It’s all right

Posted on 14. Mar, 2011 by Johnathan in Everyday Life

Hey guys, thanks for calling and messaging about how I’m doing with the earthquake situation. Korea was completely untouched, so please don’t worry. We’re in kind of a little bubble that doesn’t really get affected by anything. It’s business as usual. Bitter-sweet for one of my new co-workers, though. She just moved a few weeks ago from the main city that was hit. Obviously she’s fine, but her co-workers, friends, and students are in a bind. Crazy about the nuclear reactors going off and the mixed messages coming from the Japanese government, but again, in the bubble, all is good.

Love you and hope all is well.

Signed,

All right in S. Korea

4 Responses to “It’s all right”

Hwajung

15. Mar, 2011

Korea is known to be relatively safe from earthquakes. The earthquake/tsunami occurred in northeastern Japan. Since Korea is located of the west of Japan, it was like Japan was protecting Korean Peninsula from the disaster. Don’t worry. Korea is totally safe. If the quake had hit the west of Japan on the East Sea, the tsunami would have swept across Korea’s east coast and it could have had a serious toll on Korea. Because of the explosions at nuclear plants, the radioactive material is up in the air, but it won’t blow over to Korea, thanks to the westerlies. (It is blowing to the Pacific ocean. It won’t reach the American continent, though.) Japan is the most well prepared nation against earthquakes in the world. Even so, it was helpless in the face of a powerful magnitude 9.0 quake. Every flight from Japan to Korea is almost 100% booked. Many Koreans in Japan are coming back home. The Japanese tend to buy as much food as possible and you can see empty shelves in stores on TV. There are many people waiting in line in front of gas stations to get out of the northeastern Japan. Max 40,000 ppl are dead or missing now. Japan will start experiencing three- to six-hour rotating brownouts. This is their first brownout planned by its government since the WWⅡ. The Fukushima explosions have caused a 25 percent shortfall in capacity, which made the rolling power outages necessary. It will last until April 8. Korea is sending relief supplies and many celebrities and ppl have donated money for the victims of the earthquakes. The Japanese stock market dropped 10% and because of lack of electricity, many companies have stopped operating. It’s tragic, but we are OK. Thanks for your concern.
Theresa

20. Mar, 2011

We are all quite glad to know that you are all okay, and we do hope that you will continue to keep us posted about all that is going on. Speaking of goings on, Connor’s party was a great deal of fun and we had a good time watching him open presents. Katie is on spring break, and we are all looking toward the future. All is well here too. Love you guys.

T
Hwajung

20. Mar, 2011

I wish I could have made it to his birthday party. He must’ve been so excited to get all the presents. Does he talk much lately? I wonder when I can finally meet him. I hope I will see Katie and him in October. Does Katie have anything special planned for the spring break? I can’t believe she’s grown up that fast. She was a little girl when I met her. I wonder how much she remembers me. I saw a picture of her taken last Christmas and I noticed that she was holding a dvd of Glee. So I watched a few episodes of it to understand what Katie likes. Also, I found out that the actress who plays Tina is of Korean descent. I don’t think she speaks Korean, though. FYI, John now takes a Korean class 3 times a week at the university he works at. I appreciate his effort. John and I are doing good here. I hope everything will be great over there. Take care!
Theresa

21. Mar, 2011

It is great to know that you are so interested in the kids and how they are. The plan is to come over in October, we just have a few wrinkles to iron out, like where to send my medical stuff. Katie is at her father’s in Langley for the week, and is hopefully enjoying her time with her other 2 brothers, her father, and her other mother. Connor has been talking up a storm, mostly making demands, but that is normal at this age. Connor has been capable of talking for years, but he started to really talk when I started to take him to a program run by the provincial government to encourage learning for preschool aged children. We started last February, and it has done wonders for him. Both of the kids are working hard at being them. It is really wonderful to see. We are looking forward to officially welcoming you into our family HJ, although we have considered you such for a long time. By the time we make it over Katie will be 13, Connor 4 (as he already is), and Chris and I will have been married 5 years. What a great way to celebrate that.

Glee is a big thing in our home. We love Tina, and it is really cool to know that she is of Korean descent. Which pictures did you see? Johnathan said that he didn’t get the ones that I sent to him.

I hope that we will see some more recent photos of you both, as well as your parents, soon