I can ALMOST taste the kimchi...

Hello, 안녕하세요!, and welcome to my travel blog. Last time I did some serious traveling, it was to Europe with my good friend Natalie Bieda for winning the Lilly Teacher Renewal Grant. I did a blog then as part of my grant, but doing the blog was also the best thing ever for personal reasons because it served as a diary for myself and I find myself revisiting that blog and reminiscing all the time. So, I'm starting another blog for my trip to my motherland!

(my last blog, the ORIGINAL sooloveskimchi :) I recommend everyone keep a travel blog, you will thank yourself later!)

A lot of people have asked me: When was the last time you were in Korea?

The last time I was in Korea was when I was in 10th grade, back in 1995. And before that was in 1988, when my family immigrated to USA. This trip will be very special for me because I've heard from so many people that Korea has changed so much over the years. My brother (Ji) and parents have been back couple of times, and from what I hear, it's gotten a lot more urban, crowded, and much more FUN. I plan to visit some family, eat amazing food, but also some more serious stuff like visit my grandparent's resting place, visit my old school, see if I can find our old house and remember our roots!

Another question that I SOMETIMES get, and a little stunned by is: So, are you from North Korea or South Korea??

a little rant if I may...

Many people in the US are often confused and end up offending a lot of us Koreans...of course, none of them mean to. BUT, in case you might be one of those individuals reading this, PLEASE NOTE: Do not ask Koreans if they are South Koreans or North Koreans!!!! Until some MAJOR, MAJOR, MAJOR events go down, it is very unlikely that anyone in the world will meet an actual North Korean. North Korea is a third world - dictatorship country (under the rule of Kim Jung Il) and people in that country do not have freedom and are not permitted to leave the country. You've heard all the awful things about North Korea in the news and on TV.

SOUTH KOREA on the other hand, is a democratic/republic country that has freedom, democracy, elections, presidents (with term limits), taxes, etc. etc. It is one of the strongest economies in the world and one of the most technologically developed country. Koreans take offense when we are asked if we are North Koreans because we are being asked if we are something we TOTALLY are the opposite and repulsed by... Think of it as you being a man, and someone comes up to you and asks "are you a man or a woman?" or someone asking you, "are you a thief?" or someone asking a lady "are you pregnant?" when they're not...it's sorta along the same lines :)

I have more to say on this issue, but clearly, I've gotten off on a tangent so I'll stop now...if you ask me if I'm from North Korea, I won't make a big issue of it, I'll just smile and say "No, I'm from South" and MAYBE I might give you the cliff note version of my rant, but I'll be thinking in my head: "Please, go google South Korea and learn".

Back to talking about the trip...

What I'm most excited about this trip is that I will get to spend a lot time with my brother, Ji. I haven't seen him forever and would be good to spend some time reconnecting and hanging out. Plus, I think he'll know the Korean scene a lot better than I, so I hope he'll include me when he goes out with his friends (he has some friends there because he studied acting there, and a some of his friends from LA moved back to Korea).

For now, I'm going a bit stir crazy until I actually leave for motherland...it turns out that I had the departure date totally wrong, but thank GOD for that because I left my passport at home in Fishers and my good friend Corinne Imboden had to go break into my house and over-night it to me!

Until then, I'm doing some work, visiting with some New Holland folks, started this blog, and buying a lot of random crap that I will need for my trip. Thanks to those who humor me and reads some of this...feel free to comment when and if I ever actually make it to Korea, I tend to get sentimental when far away and will appreciate hearing from y'all :)

One of the random crap that I needed was a power/wattage converter. I accidentally fried some of my electronics in Europe so I hope not to make the same mistake this time around...but dang, it's confusing...