Last year during summer we were sitting at a bar on a beach and  my brother posted this picture of us on Facebook with the tag ” sitting on the beach, drinking Jack and coke”

His picture sparked some interesting comments from his friends. One of them even quoted Bible verses. The reality of the situation wasn’t that we are a bunch of drunks who only value partying but rather that I haven’t seen my brother for almost half a year despite living in the same country. In addition we only get 5 days vacation  in Summer ,which includes the weekend, generally we work long hours and don’t even have Fridays as part of our weekends. Having Jack in Coke is considered a luxury here in Korea since the alcohol is imported an generally fetches the ‘lovely’ price of $8. We managed to get a little restaurant in the street where our apartment was that sold the drink for really cheap.

For us it was a special moment because we were enjoying a relaxing weekend with the people we love most, while other people would rather quickly jump to conclusions and judge others as vain or say that they don’t value the small things in life. This whole experience was about family and not the beach nor the booze. We did enjoy ourselves, yes, but no one knows how hard we have to work and save to be able to do these things, and although they only see the good times, people don’t really post about the bad times, when you’re all alone in a foreign country, or how hard they have to work to have an enjoyable time when they finally get a break.