Okey Land

By Kyu C. Kim and Ok-Kyeong Son

A chance encounter sets two people from two different worlds on the course of a unique lifetime experience of love, friendship, and learning. This book chronicles the development of a beautiful relationship through e-mails exchanged over a span of one year.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504906029

Kyu C. Kim

Kyu C Kim is an accomplished scientist and science educator. Aside from his numerous scientific publications, he is the author of two recently published books; “Rootless (Authorhouse, 2012)” and “My Los Alamos Experience (Authorhouse, 2013)”. Ok-Kyeong Son is an aspiring student, born and raised in Korea. She is presently enrolled in the graduate school of PuKyung University majoring in marine sports. She seeks a variety of learning and educational opportunities through her international travels.

Book preview

#001

Hi, Mr. Kim

How are you and your family?

This is Son Ok-Kyeong from Korea.

Two years ago when you travelled to Busan, Korea, I was working on yachtB as a crew.

I remember you and your kind wife.

Was it good visit for you in Korea?

I know you are Korean and I heard you emigrated to America. Is that true?

I think you prefer communicating in English rather than in Korean, but I cannot speak English well…so I hope you understand my English. I left my work since then and now I’m staying with my parents in my parents’ home town.

While I was arranging my desk, I found a piece of paper you wrote down your email address for me. So I was lost in deep thought looking at your writing and I am wondering how you two are doing.

If you don’t mind, may I expect a response to this email?

I wish you in good health.

Ok-Kyeong

Re: #001

Hello, Miss Son,

We remember you very well and were hoping to hear from you since we came back from our Korea trip. Our Korea trip was rather short…only 8 days from start to finish, but we enjoyed it very much. My college friend Mr. Keum arranged our visit to Busan after more than 55 years. My friend attended Kyung-Nam High school and I attended Pusan High school, and we met when we were attending Seoul National University in Suwon. Well, I’m not about to write my Korean history here, but I want to give you a little bit of my background about why we went to Pusan (now spelled Busan) and took the boat trip with you.

I’m not familiar with your email address, so I’m not sure whether you’ll receive my message. Once we establish our secure communication channel then I’ll write more and let you know further how we can be in touch with each other.

Let us know soon upon receiving this message.

Joan and K.C.

#002

Hi, Mr. Kim

How are you today?

It’s a nice day here for a walk.

Thank you for your email from the heart.

I wonder, if I write in Korean, your computer can show my email correctly.

………………………..

Can you read my Korean writing? I hope so…

I found your books at www.Authorhouse and I read some short descriptions of your books. I’ve gotten to know a little about you…but I want to read your book more and also study English using your book present. If you don’t mind, can I get one of your books?

My mailing address is:

Dae-kyung Apt. 101-902, Namji-ri, Namji-eup, Changnyeong-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea Zip code 635-903.

If I get your book, it’ll be an honor to me!

I think that it’s not easy for people you don’t know well to be generous but you extended your hand.

Thank you, maybe we will have a good relationship through the Internet.

I hope to see you again.

Have a good day,

Ok-Kyeong

Re: #005

Hi, Miss Ok-Kyeong,

I just put in the mail two books in two separate packages; I did not have a right sized box to mail them together. I had to go to the post office three times and even after that I forgot including your mailing address zip code. I hope that you enjoy reading my books. These two books describe my personal experiences in very intimate details. Once you finish reading them, you’ll know about us very well.

I suggest to you that, if you do not have your government-issued passport already, you might consider applying for your passport now. For a short visit one might not need USA visa. You can find out this information about the US State Department visa requirements from the Internet. Passports are usually good for about 10 years and US visa application for visiting the USA should be simple these days. Anywhere you travel your passport is the first item you should have with you all the time. This way, when an opportunity develops, you can travel.

A long time ago when I came to this country, I was 22 years old, a few years younger than your age. That experience is written in my first book. My friend Mr. Keum travelled to Kauai three years ago to see us over one weekend and we had a wonderful time together. If you ever want to see us in Hawaii during our trip to Kauai in October this year, Mr Keum can show you further procedures. I’ll provide your round trip plane tickets for you. As a return favor, all you need to do is to learn how to cook some simple Korean dishes. In my second book, I show a picture of the famous JinJu Bi-Bim-Bap. Joan and I liked it very much–without the raw meat, of course. I like mostly seafood and all sorts of fruits, and I do not particularly care for elaborate, sophisticated dishes. The simpler the better…with my compliments to the world oceans and the nature.

