Will return after this message

Just wanted to say hi to all my friends and apologize for being missing in action for about  a week. I did a presentation for TRACK at Kyung Hee on Wednesday, which was really fun. Powerpoint is a great organizer. I had my final at Ewha University (part 1) today, which will be followed by part 2 on Monday. All I want to do is pass. Just let me pass. Please. This weekend I have to hand-edit page proofs for Fugitive Visions, which I haven’t even started yet — I’m supposed to have it done by Monday!! (ack!) Then overnight shift on Sunday!  Work has been crazy lately with North Korea acting up by closing the border intermittently (and not guaranteeing the safety of South Korean jets in its airspace and also announcing they plan to launch a rocket)  and South Korea and the U.S. having their joint military exercises right now.  Next week I have two writing assignments on the adoption issue to complete (one for a women’s magazine and one for the OAK) but after that I should be more like a good friend again. ^^ Right now, I’m a bad friend. I’m sorry.

Bookclub on Saturday!! When am I going to read that book!? I hate being the only loser in bookclub who doesn’t do the reading. It’s so humiliating! So I must read it if it kills me. We’re reading The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. Compared to the last book we read (A Brief History of Neoliberalism) I think this one might be bathtub reading. ~~ If only I had a bathtub!

37, Western age

I kicked off my birthday weekend by going to Korean language class and shocking my classmate by revealing my age. (“Yes, I am really that old.”) Then spent a nice lunch eating the endless raw fish combo meal at the place next to my house, followed by tiramisu at home. Yum. After that, the evening shift at the office. Lots of news stories coming out lately because of Obama and North Korea. Tomorrow, day shift followed by Susanne Brink’s memorial service at KoRoot, followed by working the day shift AND the overnight shift on Sunday. Somewhere in there I also have to read my emails in Korean and reply in Korean (the best Korean language training in the world!!),  finish writing a lecture for Kyung Hee University for next week and study for upcoming finals. I still have to do the page proofs on Fugitive Visions, which I haven’t had time to do, but looks like I will get to do it from March 12 to the deadline on March 13.  Well, because of the time zone I’m going to fudge a little and make my deadline be March 14. Also decided today that  actually going to school is a pretty easy thing to do. You just have to keep going and not psyching yourself out and telling yourself all the reasons why you can’t do it! It was easy when I was 18 and a freshman in college, so why not now? So I will go to Ewha Level 6 regular program next semester to complete the program, and then do the intensive program 4-6 after that. If you do level 6 intensive it’s supposed to be sufficient to be able to do a master’s degree in Korean, so in that case, I think I should plan to go to Anglican University for NGO studies after I complete my Korean language study and put adoption/adoptees/vulnerable families onto the Korean radicals’ working agenda, network, and also, of course, get the skills I need to make TRACK be the wonderfully positive force in Korean society that we want it to be. I’ve basically spent my 30s in Korea and I could not be happier with that decision. I think life is turning out OK.

Please check out the important update on ACCESS on the TRACK site.

Dae-Han and I stayed up until 3:00 in the morning on Skype hammering this one out as far as text and how to make it look pretty on an email, so please read it! Thanks!

Please check TRACK blog

Please check the TRACK site for updates on the effort for inclusion in the law revision process.

I think I’m not going to cross post so much anymore, so please cruise on over there anytime to find out what’s happening with TRACK. I’ll continue to post my personal and writing things here.