The Beginnings of a Social Life

When it rains, it pours. After a month of limited social engagement edging on boredom, I had something social to do every day this past week.

Before I get to that, though, here’s the most important Kim family news of the week:

Joe and I visited my new doctor and were told our baby is a boy! We are going to have a son!

<--That's me in a kimbap restaurant, impatiently waiting for our appointment time. Joe thinks my belly looks more preggers when I'm sitting...

During the ultrasound, I got to see my little guy move while at the same time feeling his little pokes and prods in my belly. Now that I know for sure what his movements are like, I’m feeling him move all the time. I’m sure in a few months he’ll start kicking my ribs and I’ll get over the excitement, but for now, I find my son’s movements comforting; I’m less paranoid over whether or not he’s still OK in there.

But back to my budding social life:

I had two coffee dates, one lunch date, one dinner date, and an entire afternoon with a group of people tutoring teenaged North Korean refugees.

The biggest treat was Joe’s dad passing through and taking us to a nice dinner. His visit was a comforting taste of home and family (and he brought along some helpful presents from my mother-in-law!).

Another day I met some young embassy interns for lunch, along with one of the Korean employees. I’ve become friends with the interns through embassy social events, but also because these ladies are my lifeline. If I have a question about anything or need help with anything, they are always ready and happy to assist—and they are also always up for a lunch date.

Their English is near-perfect (it has to be for them to work in the embassy), so it’s easy to hang out and chat, and I love learning more about Seoul and about Korean culture through their eyes.

While I was leaving the embassy, I saw a protestor holding this grammatically-wonderful sign (pictured right). "Stop taking effect of FTA against 99% people. People terminator of FTA." Occupy the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement? Anyone?

That same day, I met an American reporter for coffee—someone I had emailed late last fall when I was still at U.S. News. We found that easy connection that exists between two people who are familiar with the same career, and it made me feel like an intelligent and interesting person again to talk about something I know. I may be a stay-at-home person at the moment, but I can discuss the state of journalism and tell what it’s like to be a political reporter in D.C.!

I’m still not sure if I’ll work at all while I’m here, but I enjoyed learning a bit about what it’s like to be an English-language reporter in Seoul. And she was really nice, so hopefully we will be friends.

I also got to meet one of my former students for coffee this week. For those who don’t know, I taught for a year at an international middle school in Malawi just after college. Some of my students were Korean, including one girl I always knew as Ann. What a joy to see that shy, sweet, smart eighth grader grow into a beautiful young woman—she’s now about to graduate college!

Wow, that makes me feel old.

Her English is far improved from seven years ago, and we had fun chatting and catching up. Crazy to think I was about her age when I was her teacher.

Saturday, I spent the afternoon with a group of embassy volunteers, most of whom I hadn’t yet met. It was nice to have the bus ride to get to know more embassy friends, but the best part of the day was meeting the North Korean refugees (no pictures for security reasons).

These young people, who have already escaped horrible conditions in an oppressive country and perhaps lost family members along the way, now face the struggle of trying to succeed in South Korea, where apparently they face a lot of prejudice

Also, in South Korea, education is central to a young person’s life. Because refugees have had to hide out to successfully escape, many lose a few years of education, and I’m not sure how much of the schooling they did receive in the north was focused on Communist writings from the “Dear Leaders.”

Learning English is one way the students are working to catch up and open doors to future job opportunities, and they actually volunteered their weekend time to come practice with us. I worked with a young woman who was terribly shy at first, but was walking arm-in-arm with me by the end. I’m not sure if my lackluster tutoring made a difference, but I was glad to help such a lovely girl even just a little bit.

The day really put things in perspective. Living in Seoul with all its first-world-city amenities, it’s hard to remember that just about 20 miles north lies the border to the most closed country in the world, a place where many people suffer from starvation or live in political prison camps.

It was amazing to see the resiliency of these young people who escaped all of that. They joyfully practiced English and ate Oreos with Americans—a people group North Koreans are taught to despise.

Thinking about their struggles is a good reminder for me to not stress too much about my own need to find my place and a community here. Really, I’ll be fine.