Final draft chapter 5 Park Ye Jee 200904069

<FINAL DRAFT >                                     200904069 Park Ye Jee When my mother was young…   As soon as I saw the assignment, I thought of my family. When I tried to think about my family's history, ironically I didn't know much about that. So I decided to interview my family. I have total four members: Father, mother, aunt, brother. Aunt who is my mother's youngest sister has been living together since when I was 11years. My older brother is studying now abroad. So, in my home in Gwanju, three members are living now. On Saturday afternoon, I called my home to interview because I was living apart with them. My aunt answered the phone, "Oh, YeJee. Hello?" "Aunt, Hello. What are you doing now?" I asked her. "I'm just taking a rest because nowadays, my condition is not so good," she said. Her voice sounded she was sleepy. I was about to ask her history but I worried her condition and I asked her what my father was doing. "He might be taking a nap in his room," She replied, "But mother is awake now. Wait for a second." She said and called my mom. Without any choice, I decided to interview my mom. "My lovely daughter, what happened to you? You never call home first." My mom said in a pleasant voice. I told her that I wanted to know about when she was a teenager and asked her whether she could answer a few questions. She accepted it with pleasure. Her voice was so energetic that I thought she could tell her story for all day long. I asked her what it was like when she was a middle school student. She was silent for a moment to recall her life and started to say. "It was so difficult to live at that time. My family was not rich. So my parents had to earn money to raise me and my brothers and sisters. They worked really hard. My father was working in or near the sea as a fisherman and he was also a head of village. Because of which, he was always busy. My mother also worked by growing crops. So as you know, I'm the oldest daughter among my brothers and one sister. Can you imagine how busy I was, too? It was only I who had to take care of young brothers and sister while my parents were not home." Her voice sounded excited a little bit.   And she kept saying, "It was not the only thing that I had to do. I had to clean the house, make meals for brothers and the sister, go to a mountain and gather some pine cones to use them for firewood." "Wow, you did that when you were young? I didn't know that you even went to the mountain to fetch some cones." I almost shouted. And she said, "Besides, when I became a middle school student, I had do to live near my school with the first brother and my friend because the middle school was so far from my home. So when I go home on the weekend, I had to walk for 3hours."She recalled the time. I was really surprised my mother had to go home by walk at that time. "Why did you walk? Wasn't there a bus?" I asked. And she replied, "No. My village was so small that every bus didn't get there." I felt sorry to hear that and I was curious about her high school life, then. She said that as time went by, she wanted to be independent and to make money as soon as possible. So she moved from hometown in the south province of Chungcheong to another city which is called "SooWon", where there was a commercial high school. She had four classes and worked for eight hours in three shifts every week. I asked her, "How much did you earn at that time?" Mother didn't seem to remember exactly at first and guessed, "Probably two hundred thousand won? Yeah, it was only two hundred thousand won!" I thought it was almost miserable. And I became sad how much difficult she was. "Oh, what a sad it was! You got paid peanuts!" I was really shocked and felt pitiful to my mom when I imagined that my mother worked so hard with low waged in such a young age! "And by the time I became 22years old, I met your father!" She said. "How could you meet father? You were living in Soowon and father, he lived in Gwangju!" I wondered. "The hero of us was your grandfather. It would be when I was a high school student. Your grandfather visited the town where I was living in to run a new business. Then, he happened to know my father. My father was so generous that he invited your grandfather to my home even though they hadn't met many times.   When your grandfather saw me, he hoped to introduce his son to me. Then after a few years, your grandfather returned to his hometown, Gwangju and he invited my father and me to his home. So I met your father at that time for the first time! This is the story how your father and I happened to meet and marry!" She ended the story finally! "Wow! I think you and father are a match-made in heaven! This is amazing!" I was really excited and felt interesting to hear that. I felt it was like a drama. "Do you want to know anything else?" My mother asked me. "No. It is enough for today! What are you going to do now?" I asked.  "We will have dinner soon. Have a dinner! And take care of yourself. Always keep in mind! And buy and eat some oranges. Nowadays it's delicious! Two oranges in a day are good for your health!" She worried me. Our conversation always ends like this. "There you go again! Don't worry, please.  You have to take care of yourself. I'm young. Anyway, next time let's talk again. Bye mom! Have a good dinner." I hung up the phone. I was satisfied to know my mother's story and I could respect her more and more. Next time, I want to hear about my father and my aunt.