Hello people. Welcome to my first personal blog. I thought I'd start this as things in life are really hectic and this seems like a nice and organized way to get various news out and about. Awesome!
So, I just arrived in Korea last night and was greeted by 100,000 protestors! Woo! (see pic above)
My parents recently moved to a district of Seoul called Guang Huan Moon. It's one of the arts/culture districts of Seoul (lots of museums and theaters) but also is home to the Korean version of the White House. So last night, a humogonous crowd of angry Seoul-ites took to the streets literally outside our apartment building chanting in protest to President Lee and his recent decisions regarding Korea's import of U.S. beef. (among other issues). It was a very noisy night but after a 15 hour flight with a stop in LA and winding through protest traffic for 2 hours on the way home...I slept right through it :).
Things on the mom front are going ahead as planned. For those of you I haven't told yet, my mom's kidneys have begun failing again so have actively begun looking for transplant options. Last week she was put on a waiting list in Korea and it's a scramble this week to get Chinese visas for the family so we can put her on a waiting list in China as well. On Sunday we travel across the Yellow Sea to some Chinese city (i can't remember the name) that specializes in organ transplanting. We'll be there for five days to check out their facilities and then fly back to spend one more week in Korea. I come back to SF on July 1st at which point I will promptly walk to Pancho Villa for a shrimp taco. We are hopeful that momma choi will find an organ donor within the next few months.
A bunch of very exciting projects are on the move since school ended a month ago. I am starting a record label with my musical hero, Carla Kihlstedt. She has been an amazing mentor ever since I got to SF last year and I'm still pinching myself that she's involved me in as many projects as she has. We've romped around Chicago, Boston and NY so far this year and hopefully the label and licensing companies will bring new rompage oppos in more awesome cities to come! Carla you are amazing!
I'm also starting a new orchestra called The Magik*Magik Orchestra together with composer Luciano Chessa (one of my favorite composers) and Terra Reneau, who books for Cafe Du Nord. It's been a huge project that's taken lots of brainstorming and collaborative power but I have high hopes for it and will keep everyone posted on how it turns out! Terra, Luciano and I are also trying to plan the first SF Wordless Music Series concert which will hopefully feature the west coast premiere of Jonny Greenwood's "Popcorn Superhet Receiver". If it happens, you must come as it will be SO awesome.
I think I will end this first blog with some funny things I've done in Korea since I got here. Number one, we don't have a dryer in this house, like for laundry. Most apts in our building don't because of the high cost of electricity. So today, my mom taught me how to take wrinkles out of shirts the old fashion way. We took the clothes out of the washer, folded them into little squares, then neatly packed them inside some towels and it was my job to step/jump on them to flatten out the wrinkles before we hung them to dry. It felt a bit surreal considering that everything else about the apt feels like we live in a spaceship from the future. No keys (only magnetized cards for entry), built-in flat screen tvs next to the kitchen sink, the tiniest Samsung desktop computers I've ever seen. Number two weirdo Korea thing, my mom took out a large sum of money in cash from the bank today to deposit into my dad's bank account. Do they not have checks or online banking here?? Anyway, the bank teller gave her the cash in a paper bag. No envelope, no boxes, no nothing. Even crazier, the bag was white with little green bank logos all over it..I felt like we were in a cartoon and just robbed a bank, they might as well had a huge dollar sign on the bag to make it just that much easier to get jumped on the way home. Thank you Hana Bank!
I will be keeping this blog updated with all the news of my summer and beyond so check back if you're bored at the office sometime!
Love,
Minna
4 comments:
Minna!! What a wild start to your trip. I can't believe you have so many crazy stories already. So I probably won't see you very much for more than a month. I found out I'm going back to Taiwan for another week the same night I get back from New York (on July 6th).
We will definitely have to throw down when we're all back home. My best wishes to your mom and your family. Miss ya already.
-Coby
I want to come to future Korea land!! I am writing you from my office in Malta, by the sea, where there are neither church bells ringing nor cannons singing nor fireworks working tonight, a strange slice of silence indeed for the Maltese. Miss you, buddy.
P.S. Sucks for that dude that he has to go to Taiwan!!
ahhhh minna- so funny! i was laughing so hard at the bank part.
-kyung hwa
Hello Minna,
I heard about you doing this blog stuff. I found in my many hospital visits, one of the best medicine is indeed, humor. Get a good, clean joke book, like the one I read at Barnes & Nobles and write it on a piece of paper and give it to Momma Choi and/or Daddy Choi. Here's one. "Nothing annoys woman more than when unexpected guests arrives and see her house, as it usually is." Of course, this is for woman who is married and etc. For you, Momma Choi might have a 'BIG SURPRISE' if she visits your place unexpectedly! :-)
-u.d.
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