Thursday, June 5, 2008

Kimchi Weekend #2 2008 (In order to fulfill my curiousity in how men go to the bathroom)

Okay, so the hose is nowhere near my crotch...but somewhere in my deranged, off-center thought process, I could envision while standing there for about 30-45 minutes holding that hose in my hand in a slightly downward position that this would be, in fact, the closest thing to being a man standing at a urinal. That is, if that said man were 300 lbs and had a bladder the size of the Lochness monster. Ahh, a girl can wonder, can't she?


The past weekend marked the 2nd "Kimchi Weekend" at Laura unni's house and proved to be just as fun, and even more rewarding than the first time I went. There is definitely something to be said about cooking collectively that brings a group of people together in an amazing and surreal way. It seems so subtle and sort of ridiculous - the idea of standing in a kitchen together, slaving over the stove, peeling and cutting vegetables, filling big tubs of cabbage up with water - but I have never felt more connected with four women in my entire life, almost as close as the first time that I ever learned how to cook any Korean dish in a Korean kitchen.


See all those bottle tops there? Awww yeah, you're not seeing things - that is all alcohol, baby. Let's just say the first night was our attempt at making mandu that ended in four or five drinks later, a girl pow-wow outside on the porch curled up together chattering until 6 AM and absolutely no mandu made at all.


Every time I go to Laura's house, I feel like I get closer to a part of myself that I had never exposed before. Sometimes a part of myself that I didn't even know existed. It's a comforting and blessed thing to be able to have a place to go with nothing holding you back from being completely yourself and to be surrounded by people who only encourage and facilitate your inner soul to grow and emerge as a stronger person.


As horribly stereotypical as this is going to sound, I felt like I was in a scene of the Joy Luck Club. Or Soul Food. Or The Ice Storm. Five women in a kitchen until 5 AM, talking of life, love, loss, pain, perseverance, courage, bravery and being scared shitless sometimes. It was like the scene of a movie where you know this is the pivotal point, this is where the epitome of the movie is coming from. This wholly collective togetherness that is encasing around these five individuals.


I was left with a lot of wonderful, somewhat scary, and yet poignant thoughts to ponder when leaving Laura's house. And I also took away with me some amazing new friendships.


5 comments:

Mama B said...

Yay! Good for you, Em!
MMM- I can almost smell the food!
:0)

Anonymous said...

Wow, impressive! New to your blog, found it through the lovely blogosphere. :)

The Dreamer said...

That is a lot of Kimchi!!

Unknown said...

I'm sorry because this comment is not directly toward your post (although your making of kimchi looks very interesting!). I
am hoping, however, that you will take the time to read this, and make a
future post based on the following information.

My name is Myriam, I am a French adoptee born in Korea and I am currently interning at the Global Overseas Adoptees' Link (GOA'L),
located in Seoul, South Korea. I am writing to you with intentions of both
providing you with information on, as well as asking for your assistance
with our current campaign.

As you may already know, GOA'L has been supporting overseas adoptees born in
Korea since 1998. We are now lobbying for overseas adoptees' right to hold a
dual citizenship.

At the bottom, I will include a link leading toward documents about our
campaign. There is an information package which contains the specific
details about our campaign. Within, issues such as military service and tax
responsibilities are outlined. The second document is the petition form. We
are hoping to obtain 50,000 signatures by December 2008. To reach this goal,
we are contacting organizations and individuals connected with Korea, or with adoption in general, in order to get their help, as this is an issue that could concern all adoptees in the world who are denied dual citizenship. We hepe to set a precedent so that other countries forbidding dual nationality could also liberalize their legislation.

We would greatly appreciate your support in this campaign. The info package and sign sheet are available at this address:

http://goal.or.kr/eng/?slms=room&lsms=1&sl=6&ls=17

You may also contact us at campaign.goal@gmail.com

Thank you so much!

Myriam Cransac
Campaign Coordinator

Mama B said...

hey girl!! Where are the posts??? Hope you are doing ok!! xoxox