2003-10-07 - 9:05 p.m.

Dear Mr. Kim-

Hi! How are you? I�m so sorry I haven�t emailed you in a long time. I do miss emailing with you. I hope all is well. I meant to email you after Nadine left. She is a very nice girl and I hope she learned a lot and I hope she had a good time. Did she tell you we went to Six Flags Magic Mountain and rode roller coasters? It was fun. I can tell she is your daughter because she has black hair like you and is short like you and she nods a lot like you. How funny!

I hear you might be visiting in December. That is good news. I haven�t seen in you a very long time! I also heard you might take us all to Las Vegas. I think that would be great! We would have a fun time! I know you won�t want to miss visiting your most favorite place in the world while you are in the states. I think it is my most favorite place too.

Do you remember when I visited you in Seoul? It was a great trip. The hotel you had reserved for me was amazing. Remember when you invited me into your home and your wife made us an American style breakfast? I�ve never had bacon that interesting before. The toast was interesting too. So were the tomatoes, eggs and salad. Oh, and I wish you would�ve reminded me about the taking off the shoes thing because I had to quickly hide the hole in my left sock and thank goodness God heard my prayer and both my socks were matching ones.

You and your team were so very hospitable and I appreciate that so very much! Do you remember that one day when we went to that place were we sat on the floor and ate clam soup? It was tasty soup and I had no problem sitting on the floor and eating it. Ramon had a hard time getting his big American body to sit cross-legged though. A lot of soup got on Ramon�s shirt that day, remember? He was a good sport about it. Even when he had to meet with clients later with that stained shirt because we couldn�t drive back to Seoul to get another shirt for him back at the hotel. Good old Ramon.

Oh, and I didn�t tell you this, because it�s not something you tell the president of your company, but I got diarrhea after lunch that day. But luckily, it didn�t come until after we got back to your office in KwangJin Gu and not while we were driving there. That would�ve been bad! Unfortunately, I forgot that your office there doesn�t have Western style toilets and I had to experience my loose feces up close and personal in your Eastern style toilets. At least I was able to squat properly over the little opening and avoided getting any on my shoes. I just don�t understand how you Koreans, or Chinese, or any Eastern country for that matter, can stand to be so close to your eliminations without getting sick or throwing up. I mean, you�re right there face to face with it and it smells and you can see things in it and, well, I guess I don�t have to explain it to you. I probably shouldn�t even be emailing you about this, but I consider us more than co-workers, I consider us friends.

I have many great memories from that trip! I can�t wait to visit again. You were so surprised at how many different foods I tried and you were impressed. I never knew there were so many varieties of Kimchee. I liked some of them. Why is all Korean food red in color? My guess is that it is so spicy. At least you introduced me to that good Korean beer, O.B. Do you know OB is also the name of a brand of tampons here in the states? Oh, but maybe you do not know the meaning of tampon. I will have to find out the Korean word for it and email you back. It�s just a funny thing that your beer has this same name, because if you knew that, maybe the Koreans would change the name of the beer to something else. You wouldn�t want to drink it anymore because it would remind you of a tampon, but I guess this doesn�t make sense if you don�t know what a tampon is. Forget it.

Remember when you and Mi Sook took us to that Historical Korean Village? We saw how Korea was many years ago. Afterwards we sat in that restaurant and drank three bottles of rice wine. We were all so drunk and it was only noon! Remember how Ramon was getting sort of loud and people were staring? Luckily you got loud too so he wouldn�t embarrass himself. We had many toasts that afternoon! It was also lucky you had Mr. Lee to drive us everywhere and we could sleep all the way back to Seoul. We were so drunk! You�re cool, Mr. Kim!

Anyway, I know I could go on and on about how great that trip was. I wish you could�ve gone on with us to China, but I know how much you dislike traveling, especially with your health problems and everything. But I know you would travel twice around the world to go to Las Vegas!! Right?! Hahaha!

I just wanted to email you to let you know I�m excited that you will be coming before the end of the year. You should plan it around Christmastime so you can hand out the white envelopes like before! You are always so generous and I appreciate that.

I will prepare my special coffee that you like so much but that everyone else has to add hot water to. We both like strong coffee like espresso and that is also something we have in common. I think you might be the only one who likes my coffee. Thanks Mr. Kim!

Again, I look forward to seeing you and maybe we can go to that Korean BBQ place you took us to last time and then we can drink Soju and go to Karaoke. Remember when you sang that James Brown song? I�ve never heard James Brown sound so Korean before! Haha!

Best regards,

Tracy

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