My New Famiry

Brisbane is a city in Queensland, Australia. Most of you probably didn't know that. I know I sure didn't... just a few weeks ago. All the residents I met said it was boring or that there was "not much to do." True, it was small, there weren't a lot of tourist attractions, and there 's nothing that special that I hadn't seen somewhere else in the world. Being there alone might be boring for most people. Even their ferris wheel, the Brisbane Eye, sucked compared to the London Eye. So why even bother mentioning this seemingly mediocre Australian city? Because it's awesome! Here's why.

Brisbane is home to the Brisbane KSDA Church that came up in my online searches for a local church. When I visited, I was offered a home to stay at by some of the members. So, I joined the Chae family. A family of four plus John, who recently came from Korea to work here in Australia, they treated me like a celebrity. I got to crash a wedding with them (I did the crashing, they were actually supposed to go) and I felt so loved by them. It meant so much to me to be taken care of so well, especially since I haven't seen my own family in forever and I had been a bit lonely lately. Umma Chae cooked delicious food for me, Appa Chae spoke rarely but always spouted words of wisdom, Harry (son, my age) told me awesome stories of his life (seriously, you could make a movie out of it), Julie (daughter, my brother's age) played piano for me whenever I asked and provided fun conversation, and John always talked to me and forced me to practice Korean... everyone was so awesome. Their family also seemed so similar to mine... Umma Chae's favorite perfume is even the same as my Umma's (Clinique Happy, it's not weird for guys to know this stuff, right?). I stayed with them for a few nights and when I left, Umma Chae made me dakdoritang and it was HEAVENLY. So mehwuh and dericious. Thank you, Chae family, for making Brisbane one of the most memorable cities of Brandon's World Travels '09-'10. You guys should get an award.

I really owe this family more than I'll probably ever be able to repay them for, but it just goes to say how awesome some people in this world can be. They were my saving grace when I was starting to really miss home. And I've been REALLY starting to miss home (this hasn't hindered my ability to have a good time traveling, don't worry). I MISS YOU US OF A.

If you're reading this, I probably care about you and miss you a ROT (if you understood that, thats pretty much a guarantee you fall in this category). Hopefully, you care about me and miss me dearly as well.

And if you're just a creeper who's stalking my life, that's cool too.