As I said before, I would very much like to learn about you, so please tell us about yourself.

Cheers,

K.C.

Hi, Mr. Kim

I just came home and I’m writing this email immediately.

Thank you for your kind words and offer.

First, I’ll introduce myself in more details. My name is Son Ok-Kyeong and I was born in 1989/09/19 as the second child to my parents. I have an older brother who is 28 years old, so we are a family of four members. Previously, I said my parents’ hometown is Namji and I grew up and lived there until the end of my high school years. After my high school, I entered the Pu-Kyung University and lived in Busan for a number of years. I’m presently staying with my parents in Namji until I find another job.

I like travelling all over the world. I have been in the Philippines for almost 4 months when I was 23 years old. Before that, I also travelled to Australia for 9 months. I worked in Sydney at a Japanese restaurant as a waitress and sandwich man. I also worked as a swimming instructor while in Australia. I had a variety of experiences in Australia and on some holidays I travelled to other cities by car with my friends. I could not speak English very well just as now, but I felt that I had to improve my English skill for living there. I also visited the Je-Ju island in Korea before I stopped working on YachtB.

Maybe, I have a good chance to practice my English by exchanging emails with you…I’m lucky to have met you even if we can’t meet again soon in reality. But I believe we can meet with each other someday.

Ah! You want some Korean foods recommended, aren’t you? Um…let me think…how about Kimchi mackerel pike jjigae? Have you tried it? You like seafood and kimchi, so these will appeal to your taste. I’ll brief a recipe. First, you need fermented kimchi, canned mackerel pike, crushed garlic, green onion, and chili powder.

1. Fermented kimchi, crushed garlic, and canned goods with broth in skillet

2. Add stock, simmer until thoroughly cooked for about 10 minutes.

3. Lastly add some seasoning to suit your taste.

That’s all. It is very easy to prepare and it’s delicious…if you haven’t eaten, try it.

I hope I’ll receive your book present as soon as possible.

Have a good day, Mr. Kim and Joan

Ok-Kyeong

Hi, Miss Ok-Kyeong,

Your picture of the seafood kimchi jigae looks very good. Thanks also for the recipe. Indeed these are the kind of food I enjoy very much with plain steamed white rice. The problem is that I have not tasted simple kimchi for more than a year. So, you need not torture me any more with pictures of my favorite foods.

Dear Ms. Ok-Kyeong,

I looked into the US visa requirements for visitors and travelers. The US Department of State website states that for visit and pleasure trips from South Korea, travelers do not need US visas up to 90 days.

It must be very hard to find any job in the rural areas in Korea. Fully one quarter of the Korean population live in the metropolitan areas of Seoul. I also know that in the Korean society it is particularly difficult for women to move up in the job market in any professional field. It’s like trying to swim against the prevailing current in the ocean. You know swimming and you know how difficult and useless effort that would be. It would be ideal if you could come to this country and do some graduate study in a chosen field of yours. My eldest sister, who passed away 2.5 years ago, was a medical doctor in Korea. After the Korean war she came to this country and refreshed her medical study under an extremely difficult condition in her 40’s and carried on her very productive professional career for additional 30 years. The University of New Mexico is only about 100 miles from here. You should look into its graduate study programs. For foreign students, one can get a student visa for a longer period, perhaps one or two years renewed as required. If there is a legal way for us to adopt you as our daughter (assuming that you don’t mind the notion), I would gladly do so. But, I don’t know much about such matters. In any event, I hope that you feel very rich and happy to have your real parents and your parents-like individuals of us here in this country.

Good human relationships are very precious, but they can be fleeting and transient. Even our short time relationship between us can fade away the minute any of us stop communicating. Like a tree growing in the field, any good relationship also requires tender care and love to grow. I’ll always try to return your goodwill and friendship as best as I know how. Along the way if you develop some affection and love toward us, that would be an added blessing.

K.C.

