Im going to be leaving Seoul and venturing outward starting tomorrow (my friday, your thursday). I haven’t quite figured out if i am going to be traveling via Submarine or Hoverboat yet, but im sure there will be plenty of photos to come!

I am going to be visiting a buddhist temple for the weekend, and then traveling to Busan to hang out for the week, check out some beaches, do some couch surfing maybe meet some new people and enjoy the Chuseok holiday.

After that ill be heading even deeper South to Jeju-do to explore the volcanic remains and work on Mulme Organic Farm to help with with the tangerines!!!

Im not sure what internet connections will be like in any of these locations so you may not be hearing from me in awhile.  Ill be working out my phalanges and journaling the oldschool way though.

Until then…

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So hanging out at the Shejumps/Skibacs event earlier this month… i had missed dinner and was in the market for a quick food item to put into my mouth as quickly as possible!  I wanted to make my way back to enjoy adult beverages and catching up with everyone. The closest and really the only thing around that was open was a little Pizza place that served up by the slice, New York style pizza.

As i rounded the corner towards Pizza Pro, a tall asian man was bringing in lawn furniture from outside and looked like he was ready to close up shop but welcomed me in with a smile. Mike was eager to please and very confident that i would enjoy his pizza. He plopped my veggie slice into the oven and i got the stock question, “what nationality are you?” i know he knew, but i think it was his way of engaging conversation. I told him that i was adopted from South Korea but i’m really white, my usual response. I told him about how i am just beginning my journey to find my biological mother and he grew more curious and then asked what my name was. Eun Young Yoon i said, and gasp he did. This wasn’t the first time i’d had this response. I can remember 2 other times when this had happened but never thought much of it but this time Mike began to tell me about how my name is presitigious i guess, or at least had been once upon a time.

Apparently tied to some old dynasty from hundreds (thousands?) of years ago, dating back to a time when caste systems were the mainstay. According to Wikipedia, Yoon is the ninth most common family name in Korea. The name is sometimes also transliterated as Yun, Yune, or Youn. The character means the eldest and is only used to denote the surname in Korea.

…. i’ve got lots to learn!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoon_(Korean_name)

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