AKs prefer to visit the Mothership with a tour group - at least for the first trip. For AKs whose tongues are tied by the mother language, it is safer to hide in a pack. And for many AKs, it is safest to hide in a pack of white people.
White people are familiar to AKs. The first time an AK is surrounded by so many other Asians is discombobulating to the say the least. The tour guides do not prepare an AK for the moment of panic when she wonders if she could lose herself in the sea of black hair, or that someone will mistake her for a Korean national and start talking Korean.
Tours also mean AKs will be able to speak English the entire trip, have access to a translator when needed and ooh and ahh and commiserate with their fellow Westerners about the Korean food while craving a Whopper.
A tour group also provides the necessary buffer for an AK's first trip, which can be emotional. By viewing the country with the distant lens of a foreigner, it's easier to forget that this is where you started.
However, some AKs choose to join tours specifically for AKs. Those are more fun but also more drama than the generic tour for Westerners. The tour highlights may differ, too. They often include a visit to the local orphanage (a little trip down memory lane) and a swing by the home for unwed mothers (so you can imagine what it was like for your birth mother to give you up). Don't forget the camera to capture all of these Hallmark moments!
To balance the daytime drama, a little night time drama is needed. Imbibing the national drink - soju - is a good way to kick off that party. Flirting with fellow tour mates is another way to kill time and is a feature not offered on the tours with white folks (mostly because they are likely to be someone else's adoptive parents). It's a lot like summer vacation. New scenery plus new people equals diminishing links to that dull, regular life back in spacious, uncrowded Minnesota.
Not included in the tour package is damage control for the trip home.
I should've joined a tour group when I went back on my nightmare "honeymoon."
Soju & people to commiserate with = a Korean First Wife's best friend. :)
Posted by: slow2process | 02/03/2010 at 01:43 PM