There's a bit of a story behind this.... and I'm not sure if Mr Brown is going to keep blogging - so I'll give you a quick run down....
Mr Brown's mentioned "changee changee" before I'm sure of it.... everytime we think a plan is in place, it changes, everytime we think we're going somewhere, we end up somewhere else etc etc etc.... well get this....
In the middle of last week Mr Brown gets an email from his travel agent.... guess what?!?! changee changee!!!! Without any known reason, Mr Brown's flight has been cancelled!!! He was given two choices, leave a day early, or leave 3-4 days later..... errrrrrm can you guess which one he chose?
Over the last week Mr Brown has had a roller coaster ride of emotions from what I've been able to see.... he's soooooooo happy to be going home to his wife, his kids, his grandson... (by the way guys - hi! I feel like I know you from all the stories I've heard!!!!), and at the same time he's sad to be leaving Korea and the people we've met here.... I'm sure Mr Doogan can testify, the people here are fantastic, it's like being part of a Korean family.... :-)
Anyway... back to the story.... So I had to break the news to the Koreans that the plans had changed and there was a flurry of phone calls etc as plans were re-organised.
I caught the bus in the afternoon to Busan with one of the English teachers from the Kindergarten (Michael) who had met Gwyn and wanted to say goodbye. I think we got to Busan around 6:30 or so? We had tea (no, really?) and then dinner, and then suddenly Mr Brown, Michael and I were left alone and told that we'd be contacted later.... well, we thought that was a little wierd, and decided that we weren't going to hang around the dojang for an unknown period of time. By this stage we'd found out that Roman had had to finish instructing in Ulsan before he could come and join us so we knew he'd be late, and Park and Ki Tae couldn't leave Gimhae until 11 when they'd locked up the dojang/fitness club, so we figured what the heck, we'd go and see a movie..... we decided on Pirates of the Carribean.... good movie, lots of fun, but soooooooooooooooo loooooooooooooooooong!!!! By the time it had finished we had missed 73 calls on Michael's cell phone from the crew wondering where we were.... Oops! But it wasn't as if they had told us what the plan was.... (It's ok guys, I'm kidding, relax....)
Anyway, we cabbed it back to the dojang where we were met by President Kim, Director Kim, Instructors Lee and Gung (from Ulsan where Mr Brown was based for a while), Mr Chirtoca, Jennifer Hierlihy (a Canadian student of Mr Brown's), her fellow English teacher Kerrie, Park and Ki Tae and we headed off for some beer, soju and snacks. After we'd terrorised the staff for a little while we made our way back down the hill to the local Noraebang (Korean version of Karaoke) and sang ourselves to about 4:30 in the morning (and no I won't post any photos - what goes on tour stays on tour).....
Mr Brown headed up to the hotel to do the final pack and collection of his gear which we dragged down to the dojang, a cup of tea or two and we headed out to the airport... We got there at about 5:45am if I recall rightly, and check in turned out not to be until about 6:30, so we spent some time cooling our heels, trying to stay awake....
The last goodbye itself was pretty moving, I think we were all completely drained and probably a little bit at a loss for words....
Anyway.... Mr Brown should be home now - a day early.... I understand his daughters knew what was going on, but that he is surprising his wife (who was going to go up to Auckland today to surprise him!!!!)
Hope you had a good trip Mr Brown! See you at Nationals!!!
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