Parting Gifts

Today was my last day at my Middle School.

The teachers surprised me with a little going away party. It was not that big of a deal, but I thought it was very kind. They also gave me some very warm grey gloves.

One of my two after school classes made me this gift:



In each one of the papers, is a little note. Here are some of the messages:
- a sketch of me, with big curly ponytails
- a drawing of a bubbly heart
- “you’re the best teacher in my teachers. –L.J.W-
- “don’t forget our class please.”
- “I pray to God. for you”
- “Thank you very much.”
- “I really appreciate what the teacher have done for me.”
- “Good Luck from Korea”
- “I am grateful for your guidance”
- “Best of everything”

- a sketch of a head with an arrow pointing to it, labeled “me,” and five little parts of a brain, one part labeled, with my name, my favorite color, and how many people I have in my family (all from my introduction from the first week of school)
- thank you for coming (written in Korean)
- “happy new year”
- a drawing of a clover with “It means ‘happiness’” written underneath it
- “Hello. Than you for teaching us. Merry Christmas. And Happy New year! I surprised to your patient. – Walter, not Peter!” (because I used to call him Peter all the time, when his name was Walter)
- “I can’t forget you and Jelly Beans.” with 3 jelly beans on it an arrow saying “delicious!!!” (I had a jar of Jelly Bellys on my desk)
- “I was happy. to meet you”
- “I miss you. Um… -- Kyeom”
- “sorry thanks … love the most beautiful sentence of the world.” (I can’t figure that one out)
- “Hi - !! _____ Thank you for Teaching I hope you’ll stay good health.”
- “Thank you, teacher!”
- “I’ll miss you”
- “I LOVE ONLY for you teacher.”
- “ohayo I hope all of your wishes come true All the best for the new year”
- “I LOVE _____ teacher ~ My name is ( )( )( )”
- “Stay healthy. Thank you for teaching.”
- “Even after graduation high-school, I will visit you. I promise. – Ann” (my favorite student)

I also had this group of students after school, for "English Club."  There were 2 boys in the club, but they pretty much stopped coming becasue it was such a girly club.  I couldn't help but think the girls were so cute and sweet.  On my last day, they surprised me with a Gingerbread House shaped-cake and a box full of goodies.  (Check it out, the cake comes with candles, a knife, and firecrackers!)  Each one of them had bought me something cute and put it in a big green box.

First view of the box

 Inside the box were cards from each of the girls and cute presents, like socks and pens, and handwarmers that you heat up in boiling water and put in your pockets.

I am glad to be leaving, but I am sure going to miss a lot of the people here.  :(

Are YOU thinking of going back?

I receive the KAAN (Korean American Adoptee Netwrok) newsletter and it had a link to this article:

http://www.theawl.com/2011/07/america%e2%80%99s-korean-adoptees-part-4-return-to-the-motherland

The Korean adoptee who writes it, and the previous 3 parts, has some interesting and accurate, in my case, perspectives about growing up as a Korean Adoptee.

I think it's worth the time to read all four parts... it's nice to know that we're not alone.

I'm Going Back to Korea

Hi Everyone... just when you thought my blog was dead... it's back.

I am planning a trip to Korea, with my non-Korean-adoptee significant other, in November.

We will be going to Korea as a part of Dillon International's Sharing Heart Mission Trip.  I am excited to go back to Korea and excited to go with some other adoptees.  I also really like the community service aspect of the whole thing.  For more info: http://www.dillonadopt.com/SHM-Korea.htm

I am just about to dust off my Korean Language books and I have been on the look out for a Korean language tutor, so hopefully, I will be able to get around a little better than I did last time.

I think I also plan to do a little more searching into my birth family.

So, if you pray, please pray for me... and pray for my adopted family because they were a little heart-broken by the news, and my significant other, wh is amazingly supportive.

An Adoptee's Movie: In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee by Deann Borshay Liem

Hi Everyone,

Last Monday, I went to the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and I saw In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee by Deann Borshay Liem, who also made the movie First Person Plural.

It was an AMAZING movie, especially for people who do not know that much about adoptions from Korea.  The movie was informative, interesting, and heartwarming.

You can see more about the movie and Deann here, taken from an article on the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival's website:

INTERVIEW: DEANN BORSHAY LIEM



KOREAN ADOPTEE SWITCHEROO: FINDING THE REAL ‘CHA JUNG HEE’

Although documentary filmmaker Deann Borshay Liem had already delved into the topic of her identity as a Korean adoptee in her film FIRST PERSON PLURAL, there was a lingering issue that she felt was still unresolved, still nagging at her—the issue of Cha Jung Hee.

When Borshay Liem arrived in the US, no one thought to question her passport and papers stating that she was an orphan named Cha Jung Hee. The Borshay family had been corresponding regularly with the orphanage in Korea, sending money and receiving pictures of a girl named Cha Jung Hee. But that girl disappeared from the orphanage just as the Borshays wrote to say that they would like to adopt her. The orphanage arranged a switcheroo, replacing Cha Jung Hee with Borshay Liem, who was instructed not to reveal what had happened.

But six-year-old Borshay Liem knew that it was all a lie—her own family was still alive, and her name was not Cha Jung Hee. By the time she learned to speak English, she had already forgotten the truth about her history. It was not until college that she began to have flashbacks to her time at the orphanage, and that she became haunted by the idea that she was living someone else’s life.

