korea and…
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