Hello everyone!
Kyoung will talk in third-person for a bit because Kyoung has been lost for a while. It may be Kyoung’s zany life winning him over again, or perhaps all this North-Korean crisis making him go cuckoo and bonkers. I have to begin by apologizing for all the amazing people who have written to me despite the fact that I tend to not write back. I’m averaging a very shameful 3 months to respond to emails–perhaps its because I feel so far away sometimes I become ridiculously apathetic.
Once in a while I get this feeling that everything I do seems to go down a black-hole; whatever I’m doing and the changes I’m causing have become completely invisible to my eyes. But reading over that thought, maybe Korea’s making me abstractly philosophical and general without seeing the clear, specific reality of things–whatever that means.
Concrete things I can say about me: I’m in Korea for the summer. This is my first summer in two years! After summer 2004 in Montauk (thanks to the Edward Albee Foundation), I went through the fall and winter in New York. I left the city just before Spring started and went south to Chile for the winter. When the spring was about to begin in Santiago,
I left to Korea for school, catching the very last of the Korean summer before the fall and stark winter hit. Luckily, I left the cold-cold Korean winter for milder climates in Dublin, Amsterdam and Barcelona. Barcelona, now that I remember, wasn’t very cold at all. Barcelona was actually lovely and nice.
Anyway: Back in school this spring, I spent a nonsensical amount of time making summer plans. I was not accepted for the internships I applied for at the UNESCO in Paris and New York, so I treated myself to a little get-away in Taipei to see my lovely friend Nadia to recompose. After my return, I changed courses–first; I decided to run for Student Body Council of my school and was elected President. Second: I began looking for part-time jobs. I’m currently doing some freelance speechwriting for the Korean Arts and Culture Education Services, and monitoring cultural events for the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture. During the summer, I’m also TA’ing a course on “Korean Women and Film,” taught by a lovely, U. Penn visiting professor at my University’s Seoul campus. That is keeping me busy for the rest of the summer, while I go out to see plays, watch Korean movies, etc…
Highlights for my summer have yet to develop, but I’m looking forward to the Pentaportrock Concert at Incheon: it’ll feature some of my favorite bands, including the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Franz Ferdinand, Placedo, The Strokes, and a new favorite: Snow Patrol. They’ll be here for a three-day concert and I’m planning on camping out and rocking it!
On the creative front: after writing two plays in Barcelona, I’ve decided to continue writing during the summer. I’m starting something as of yet untitled: kinda’ fun, kinda’ upsetting, about totally all the wrong things… Somehow, it feels so Kyoung… Also, the Royal Court in London passed on my play for their Young Writer’s Festival, but they invited me to join one of their Young Writer’s programs. I’m gonna’ send them and email and figure what that’s all about. After
all, my good friend Karl, who just finished his contract teaching English in Korea, will be going to London for his Master’s this fall. He, and my good friend Liz, who is going to Dublin for school, both have asked me to see them in that part of the world…
On the pipe-dream level: I have made it through Four Rounds of applications for a reality TV show in Korea called “The Kyopo Show.” Kyopo refers to ethnic Koreans born abroad, and the show will try to bring 5 Kyopos to Seoul for a 3-month stay in a brand-new apartment while they record their experiences living in the motherland. The first two rounds of applications were written, the third was a phone interview, and the fourth round was a taped, face-to-face, 120 minutes-long interview. I found out the company is interviewing a total of 50 people located either in Seoul, LA or New York. From those 50, 5 will be selected to be part of the show. So, the odds of me being on TV are now 10%. (Cross your fingers for me!) The producer in Korea told me that he and his creative partners in LA will not be looking at individual candidates anymore, but try to figure out the best group of 5 kyopos who will be as diverse as possible, (Koreans born abroad, biracial, adoptees, etc…) who will be able to get along while being part of the show.
Since pictures say a lot more than 1,000 words, I include pictures from the past couple of months. While I can’t make any promises that I’ll get better at this email thing, I hope you all know I miss you a lot and hope to hear back from you guys as well!
Peace and love,
Kyoung