Re: Wealth, Happiness, Luck and Opportunity

Dear Ok-Kyeong,

Toward the end of my book, I have a section where I describe a certain aspect of my philosophy about wealth and happiness. Beyond what’s written there, I would like to tell you a bit more on this subject.

It is a generally accepted concept that in order to make money one has to have money. The truth is that the amount of money-earned money is always far greater than any work-earned money. In one of the recent TV programs, Ted Turner, who is my all time favorite personality, said that one time in his business career he was losing his fortune at a rate of $3 million a day for three years. This amount of fortune is only about $3 billion. He further states in his book that he was never particularly interested in making money, but he was always interested in finding out if he could. It was a self-imposed challenge for him. He is the one who has changed the news network worldwide by pioneering the CNN news. Many super rich people also acknowledge that luck has much to do with their fortune-making than superior intelligence, talents, or exceptional opportunities. One thing is certain; one cannot acquire any wealth by collecting hourly wages. There are not enough hours in one’s lifetime to make such a large sum of money. We also find out that a majority of t rich people are old people in their 60’s and 70’s, and throughout their lives they also worked hard to make money. It is important to learn about money matters early on and have a good understanding of personal finances. In some Oriental cultures, among the poor, many young people seldom have opportunities to learn about financial matters.

I came from the traditional Korean society. My parents sang a lullaby to me grow up quickly, become a doctor, become a scholar… I have accomplished all that my parents wished for me, but I did not have a penny in my name until I was in high school. I did not learn anything about money matters when I was growing up and not even in schools. As I wrote in my book, I did not know that I had to find a job to feed myself and my family and I hated the idea of working to just earn a living.

One important distinction I make is that I inherited a gift of my working brain from my parents and I was a fast learner. I was not physically strong, but I always strived to be the best in whatever field I was engaged in. Everyone has one’s strength and weakness. One should always try to maximize one’s strength in any field. One should also try to use one’s talents and personal assets in any way possible to enhance one’s opportunities in this world. Once you succeed in your endeavor, you can then help others. Not the other way around. In the USA, the majority of personal wealth is now owned by women. The life expectancy of women is also longer by 5-6 years than the life expectancy of men. Countless women in this society are active in many professional fields that traditionally only males were involved in. Many women are also engaged in all sorts of philanthropy work.

As I said to you before, your opportunities are vast and numerous when you are willing to look beyond your immediate horizon. There were times in my life when my teachers had more confidence in me than I had in myself. I see a great potential in you and I am happy to tell you that. You cannot advance beyond the ordinary level by thinking or acting like everyone else around you. Happiness will come to you when you pursue your goals in life and when you meet your challenges.

K.C.

Re: Don’t wake up

Dear Ok-Kyeong,

A well known philosopher once described we human beings living in virtual reality. What we call reality may be different when viewed from different angles. What appears to be the same may be different for different people. Indeed, we may never know what the real reality is for any situation. Each of us may be living in a separate dream world created by the individual’s own design or imagination. Regardless of virtual or real, if you like what you see, observe, feel, smell, do, etc. as all of your senses or mind direct, why would one try to change the condition? Therefore, Don’t wake up from your own dream and there is no need for you to try to face a different reality unnecessarily, or is there? This is one way I can answer your previous question about the quoted epitaph.

K.C.

Re: Spring is an allergy season also

Dear Ok-Kyeong,

Yesterday, after I came back from my morning coffee at the Starbucks place, I was writing my email to you and suddenly I became dizzy and sick. I had to stop then and for about 12 hours I was rather sick. After a full day resting, I feel much better now. I believe it was some kind of food poisoning either from the chewy chocolate cookie or the coffee. Food poisoning in the summer time is very common. All sorts of bacteria multiply very rapidly in unsanitary places. One has to be particularly careful with uncooked or precooked food items in restaurants in the summer time.

I am also an allergy sufferer year round. I am allergic to dusts, pollens, some chemicals, and even some artificial food ingredients. Frequently I have to take anti-histamine to cope with my body’s allergic reactions from the environmental allergens.

