Gathering 2007

Well this past month has been a great one. The summer months are non-existent it seems. I just finished my last vacation days this past week. I spent the week in Seoul and attended the 2007 IKAA Gathering of Korean Adoptees from around the world. I think there were around 500 of us from Italy, France, U.S.A., Denmark, and many other countries. It was an eye opening experience. I've never been that involved in anything Adoptee oriented, so going into this week long convention I was rather oblivious and/or ignorant of many issues that are happening in the current (as well as previous) intercountry/transracial adoption scene. I was able to attend a couple workshops that covered issues on adoption in the media, politics, behavioral science, etc.. It was refreshing to have new issues to get me thinking again; challenge the mind.

I was also able to play in the 2007 Korean Adoptee World Cup. I was a member of the Korean Team which was fun. Unfortunately we only made it to the semi's (due to bad ref's but whatev...no grudge :) and...(unfortunately...) the 2 U.S. teams fought it out in the finals...

This is a pic of the power house of the team :) us 6 girls rocked it alongside our European men on our team :) The REAL Samgyupsal :) I love it. all of us are from the U.S. except one...while all the men are mostly from France...

Anyways, it was fun. I was able to sing the Korean Nat'l Anthem too so that was interesting :)

This is a pic of our first and only goal against the Danish :) We were all soooo freakin happy!

We also made time for some good ole drinking/noreabang outings as well. There's always time for singing and drinking with friends :)

For the convention I also found a place to stay in Seoul which was nice. The commute to and fro Bupyeong to Seoul is rather long. It was nice to be able to go out at night and not have to worry about time. But now I'm back to reality; work, taekwondo, some responsibilities...oi. :)

My contract also ends in October which is coming rather quickly. I'm tossing the idea of staying here longer, but who knows what will happen. I guess only time will tell...okay, well maybe not only time, but you can only control so much.

I'm continuing to love Taekwondo and the whole martial arts scene. Hopefully I'll be able to retain a lot of what I'm learning here once I move in the Fall...to wherever.....