Post Script: For a Friend

 Goodbye, Miriam.

I remember our last Commons breakfast. The end of your first year, the end of my last year in New Haven. I told you (and Eunju - and Christina?), "four years pass so quickly. Years from now, this moment will be a vague memory. If you remember me, I'll be 'that guy who was around' your freshman year."

That was true, and it wasn't. A decade sped by, but our friendship and conversations continued, from New Haven to Beijing, LA, DC. I got to witness a time-lapse portrait of your convictions as they sharpened and realized. They took form and touched the world around you: in your activism, your allyship, your breaking ground to make sanctuary for those who need it.

You were passionate, kind, and generous, and only became ever more so. "Generous" in many ways: your words and presence. The way you spent your time. The passions you chose to pursue. They'll continue to bear fruit for so many hungry for truth and freedom. I've seen your work, and work that bears your fingerprints, bleed into view from across the country. It was always deeply-rooted, thoughtful, caring. As you were.

As you are, even now, somewhere.

The next time I see you, I'll shout: "Miriaaaaaaaaaam Chooooooooooooo." You'll mirror back: "Jason Chuuuuuuuuuu." We'll have a lot to talk about, and we'll have plenty of time to talk.

Rest well, sister.

Re: UCW leadership

Me: I'm so sad
that I didn't get to see you two in action together

Moh lei: no worries it wasn't that great

Me: HAHAHA

NEW STICKERS from the homey JP!!!

Most people don't really know this, but my dad was born in Thailand... 100% Chinese though, ethnically, not to mention his father was a Chinese journalist who moved to Thailand RIGHT before the Cultural Revolution (thank God) + his stepfather was 100% Chinese... but anyways I had never been to Thailand before a short trip earlier this year...

Why do I say this?

My homeboy JP, aka the creator of the art for our Japanese Tsunami benefit song remix, has been in Thailand for work for a minute, and I just got this DOPE package today with a Thai return address!!!!



Inside: New stickers from their DOPE skateboarding company!!



Thanks, big dog! See u next time u come thru BJ! Say what up to Paul 4 me!

BONUS: You're Not Alone (Japan Tsunami relief song) REMIX ft. a lot of rappers & singers

things my gf says

Jessii: my niece said i should have a beautiful daughter she could play with

me: hmmm

Jessii: i give her a cookie

Big ups to my KASY fam!

Most of you probably know, I was living in New Haven for 6 years total... 4 as an undergrad at Yale and then 2 years on-campus working as staff for the same student congregation (UCW) that I attended during my undergrad years. During those 6 years, because of mad friendships and also my awesome UCW friends, I got super linked into the Yale Korean community especially the KASY (Korean-American Students at Yale) crowd... I'm talking about showing up to KASY events and knowing 80% of the people there, running into people randomly on W 34th in NYC, shopping in Soho, etc. etc.

One of the dope events that KASY puts on every year for the community is "Adopted Friends," they invite any local families that have adopted Korean children to come and have their kids (ALL their kids, not just the adopted children) come and learn about their home culture. Food, clothes, taekwondo, all that kind of thing. I remember MAD families used to come through - I even saw my advisor (i knew him all 4 years, philosophy professor, director of undergraduate studies, etc.) and his wife and two kids there one or two years in a row!

Well Asian media, especially Korean media, loves Yale! So this year my homegirl SARAH PARK was KASY social chair and so she put together Adopted Friends... and it was a huge success!! So big that they covered it in KOREA DAILY, based in Long Island... way to go Sparky!!


I see you! Miriam, Paul, EK, Eliot, Mindy, Esther, James, etc.! Hahahaha.

hours in a day

Beginning Friday, August 6:

