Our Story

It was April of 2001; springtime in South Korea and autumn in New Zealand.  We met online and the attraction was instant and mutual.  The days and weeks rolled by; slowly our relationship was building and strengthening.

We’ve both said to each other so many times that there are simply no words to describe the absolute depth of our feelings towards each other.  Yet, somehow, we always managed to find cards, poetry or other beautiful ways of expressing ourselves to each other in ways that makes the other feel there could never be, never will be, and has never been anyone else for us except each other.  The poem shown on our Homepage is just one example of these ways we find to tell one another of our love for each other.

On June 3, 2001 after an entire night of travel and anticipation, our eyes finally met and smiles widened on both faces.  We were still separated by the glass walls of the Incheon Airport.  A brief stop at the Customs desk and Karen was finally coming through the arrival gate.  Not waiting until she was completely clear of the gate, Jon took her into his arms, embraced her tightly and our lips met for the very first time!  Needless to say, it was a passionate kiss!  We are after all, both Scorpio’s, the most intense lovers of the Zodiac...

Our friend and driver, Mr. Choe left the gate area, smiling shyly to go get the car and as we waited outside, we continued our emotional embrace much to the dismay of several Buddhist Monks!

We spent the next few days at the Sofitel Hotel in Seoul exploring the city, shopping the markets and just being tourists.  Following that, we left for a stop in Wonju; Jon was a civilian contractor for the Department of Defense and there was a brief bit of work for him to look after there...  Then it was on to what would be our home for the next 8 months, Chunchon City in the Province of Kangwando.  With the help of Mr. Choe, Jon had arranged an apartment for us to live in offbase.

During our 8 months together in South Korea we ventured to nearly every part of the northern section of the country, we even got to see the infamous demilitarized zone (DMZ).  The DMZ is kind of a spooky place, nearly like stepping back into the cold war era.  Army tanks driving down the middle of the roads was a normal sight.  From Camp Edwards we even got to see the most dangerous golf course in the world; a one-holer where you dare not chase your ball into the rough because of landmines!  We could look across the vacant 100 meter stretch of no man's land and see North Korea from there...  Soldiers warned us that anyone venturing out beyond the fence could be shot... by either side!

We've been blessed by the ability and the mutual desire to travel and see the world.  While in South Korea we took trips to Hawaii and Europe.  We've included photos of our travels in other pages on our sight and hope you will have a look through these photos.

It's difficult for us both to understand how people can live without having the good fortune of experiencing and seeing first hand how other people live in different cultures.  For us, it seems nearly prerequisite to a better understanding of one's own self. 

Ah, well... on with our story!

We naturally made good friends with many of the soldiers there at Camp Page in Chunchon and even a few of the locals.  Directly across from Camp Page was a local bar owned by a “Mr. O.”  “Mr. O” spoke fairly decent English and we would go there fairly often as he had the most remarkable record collection either of us had ever seen.  Even more remarkable than that, when we requested a song he could locate the album in just a matter of seconds!

One night we were at a different bar in Chunchon and met two local bartenders who were both amateur magicians and also spoke fairly good English.  Karen also does a bit of magic and managed to baffle them both with a few of her tricks.  Eventually these two bartenders left Chunchon and we thought we'd never see them again.  A few months went by and we had to make another trip to Wonju (about 100 kilometers southwest of Chunchon).  After work we decided to stop in at the "Rock and Roll" bar.  Neither of us had ever been to this bar before.  Well, we were there for a few hours and suddenly, out of nowhere, we heard "ahhh, you from Chunchon!!!"  We looked up and sure enough, it was our bartender friends from Chunchon, they were now working at this "Rock and Roll" bar in Wonju!  It felt very odd being recognized by local people while more than 100 kilometers from home!

Well, as all good things must come to an end, eventually we were notified that Jon's contract was up and he needed to report back to that states as soon as possible.  This was in December 2001.  Jon managed to convince his company that he needed at least a month to close out our apartment, return military furniture and cancel all utilities.  Neither Jon nor Karen had any idea of where they would go when moving to America.  Jon's current company was located in Houston, Texas but he had vowed he wouldn't take Karen to live there so eventually he found, was offered and accepted a job in Auburn Hills, Michigan.

We made all of our arrangements online and, on January 30, 2002 we left South Korea and landed in Detroit, Michigan.  Oh, before we get into that part of the story, we have to mention that Jon got lost on his way to Incheon Airport and after driving in circles for a couple of hours, saw a pair of motorcycle police pulled over on the side of the road.  He pulled over next to them, got out and attempted to ask directions to the airport.  After several minutes of frustration in trying to give directions, the police motioned for Jon to get back into the car and we were given a police escort to the airport!  We felt nearly like royalty on our way to the airport!

When we arrived at the Detroit airport it was snowing a blizzard.  On the way driving to Auburn Hills, Karen turned to Jon and asked in complete seriousness "how are you supposed to know what color the ground is?"  To this day we both look back on that moment and laugh.

Well, we're sure there's tons of details that we've omitted but then it's so hard to capture memories with words, that's why we've added some photo's from our various travels and our time in America in hopes that you, the reader will get a better feel for what a remarkable story the two of us have!  As this is a living site, we’ll be in and out, updating it until we’re satisfied it’s captured as much of the essence of us as possible!

We only wish that everyone could have the same joy as we have together!