[RESET] Korea Back in Focus

Odd, one of my students had mentioned my blog to me yesterday before class. She stumbled upon it in an attempt to contact me and ended up reading some of it, enjoying what she read, and indirectly encouraging me to revisit this blog that I seemed to have forgotten in my attempt to better myself through yet even more graduate education. I can't say I'm necessarily better that I was one year ago, though I do think I'm more capable and definitely more resilient. But I suppose the point of all of this is to restart something I foolishly left hanging, bring back into focus the place I once called home. It is no coincidence that this coincides with a return trip to Seoul in roughly five days as I've had several people tell me that I should blog about my experience. Three weeks compared to three years seems somewhat muted, not to mention mooted, but of those 100 days of Korea-related pictures I find myself wanting to revisit each and everyone one individually in order to experience it yet again.

And so it begins. I in no way will challenge myself to revisit all 100 places and/or things, some a bit more difficult to stumble back upon than others. However, I challenge myself to bring back into the spotlight the place I still consider home, yet this time with a bit more substance (and of course the same wit and charm I know all of you are dying to read). This trip is dedicated to research, and so perhaps I should focus my posts around that general topic of 'Korea research' without pinpointing exactly what my research actually is. Maybe my posts can help other anthropologists or anthropologists-in-training with their own fieldwork, especially given my familiarity with the 'field' I am 'heading' into. I suppose, then, that the substance here will be multi-faceted as it will be consumed on multiple layers (look at me, talking like an academic even within what some may consider frivolous blog posts... I wonder where the off switch is).

Regardless, something to look forward to either alongside this new challenge and/or after I return from Korea: "English isn't really that cool...seriously." You'd think that with all the English-speaking foreigners in Korea that KPOP would release songs that have halfway-decent English in them... it's a lot like your dog running into the sliding glass door because he can't tell that it is actually closed. I'll leave you with that image for now, guys and dolls.