Robert Francisco

As I sit in my favorite cafe Americano  in Yongin waiting for a bus to take me to Incheon, a plane to Singapore, and a connecting flight to Nepal I find myself in the middle of an all ladies birthday celebration.  When they starting singing “Happy Birthday” or something that sounded like it, I joined in to their great delight.  Korean culture is hard to break into but little things like this are sure to produce a smile and laughter. After the singing, and clapping was rewarded with a beautiful bunch of grapes and I was able to produce a respectable- Cas-ham-nida (thank you in Korean). The grapes are really unique and remind me of the off the vine ones we grew when I was a kid; full of seed with all the juicy sugar close to the tough skin while the inside is very firm mass.  Somehow these grapes seem more real then I highly modified cultivars. Being a gift makes then all the sweater.