WRITING FOR CONNECTION AND RELEASE
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WRITING FOR CONNECTION AND RELEASE

As an adoptee who was born mixed Korean, the irony of our deportation to other countries – because our look did not fit in with the Korean society – is that we did not fit in with our new adopted countries either. I dove in and embraced everything my family offered me: My new home,…

HOW TO PREPARE FOR A TRIP TRAVELING FULL-CIRCLE
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HOW TO PREPARE FOR A TRIP TRAVELING FULL-CIRCLE

How does one prepare for a full-circle trip when one doesn’t know how much baggage there will be? I’ve been fortunate enough to be granted the gift of a trip specifically catered to the mixed-Korean – often known as “Hapa” – adoptees (KADs) interested in returning to our birth-country to cement our existence in this…

FALLING INTO STEP WITH KOREAN ADOPTEES
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FALLING INTO STEP WITH KOREAN ADOPTEES

My flight instinct kicked in the moment I entered the room filled with Korean faces. It’s nothing against them, and all about me, because I came from Korea too. However, I didn’t grow up in Korea, nor with Korean culture. My rational mind reminded me that, most likely, neither did they. We represent a handful…

I BET I CAN STILL SP(+)(+)K YOU
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I BET I CAN STILL SP(+)(+)K YOU

You know that annual exam we women look forward to every year? It’s our routine hour spent lying on our back trying to make small talk with someone who knows us more intimately than our significant others desire to. Ice-cold tools send a chill of anticipation up our pelvis as we’re waiting to hear those…

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SERVER DETECTED SPAM MUSUBI

I’m half-Korean. People don’t quite know where to place me. My skin is too dark to be white (You can’t spell Caucasian without Asian…), my green-ish eyes aren’t Asian, my Hungarian cooking scrambles their brains. Honestly, not being brought up Asian, and turned off by some stereotypes for Asian women, I identified with American Indians,…

KOREAN TO THE CORE (PEPPERED WITH PAPRIKAS)
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KOREAN TO THE CORE (PEPPERED WITH PAPRIKAS)

I am ½ Korean, born and left in Seoul, S. Korea but saved then raised in America. Even now, my culture feels foreign to me. I don’t know my other ethnic half, so I claim Hungarian/Swedish thanks to my parents. Trader Joes creates my Korean dishes but I whip up Chicken Paprikas almost from memory….