Friday, September 26, 2008

In between roads

I am cooling down from being REALLY angry w/my sister for leaving my camera in her hotel room in Seoul since this means I have to make an extra trip early in the morning to fetch it and then head to another city outside of Seoul for a hanji festival. I am BEAT from the travel, just having gotten back to Seoul today at 1pm and having to leave tomorrow morning. I would love to skip the festival but this is why I'm here, and sometimes research is just painful.

Tonight was hard: I was at a Fulbright intro dinner while my entire family was at a restaurant in another part of town celebrating my sister's marriage (from 2.5 years ago). I tried to get out of the dinner early but was blocked at least 3x, so by the time I was free to go, it was too late. I felt torn all night and it made for a terrible sense of not being present. I'm only here b/c of Fulbright, and wouldn't even have been at the family gathering if I didn't get the Fulbright. But...our family so rarely comes together like this. I guess, mostly never. It was hard - two of the junior researchers were like, go! Esther was like, LEAVE, NOW, and Frank was like, I come from a family that always says family first. Whew. Maybe I should just be happy to have avoided more "why aren't you married? You're the oldest!" commentary. It's amazing to me that my choice to be single is so incredibly offensive and bewildering to so many people here.

I have no pictures b/c my camera is trapped in a hotel room. But soon! I'm so overbooked I can barely stand it. Plus, it's like COLD autumn suddenly in Seoul. Good news: I got a haircut today! More on that phenomenon when I get back into town.

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