IN THE MATTER OF CHA JUNG HEE documents Borshay Liem’s journey back to Korea some 50 years later to find the real Cha Jung Hee and solve the mysteries of her own identity. The film is screening at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival on Monday, May 3 at 7:00 PM at the Downtown Independent. BUY TICKETS Bearing her adoption documents, the shoes that the Borshays had sent to the orphanage, and a handful of photographs, she tirelessly searches for women her age named Cha Jung Hee.

“At first I think I had a simplistic notion of what the journey was,” said Borshay Liem. “That I would find this person and it would be fairly easy and I would give back her things and this would help me resolve these years of mistaken identity. But it turned out to be much deeper than that.”

Part of her journey includes meeting a diverse array of women named Cha Jung Hee. Even if they are not the right Cha Jung Hee, seeing what their lives are like is still an important piece of her puzzle.

“These women were all my generation, and I think through hearing about their struggles and successes, their experiences growing up in Korea which would have been similar to my own life if I had stayed, it gave me an insight and a connection,” she said. “I felt that was very healing for me. I think that girl adoptees are told that if they had stayed in Korea they would have been prostitutes, or end up with some terrible fate. But these women grew up and they did struggle but they had also survived and in some cases flourished.”

The film unfolds as a personal essay, with Borshay Liem narrating her own process of questioning and discovery. Through the course of the film she begins to understand with more clarity her relationship to her adopted and birth families, to the US as a country, and to herself. She believes that making the film has given her some closure on the issue of Cha Jung Hee.

“I think part of it has to do with simply claiming this life that I’m living now as my own,” she said. “In part that’s what the search was about, to allow myself to embrace my life as my own and not having belonged to someone else. I’m here and it’s ok that I’m here.” BUY TICKETS






-Lori Kido Lopez

I'm Alive and in America

Hi everyone...

I know it's been over a month... but it takes time to get over the jetlag and to catch up with my friends.

So, I'm back home, safe and sound.

I promise to catch up because I have some great pictures... but for now, I just wanted to give you this link to the great article from the Los Angeles Times.  It talks about gyopos (people who live in a country that is not Korea, but have Korean descent) and how they are treated in Korea.  I felt that it mirrored my own experiences there, and was far better written than I could have done.

See what you think; here's the link:  http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/14/world/la-fg-korea-return14-2010feb14

And I PROMISE, i will post my excellent pictures very soon.

Chopsticks AND a Spoon

Many of my fellow "Native" English Teachers who had never been to Korea before, but were familiar with chopsticks, were surprised when I told them to eat their rice with their spoon.  They were trying to fit in by eating with their chopsticks, but didn't realize that they woud fit in just as well if they ate their rice with their spoon.

I, personally, always think Koreans are pretty clever with their metal chopstick/spoon combo.  First, I like that it's metal, which is far more sanitary than wood, more substantial than plastic, and also does it's own little part in saving the environment.  Second, I like the fact that you have options; if it is too hard to eat your rice with the chopsticks, go for it with the spoon... if you are a picky eater like I am, go ahead and pick the onions out of the soup with the chopsticks.  Finally, I like that you have the option of using both hands to eat, even though older customs dictate against it; that means I can divide that big piece of Kase (that's Tonkatsu, for those who don't know), by splitting it with my chopsticks and spoon.

If you ever wondered where the whole chopstick/spoon thing came from, here's a link:

http://www.buddhapia.com/eng/extensive/4-a5a1.html

I thought it was interesting and seemed  correct.

(I took that lovely picture from this website, which also has an interesting, but gramatically poor, article about chopsticks and spoons in Korea, Japan, and China: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.prkorea.com/engnews/wys/file_attach/1184303793spoon%26chopsticks.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.prkorea.com/engnews/index.cgi%3Faction%3Ddetail%26number%3D518%26thread%3D10r01&usg=__vkw2SQ7PUmhpsA5CRW3f3VF4_2U=&h=800&w=600&sz=90&hl=en&start=5&sig2=sZqlt-rR_iGayhHwpMlnPQ&um=1&tbnid=JPlKCxlYFoRgLM:&tbnh=143&tbnw=107&prev=/images%3Fq%3DKorean%2Bchopsticks%2Band%2Bspoon%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7DVXA_en%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=pDxMS7NvhKa2A_na6IoB .)

It's in the mail...

Last Wednesday, I finally decided to send a letter to my birthmother.

I made a card, because I thought that was more beautiful and I also wrote it myself.  (I had help with the translation, though.)  The card looks crooked, but I assure you that was the fault of the camera work, not my actual card.)   :)         Inside the card I wrote my birth name, birthdate, and place of birth.  It then says that I was adopted to Americans.  It says that I am looking for my birthmother and gives her last name.  I then say that I am sending this same letter to many women, all with the same last name, in hopes of finding the one who is my true birthmother.  HOWEVER, I know that it was her because I had her name and had done all the other footwork (please see my previous blog entries, if you don't know what I am talking about.)  Then I write that I will be in Seoul until the the third week of December, so she should contact me soon, if she wants to contact me at all.

I dropped it in the mail, also with some help, the next day.

Seeing that the city is only 60 miles from Seoul, I figure the letter should have arrived Saturday or today, Monday.  If that's the case, then from today onward... I guess I just wait.

So here I am, waiting.

But she better hurry up, because I might be leaving soon... I already quit my job.