Photo Essay

If you have time, check out this beautiful photo essay about Korean adoption by Jeanne Madderman. The pictures tell the stories better than words ever could.

The photos of the birth mothers, especially, are heartbreaking.

Minor Celeb Status

Okay, the headline was just a joke, but since I was part of the first adoptee group to become dual citizens there was a lot of press at the event. Not kidding, these guys were sprinting around the room trying to capture every.single.moment. One guy was absolutely pouring sweat.

Anyway, here are links to some of the coverage:

• Korea Times: A picture of the group and the article's in English too.
• Kyunghyang: A small local newspaper (in Korean, but there's a pic)
• MBC News clip: It's in Korean and mostly features a married couple who got dual citizenship together, but there's a quick little part where I shake hands with the Ministry of Justice and bow. ^^

Sisters Night

Last night Mark and SangKwun both had prior appointments, so ChungPing and I had a "sisters night." First, we gorged ourselves on shabu shabu. Seriously. I think we still had half a pot of veggies of meat, plus noodles and rice to cook when we both started feeling full. We both said we sort of wished Mark was with us because he always eats a lot. Haha.

Then, we came back home, attempted to watch a little Korean TV, and mostly just gossiped. I managed to snap a pic of her... cutest pregnant lady ever award!

I have to say, I've really been enjoying evenings like this with ChungPing. Even though we can't speak a common language and I don't see her as often as I'd like, she's truly become like a sister to me. I can be myself around her and we can talk about everything from her feelings about the baby, plans for the future, ex-boyfriends, and what our husbands do that make us mad. Also, when she's in town and goes shopping, she almost always picks me up a thing or two to add to my wardrobe and dispenses all sorts of advice about how I should wear it. Can't get much more sisterly than that!!!!

Cooking class

Last week for our Sogang field trip, everyone in Level 4 went to a cooking class in 홍대.

The place was really cool and we got to prepare 안동찜닭 (chicken and veggies in a spicy soy based sauce), 해물 파전 (seafood and green onion pancakes), and 김밥 (Korean version of sushi rolls).

When we arrived, we put on aprons. The cooking area was really nice and there were tables with ingredients for each class. There were a total of 6 Level 4 classes.

Here I am with my classmate Chika. She is Japanese and actually loves cooking so much that she is currently enrolled in 2 cooking classes. After she finishes up at Sogang, she heads to cooking school. Needless to say, she was invaluable as we sliced, diced, sauteed...

The ingredients were mostly all laid out for us, we just had to cut them up and cook them.

Here's the seafood plate. It's kind of odd, because when I first came here I couldn't stand squid, but little by little it's grown on me. I am still not at the point of eating dried and buttered squid as a snack at the movies, but in various dishes it's actually pretty good.

We added the cut up seafood to this green onion batter.

Then we fried them, and TA DAAAA... 해물 파전! This is seriously one of my favorite things to eat lately with 막걸리 (Korean rice wine).

We also rolled up some 김밥. Mine is on the far right. These Korean rolls are filled with rice, carrots, cucumbers, sesame leaves, picked radishes, crab sticks, and more. Amazing.

And finally, here's the 안동찜닭 cooking.

And here's our final product! The best part of the day was that we could eat our creations together with our class. The place also provided us with kimchi (because what is a meal without it), and oranges.

And before we left, we were all given a recipe (in Korean no less) so we can try to make some of these dishes on our own. Any requests?

Ellen's Birthday

I think I've mentioned it before, but there are two girls here that I've gotten really close to while living over here: Kerry and Ellen. We worked with them last year, but since we left Poly we've become much closer.

These girls have been majorly significant in making me feel more accepted in Korea. This is a country where the natives tend to hold the foreigners at an arm's distance. But Kerry and Ellen have never treated us like outsiders. They invited us out with their friends, helped us with any language difficulties, and basically have just been the sweetest, most caring (not to mention fun) friends we could hope to find. Besides my birth family, these two are going to be the hardest people to leave when we head Stateside. We've talked about them visiting us in the US, so I'm really, really hoping that actually happens.

Last week was Ellen's birthday and she turned the dreaded 3-0. (Actually it wasn't so bad since it's Korean age 30... so according to my age counting system she's only 29. But I digress.) So we decided to go to a cute little place in Itaewon, Bungalow, for margaritas and cake.

Since Ellen is obsessed with coffee, we got her a coffee cup shaped cappuccino cake.

And here are the girls... (Mark came too, but was our photographer.)

As always, I was grateful for a super-fun night spent with my favorite people.

Love you Kerry and Ellen!

Dual identity!

It's official... I'm a dual citizen! Here's the write-up (in English) from the Korea Herald. I'm going to do a post about the ceremony and everything... eventually.

Baby Blabber

In August, Mark and I will be the extremely excited Aunt and Uncle of an adorable Chinese-Korean NIECE!!!!!!!!!!! Can't wait!

Pretty sure she'll be the best dressed baby on the planet. Crossing my fingers that she also has a full head of dark hair -- I love that. ^^

Oh and I need to get a picture of ChungPing. Once I do I'll post it on here. Hands down cutest pregnant lady I've ever seen.