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Thursday, June 21, 2012

What happens when you move abroad

Nicely put..

"So you look at your life, and the two countries that hold it, and realize that you are now two distinct people. As much as your countries represent and fulfill different parts of you and what you enjoy about life, as much as you have formed unbreakable bonds with people you love in both places, as much as you feel truly at home in either one, so you are divided in two. For the rest of your life, or at least it feels this way, you will spend your time in one naggingly longing for the other, and waiting until you can get back for at least a few weeks and dive back into the person you were back there. It takes so much to carve out a new life for yourself somewhere new, and it can’t die simply because you’ve moved over a few time zones." -Chelsea Fagan- Though Catalog

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Yongmun

Last week, while walking to the gym, I was approached by 2 normal looking people (1 guy and 1 girl).  Usually, when people speak Korean to me (beyond stuff like..where are you from?), I just smile and say "sorry" so they understand that I speak English.  This is usually enough to make them run away.  However, these people continued to try to talk to me on the sidewalk for 10 minutes!

At first, they were just asking me if I am Korean, etc.  I wasn't sure what they were getting at.  Eventually, I realized they wanted me to "follow them" to some other place to hear something called the Yongmun.  They were all "yongmun" this and "yongmun" that.  It made absolutely no sense to me.  They were talking about my grandparents and how it was important for me to hear this "yongmun" as soon as possible.  I tried to nicely say I couldn't commit to making an appointment with them now OR later, but they kept trying to force me into it!  I finally just gave them my phone number and told them to send me a message later, and as we were parting, the guy told me not to mention the "yongmun" to anyone.  Hello, red flag.

As soon as I was out of earshot, I called Sungho to ask what this whole thing was about.  He couldn't really explain it to me, but the word I found in the dictionary basically translated to "cult."  He said he'd been approached by these people before and it's best to just ignore them.  It was probably something similar to scientology or something weird where they were gonna ask me for all my money and get me to start recruiting other people like they did to me.  The guy sent me a message asking to meet on Saturday which I didn't respond to and, luckily, I haven't heard anything since then.

Friday, June 1, 2012

USA!

After a much too short trip to the USA, I'm back in Korea.  It was lovely to get to visit with lots of friends and family.  The kbf enjoyed his first visit out of the country as much as can be expected without Korean food available!  I'm sure it was also overwhelming to meet so many people at once, but overall, I had a great time!  Here are a few photos from the weekend in OC.