Guess what!  I GOT MY EARS PIERCED!  It's really a significant event for me.  It's not like I'm twelve, and I just got my ears pierced.  I'm 26 and I just got my ears pierced!  My whole life, I wanted my ears pierced.  Ever since I was young, I begged my mom, "Can I get my ears pierced?"  I would say, "If I can't get my ears pierced, then I want a dog!"  My mom is simply not a dog person.  So, she ended up saying no to both.  She said that when I'm 18, I can do whatever I wanted.  So by the time 18 rolled around, I had developed a sense of pride about not having my ears pierced.  I was different.  I was UNIQUE.  But inside I still really wanted it.  I remember being jealous of Karen's way-cool blue skeleton earrings.  They dangled and everything! 

So I just denied myself of it, lost interest for a while, and wanted it again a couple years back when I got married.  But I knew my mom would have a fit if she saw me on my wedding day with my pierced ears.  She's not opposed to jewelry, I realized, because she pushed for me to get clip-on earrings.  She is just freaked out about body piercing of any kind. 

So when I was in Korea earlier this month, I mentioned to her that I wanted to get my ears pierced and she exclaimed, "No!" with a look of terror on her face.  Geez.  Then when I came back, I realized that I'm 26 now, and I can pretty much make my own decisions. 

So when Brittany said let's do something "wild and crazy" this past week, I suggested LET'S GET MY EARS PIERCED!  So I did.  Thanks to Brittany, Miriam, and Minho who loved and supported me through the process. 

And kudos to Danny for noticing when I picked him up from the airport at 1:30am! 

By the way, please don't tell my mother yet.  I'm still thinking of a way to gently let her know.    

Hi, here am I in Korea. My native country. Motherland. We're at Cheju Airport, at an internet kiosk, killing some time before we get back to Seoul. We were ecstatic to find that there's internet available here at the airport, for our convenience. Danny was especially happy.

So Danny pretty much underwent a drastic change in hairstyle and glasses. Glasses in Korea are soooo cheap! I might get a pair myself.

I don't have a good book to read. Miriam recommended Tess of the D'urbervilles to me, and I'm slowly going through it. But let me tell you, it's a hard read! I can barely understand the English. I need something more easy. Got any other recs under your sleeve, Miriam? Anyone else have a recommendation for me? Anything with Asian themes, racism/prejudice, romance, mother/daughter relationships, and the like will do. I'm willing to expand a bit, too.

We should probably get going to the boarding gate...

So far, we've enjoyed being Korean tourists. Danny is very into being a tourist and seeing the local sights, so it's been very fun. Also, we went with a group that's from LA, so we met people from the LA area. Mostly families with kids going to Sunny Hills or UC Irvine. We were the oddballs. More later!

Today I went to a wedding. One out of like 10 weddings this year! People are dropping like flies. Taking the oath of matrimony. Go marriage!

I'm glad that Danny doesn't like dancing, just like me. I mean, I'll dance sometimes. Here and there. But I don't truly enjoy it. I'm talking about the freestyle shakin' your booty, lookin' cool or dorky, depending on who you are, kind of dance. Don't get me wrong. I love choreographed dance, ballroom dancing, modern dance (kinda), etc. But dancing at weddings is difficult for me.

Back in high school and college, dances were just not my cup of tea. I watched all my friends go to dances, and take those dance pictures, and pass those dance pictures around at school. I know that lots and lots of people do like dancing, and I admire their ability to enjoy the carefree nature of hopping around and gyrating to musical tunes, without feeling self-conscious. But me, I guess I didn't get that gene.

Since I have a lot of time on my hands, I organized our books on our two bookshelves. The books are organized loosely in the following categories: small-sized books, Asian-American literature, Christian, programming, Education-related books, Danny's fiction, Jieun's fiction, Resources, foreign language textbooks and books, and dictionaries. Please, feel free to borrow any of our books. Just make sure to sign in. I lent When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park to Hanah. I thought she might find it a bit interesting. OK FINE. I'm trying to convert everyone into Asian/Asian-American literature fans!

But really. What is Asian-American? Asian America? How did we come to this place? I honestly think that my life would have been much simpler if I were raised in Korea. No cultural barriers to worry about. I don't know. I guess you can argue that it's just one layer among many problems in life. Sure.

But thinking about it in the grand purpose of life, I think God has a purpose for creating Asian-Americans. As he does for other people who are bicultural. I guess the movement of people into new lands has always been in the Bible. Abraham did it. Moses. Ruth. That's how God wanted to reach other people. Through people. I was reached through my mom, who was reached through a door-to-door missionary somewhere in Korea. He was reached by someone, and before that guy, and so on, and so on, until probably the first missionary in Korea in the 1800s. I'm just guessing here, but if this were true, then I'm a product of the first missionaries who went to closed Korea, who were white Westerners from somewhere in Europe or America. And now South Korea sends out missionaries like crazy to all over the world.

Missions is fascinating to me. The history of the world can be looked at in terms of church history and missions. Where did you hear about Jesus?