About Me.

Since I can't think of anything to begin with, I'll just start out with a cliched introduction of myself (my apologies). My name is Hoon. In Korean, my full name is supposed to mean something like: a person who guides people to their destiny. Just something random I wanted to include in this post.

Although I'm South Korean, I spent most of my life abroad - that pretty much kept me away from keeping in touch with my Korean-ness. When I was six, my family moved to Beijing. We stayed there for the next twelve years of my childhood. During that time I attended the International School of Beijing, an American school for expatriate families. After my highschool graduation in Beijing, I headed to NYC to study film&tv and journalism at New York University.

As I moved through my freshman and sophomore year, I became attached to the city. If moving to Beijing was a significant turning point in my life, coming to NYC was a life-changing experience. I plan on living here after my college graduation unless the work-visa situation does not work out. But really, I just want to live anywhere outside of South Korea.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those K.K.W.S.A. (Korean Kids Who Studied Abroad) that constantly bitch about South Korea... Well, that's not entirely true. I complain about South Korea non-stop. But, beneath all that bitching, I'm still happy about the fact that I'm South Korean. It's part of who I am and I'm fine with that. However, all the overseas living made me realize that I'm not just South Korean but also a bit of Chinese and American. Ultimately it all comes down to ME. Belonging to some country is just a fragment of who I am. I'm more than that, hopefully.

Right now, I'm back in Seoul for a special reason. I'm going to be serving in the South Korean army starting from August 5th 2008. All Korean boys are required to serve TWO YEARS in the army. This will be the first time for me to be staying in wonderful South Korea for more than just a school break.

The purpose of me writing this blog is to use these two years to re-examine my preconceived notions (mostly negative) of South Korea and hope to either confirm them or find them shattered with a new discovery.

I'm hoping that someday my pessimism towards South Korea may change. I'm a positive person and having all these negative feelings bottled up inside me doesn't do me any good.