Last night Clinton, Joe, Nadiya and I were supposed to hang out and order pizza while watching movies at our house. We got some bad news in the middle of school though. Choi's mother passed away in the middle of the night from complications of a surgery. Neither Choi nor Agnes had been at school all day, so I was kinda wondering if anything was going on. His mother had been in the hospital not too long ago quite sick and was out maybe a week, before two nights ago, when she had to go back in. So, after hearing the news, all of us packed into the school van after work and prepared to go to the wake. It was really rather sad to walk into this funeral building and see Agnes greeting everybody, obviously having been crying for quite some time. Choi was not emotional, but was obviously as well definitely shaken up. Family here is so important. We entered the room designated for their family and went in to pay our respects. They don't actually display the body, but make a very simple alter with flowers and a picture. We approached and bowed to the picture and number of times as well as one of Choi's brothers. It's just a respectful gesture. Then we sat down to a very late dinner (around 9:30). We all picked at our food and made small talk. I looked around and noticed all of Choi's siblings and many other people I didn't know. I had to turn away a few times, because I saw some women break down in each others arms. It was odd being there, but not at the same time. While we sat eating dinner it dawned on me a time when she made kimchi for Choi and brought it to school. "She made great kimchi." was all I could think of to say for a moment. It really was good though. I guess I must have been nervous too, cuz I picked up a bowl of soup to eat some and ended up spilling it all over my pants. We cleaned it up and everything went back to "normal" as we sat there again. It was a side of koreans that I just don't see very often, openly sad and some crying. We got home around 11:30, and I couldn't sleep for a while. Partly because of worrying about the recruiting I've been doing for a new teacher, but also just because of the wake.