So, it's Been A While...

It's been a while...damn near close to a year, but it's been a hell of a year.  I won't go into everything in this post, but I will work to get everything caught up soonish.

That being said, I am hoping to get active on this blog again.

But, like I said, it's been a hell of a year.

Moving to Seoul was great/terrible for me.  Ha!  So, it was great, I have access to tons more here and I really do like my school (mostly), and my place is pretty accessible to most of the places I like to go.  The major plus being that I only have to go to one school and I can take a 5 minute bus ride rather than a 10 minute walk, 40 minute ride, 10 minute walk then get through the day before I have to repeat the commute.  But, on the flip side of that, last year my school/co-teachers were uber-demanding and constantly criticizing everything while offering no real help/solutions to the point that I nearly had a nervous breakdown.  Knock on wood, this year has been better, even though I haven't dramatically changed much, but my co-teachers changed and are incredibly supportive and encouraging...I mean, co-teachers really make or break your experience here.

But because my work situation was so sever last year, I really got my introvert on and would retire to my room for almost all the time I wasn't at work.  I got really into my crafting hobbies and am quite good at them, so I still like to while away the hours watching youtube and crocheting.

The biggest thing is that this past year I had both a cancer scare and a cancer diagnosis.  Just before I moved to Seoul the doctors found a lump on my thyroid, biopsied it, and decided I was fine but to come back every six months.  Ok, so I thought "crisis averted" because, after all, lots of people live with thyroid nodules.

No.

I went back for my periodic check this last February and they decided that the lump was 1cm bigger (which is a lot considering it was 2 cm when they first found it) and needed to biopsy again.  This time it came back as cancerous.

Just f'-ing great.

Now what?

Apparently, thyroid cancer is the "best cancer" to have.  Like if you have to choose a type of cancer, then you should choose thyroid cancer.  Generally, it's slow growing and its uncommon to spread.  That being said, since my (now) tumor is already quite large, I need to not dilly-dally on treatment.  So, I'm spending my summer vacation having a partial thyroidectomy and the recovering a little before I have to go back and teach an intensive English camp.

So I was depressed...a lot...spent hours crying and feeling sorry for myself because "I have f'ing cancer" and the only treatment option for me is to stay in a foreign country where I don't speak much of the language and have to be without my support network and have surgery and getting back to the grindstone.

Then I got angry...because I am a "good damn person" and work so hard and care so much (even when it costs me) and my reward is cancer.  Not cool, universe...NOT cool.  Especially because I thought I was finally going to get to China to see the Terra-cotta Warriors...I know that seems silly to some, but the Terra-cotta army was really what inspired my interest (and eventual Masters) in Anthropology and it would break my heart to leave this side of the world without seeing them in person.  So vacation plans iced.

So, now what?

Just waiting for my surgery date.

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.