▲ A toast is made to all Jeju friends across the globe with Peter Suk (center right) leading the cheers. Photo by Darren Southcott

Santa Rosa residents flew home on March 10 after spending a packed four days on Jeju Island, including the annual visit to Jeju Fire Festival on March 9 and the Sister and Friend Cities Reception held by Jeju province at the Oriental Hotel, Jeju City on March 8.

A record 37 Californians comprised the Santa Rosa contingent, the most since the municipal relationship began in 1996. The visits have been annual since 2002 after Don Taylor, president of the Santa Rosa Sister City Committee, brought over a dance troupe to perform at the Jeju Fire Festival after being “embarrassed” at the lack of an American presence on an earlier visit.

A number of returnees were among the Santa Rosans, including Rincon Valley Middle School principal Matthew Marshall, whose students performed during the trip. Marshall first joined the sister city exchange in 1999 as a student chaperone and pledged to step up exchanges with Nohyeong Middle School after visiting on March 7. Taylor felt this was symbolic of a wider evolution in the municipal friendship.

“This was the first time I felt that the word had gotten out how beautiful Jeju is, at least in Santa Rosa. Typically, we have three or four parents say they want to come, but this year we had a problem: 20 parents said they wanted to,” before adding that any more and they would have had trouble boarding the airport bus back in California.

The Sister and Friend Cities Reception, hosted by Jeju City Mayor Kim Sang Oh, was among the highlights of the trip, at which representatives of Chinese sister cities and Korean mainland friend cities were welcomed. Part of the Santa Rosa contingent, the Maria Carillo High School choir wowed the crowd with an a cappella performance after dinner. Choir member Evan Drake, 16, was pleased with the show and said the visit had made a lasting impression, despite knowing little of Jeju before the trip.

▲ The Maria Carillo High School choir Photo by Darren Southcott

“It’s not anything like I thought it would be. Much more interesting. All the history and natural beauty is much more different than I expected ... Being submerged in a culture like this really gave me a different perspective .. it’s very interesting,” said Drake.

One of the parents on the trip, Brian Keefer echoed what many others had said about the synergy slowly being created through the intercultural exchange.

“People are starting to learn more about [Jeju] because we have the Jeju sculptures and the Jeju Way downtown. Even more people are gona know because we are gona go home and tell stories and show pictures about what we’ve seen here ... I am sure we could come back a dozen times and not see everything there is to see,” he said.

The visit marks a seminal year for the exchange. In March, the first ever international art exhibition of work covering the Jeju Massacre (4.3) opened at Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa, after years of planning. Another milestone was achieved in 2012 and the gifting of a Snoopy statue - creator Charles Schultz lived in Santa Rosa for 30 years - installed on Santa Rosa Way, Jeju City. The canine character is standing on a traditional Korean house and Taylor, who was pivotal in getting it to Jeju, recalls some difficulties in planning.

“The mayor said, ‘What am I gona tell people when there’s a dog standing on top of a house?’ So I pointed out I was asked to find a wonderful location for two giant phallic symbols and I got them on Sonoma Avenue, you know what I mean?” laughed Taylor, in reference to the two dolhareubang, or stone grandfather statues, standing in Santa Rosa.

The sister city relationship has strengthened under the guidance of Taylor and his committee, including vice-president Peter Suk. Alongside the aforementioned Marshall and others, the Santa Rosans have a strong bond with Jeju and its people, with Taylor stating he has “real friends here now.”

None more so than Dr. Im Aeduk, founder of Jeju AeSuhWon Sisters' Heights, a single mothers’ center in Cheongsu-ri, Jeju City. Taylor has sponsored two orphaned children, Sohye and Juhee, connected with the center, financially supporting them and flying them both to California for a visit. He feels much more than an honorary citizen - number 501 - and is visibly moved as he recalls receiving recent momentous news from Juhee.

▲ The Santa Rosa contingent at the Sister and Friend Cities Dinner on March 8. Photo by Darren Southcott

“We were filmed by MBC in 2007 and Juhee said her dream was to be a kindergarten teacher. Her dream came true. You can see the message here on Facebook ... ‘I was accepted into university’,” read Taylor with pride. “It is hard to believe I have three kids, four grand kids and two that love me even in Jeju,” he added.

The interpersonal and intercontinental ties are due to deepen as Taylor revealed plans to unveil a permanent memorial to Korean War veterans from Jeju at the Presidio of San Francisco, a park and former military base overlooking San Francisco Bay.

“I’ve ordered two bricks to be installed at the Korean War vets memorial being built in San Francisco. One is in memory of my uncle, Charles Taylor, a veteran of Korea and Vietnam. The other I have inscribed with: ‘In Honor Of Korean War Vets From Jeju Island.’ It’s going to be pretty significant,” he said.

As Taylor now looks forward to the Californians’ 2015 visit, the memorial bricks are more than just a metaphorical foundation for the sister city relationship, as lives continue to be touched on both sides of the Pacific.