Cafe Hopping: Cat Cafe

While I wait of my DNA testing results, I want to share something more fun with you.

Now, I'm not much of a barfly, not a club rat, or any of those "cool" cliques.  In fact, stay at home and crafting/reading are more along my idea of a "good time."  So, when I want to get out of the room and have a change of scene, I like to spend time in cafes...and Korea is jam-packed with them..which is wonderful.  They have the most wonderful "theme cafes" and I am going to work on go to as many as I can.

Family Tree DNA

Ok, so, following up on last post, I want to talk a little more about the DNA test itself.

The DNA tests for Korean adoptees and Korean birth parents are provided by a donation from Thomas Park Clement, who is himself a Korean adoptee.  The kits are from Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) (www.familytreedna.com) which will analyze your initial results.  You are then at liberty to upload your results to additional third-party family tree/DNA analyzing sites.

KoRoot

Edited August 24, 2016: To include posters about the Korean Adoptee and Birth Parents DNA project.


Again, its been a long time since I posted.  I had the WORST summer camp of my teaching career here in Korea.  Honestly, if I had not worked so hard, prepared so many materials, and spent so much of my own money on this camp I wouldn't have cared.  However, during the entire camp planning process I was constantly being pressure to make the camp "fun and interesting" and add more activities...on a budget of about $100 which I was only allowed 40 of it because we HAD to have pizza on the last day...to the point where my job was passive-aggressively threatened if I didn't have a "good enough" camp.  SIGH!  But that is not the point of this post.

This post is to introduce you to KoRoot, a guesthouse here in Korea that is primarily for Korean adoptees.  I've never stayed here, but my impression is it is more for long-term guests.  So, I didn't make the trip for a place to crash.  They also offer NGO services of adoptee issues, and currently are offering DNA testing for Korean adoptees who are long-term residents in Korea and Korean birth parents.

Hello, Strangers!

I haven't written much since I moved to Seoul.  Not because my busy social life,  but because my new school keeps me SSSOOOoooo busy.  I've had a few other things going on, too...and I'll get to all that.  So, if you are interested in catching up, keep reading.  If you're only here for information on life in Korea, you'll have to wait for the next post. ;)

Hell Joseon, Part 2

I honestly never meant to leave this one hanging so long.  Long story short, I changed jobs and moved to Seoul and have had quite the adjustment period.  But more on that later.  Last time I talked a little about the Joseon Dynasty and the traditions that are still felt in Korea today.  This time, I hope to cover what those traditions mean for young Koreans today.

Hell Joseon, Part 1

Hmm...I suppose I need to start this post with full disclosure.  My opinion of this article is just that: my opinion.  Even though I have done my best to look at this objectively, I understand that my perspective is shaped by my observations and experiences here.  Even though I have not done complete and exhaustive scholarly research, I have thought long and hard about this and am not posting some knee-jerk reaction.

Also, after I started writing, I realized that this was going to be extremely long so I decided to break it into multiple parts.

Now that's out of the way, let's begin.

Adventures in Health Care

Ok, I will start this one with the "punchline"...mostly because I don't want anyone to go into this worried (which is so sweet, thank you!).  I am "fine"...or at the very least don't have thyroid cancer.

On to the story...