With great speculation I begin to post some words and thoughts on my daily life and travels in Korea. I have always spurned the diary and denied the effort of keeping a journal for the mere reason that someone would seize my thoughts and those thoughts would cease to be mine. But perhaps it's time to compile a collection of memories and adventures to not only share with others but to revive the spirit of discovery in what was once so vibrantly new and culturally stimulating to me.
While others romanticize my foreign life and "exotic" interactions, I have grown accustomed to the differences and they no longer appear different or unusual to me. My camera is tired of kimchi and ancient palaces nestled between soaring scrapers, and I am bored with stories of plastic surgery and movie talents. I have adjusted, adapted, assimilated to a large extent. But there are cultural points that I see almost daily that demonstrate small cultural changes and that can be traced back to historical origins, and these still inspire me as I am interested in the Korean present and how it is so strongly but subtly linked to the past. Deciphering the cultural entanglement of past and the present, which rewrites the past, is challenging! And this is what I shall write about. Therefore, by beginning my blog I hope to sharpen my interests in what has become the usual for me, and once again avidly look for the unusual in the mundane, the ordinary, the Korean.
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