My late sister (She passed away three years ago) who was a medical doctor told me that, when my mother was pregnant of me, she did not take proper nutritional care for herself and me. Our family could not afford many necessities. Throughout my childhood and school years, I was always a bit anemic and was never very strong physically. And yet, I did not have any doctor’s or dental appointment for an annual physical check-up when I was in Korea. During my lifetime Korea has transformed itself into an advanced developed country, but the old Korea where I grew up was very much an undeveloped, war-devastated, third-world country.

Sorry to tell you about all my problems. But, I want you to know that I am not a person who dwells on all sorts of negative thoughts only. I face every day with a sense of gratitude and excitement. Today I cleaned up our backyard pond and charged it with clean water. Many colorful birds visited us today in our backyard also. Life goes on!

K.C.

Re: Okey Land

Dear Ok-Kyeong,

Far, far away in our Milky Way Galaxy is a land called Okey inhabited by highly intelligent beings. The land resembles a tropical forested land on Earth devoid of any artificial structures and the inhabitants look remarkably like the human beings on Earth. They have been living on this land for millions of years of our Earth time and have evolved into highly intelligent beings living in an almost Utopian society. They are the masters of their environment and their universe.

A long, long time ago, many adventurous beings from Okey set out to explore the limits of their known universe in a spaceship called Explorer. They travelled through space at nearly the speed of light generation after generation. After a few generations of the space travel, the beings on the spaceship lost contact with the beings on their mother planet and the spaceship itself was drifting aimlessly. The spaceship Explorer, in a rare, unfortunate navigational error, collided with a deep space icy object and all things including the beings on board were destroyed. Some of the fragments bearing the DNA’s of the lost beings from the far away planet were captured by our sun’s gravity and fell into our Earth oceans. Over the next many millions of years these DNA fragments reassembled and evolved to create a human being among multitudes of living organisms on Earth. Although lost in memory from the beginning of time, we humans have a faint echo of the Utopian society far away in the Milky Way Galaxy, only in our imagination recorded on our human DNA, and occasionally dream about the Okey Land and its ancestral God-like inhabitants.

Plant cloning is done frequently and nearly all fruit-bearing trees are grafted in order to preserve the desired qualities of natural selection. Some animals have been successfully cloned. We humans have advanced on many scientific fronts. One aspect of our human nature always puzzles me; that is, how much of our human nature is inherited and how much is influenced by the environment. I was wondering, if I were not affected by the Korean war, for example, what would I have been. Of course, there are many other factors influencing an individual’s nature. A cloned KC would come close to a perfect experiment. Even in that case, however, one cannot reproduce all other conditions that made me in the past. So, I come to the final conclusion that one life lived well is good enough regardless of the beginning and there is absolutely no point in trying to make it sound as if one’s life is more important than what it is. While I think about all these absurd ideas, you have a rural background very similar to mine. I’ll be very curious to see how you advance from your rural background to the next phase of your life. Again, as the coast guard hero tells to his young recruit, I have high hope for you, Ok-Kyeong.

I bought the two DVD’s you mentioned. Joan and I will watch the movies this evening.

Thanks for the photos from JeJu island. In one of the photos, it looks like you are levitating up in the air.

Have a wonderful day,

K.C.

Re: Power and money corrupt people

Dear Ok-Kyeong,

In the news it is reported that the person who is the head of the company that owned the ferry that sank a month ago in Korea was a very rich individual. He had his fortune in foreign countries like the USA. In the scheme of all things, though, he is only a small fish in the vast financial world. What about the some 300 innocent people who perished in that disaster or the unfulfilled, short-cut dreams of those young students? Can we put any price tag on each dead person?

I’m very glad that I worked as a scientist throughout my working life. Like you, I was never very interested in making money or any financial matters. In fact, I hated the idea that I had to work to earn a living. Fortunately, I was allowed to work on my own ideas and projects during my professional career. But, I also realize that I had to put in very hard effort on my own behind the scene to get to that independent stage. I’m very glad also that I don’t have any relationship with these shady characters and I did not work for any of these clowns reported in the news.

A dollar bill measures about 15 cm in length, so $1 billion measures about 150,000 km. If you put dollar bills side by side, $1 billion would go around the Earth. Your 10 km marathon run would have covered a distance worth about $67,000. You would have to cut down all mature trees in Korea to print all the money of one multibillionaire.

A habit or a social custom is hard to