9:30 AM - Woke up. Dressed.
10 AM - Brunch in Dongzhimen with my buddy Israel.
12 PM - lunch at Xizhimen (across town) with my buddy Billy.
2 PM - Head to Dongsi. Hang with Chacey and her roommate in Dongsi, at the underground shopping market. Go to Bustout store, help the girls shop. Hang with Slim Paul.
6:30 PM - back at home. Kelley and Sylvia are waiting! Sorry, girls.
7 PM - go out to eat. 24 hour Xinjiang restaurant. Israel, Kelley, Sylvia, Chacey, Dui Dui, and I are all hanging.
8:30 PM - Chacey and Dui Dui had to bounce. Maggie, Jenna, Jenna's friend, and Ben join us. We ask the server to reheat our food.
11 PM - Maggie, Jenna, and her friend headed home; Ben, Israel, Kelley, Sylvia, and I are back home. Figuring out what to do.
1 AM - All hands in: pledging that we will make it to the sunrise flag-raising at Tiananmen Square.
1:30 AM - I remember that I have the Internet, and can stay awake forever with it, guaranteeing that I will be up to wake others up. The others go to sleep.
2 AM - I'm on the internet checking email, reading blogs, and talking to Jessii. Everyone else is napping. Jenna comes by and promptly falls asleep on my floor. There are 12 people in my house: 6 in beds, 4 on couches, 1 on the floor, and me on the internet.
4:30 AM - Everybody up! Out the door, hailing the few cabs we can find, headed to Tiananmen East.
5:15 AM - sunrise at Tiananmen Square, followed by Israel guiding us over to the national opera house ("The Egg"), lots of photos, and a subway back home.
7 AM - Back home. Time to sleep.
11 AM - Up and at 'em: lunch with Steve!

And so another day dawns...

More brothers ballin it up

Congratulations to the homies (and my ex-housemates) Yier and Nate for balling out on the electrical engineering circuit (pun always intended, you know that).

Yale is not a school to which honors often go, but I guess these guys were able to rise above the vapid sea of mediocrity surrounding them and overcome the odds... who knows, "that school in New Haven" just might become a credible academic institution (nah) with guys like this around.

Harvard-Yale / Korean Food in New York

An eventful 7 days transpires in New Haven; old relationships begin anew, rivalries spill over throughout the city, and Korean food threatens to (deliciously) overwhelm a trip to New York. All on this week's episode of

American Dream, Chinese Hero.

...

Tuesday11.17.2009

After kicking it with Christian YV for a long minute, I ran into Living
Water, preparing for the Harvard-Yale jam with Harvard's Under
Construction.


Lookin, soundin like a million bucks.

Friday11.20.2009

After a 2 hour flight delay, Janice touched down into
New Haven safe & sound; To celebrate, we headed to
our old favorite spot for a familiar round of dishes.

Saturday11.21.2009

The morning of The Game dawned cool, bright, and
inspirational. Headed to the Living Water alumni
breakfast, I ran into a familiar and sorely-missed
face around campus.


The #1 JOSH I SKY!!!


What a great triad of alums.

Mel dropped by New Haven. Instead of going to The
Game (good call there...), she and I hung lazily around
my apartment, catching up on life the way we used
to during undergrad days.


Mel has been down with Bustout for a minute now.


After catching up, I walked her over to the Omni, one of New Haven's
hotels. Note that even the telephones are bougie.


!

After dinner, a group of the alums, led by my roommate,
congregated in our apartment to nurse full stomachs and, perhaps,
the traces of wounded pride (Harvard: 14; Yale: 10).


Karin, Yang, Wendo.


Amy, Ben, Victor, Josh.


Jwong and Ray!


Nancy Liang came through to reminisce with me and
give me the lowdown on her career moves... killing
em in the investment game.

Monday11.23.2009


On my way to work out in the Pierson-Davenport
gym, I passed a picture of the PC class of 2008,
including this dashing young fellow. Obviously
headed somewhere smart with his life.

That night, a small group of us congregated at
Enping's house for dinner + a movie.


Andrew and James, the very portrait of mutual
trust.


厨师 Ah Joo... gourmet dumplings.

Tuesday11.24.2009

On a sharp Tuesday morning, D.Chen and I headed into
the City to kick it with assorted NJ/NYC friends.

Hitting the city shortly before noon, we hopped on the
uptown 6 and met up with sgkim at the Met, where
we Saw Culture.




The expansive Egypt room. I was so impressed by the clear, crisp design cues,
which stood in bold contrast to the self-conscious and cluttered layout of the rest
of the museum.




What's that, Stephen?


Yes, adorable.






White = sitting on camel = Wise Man
Black = leading camel = Servant
Not cool, Culture. Mad ignorant.


Famous!


Luminous!


Artist painting art of art!


"Pertti Kekarainen
Finnish, born 1965
TILA (Passage I), 2006
Chromogenic print
...
One of the leading artists of the Helsinki school, a loosely
connected group of photographers associated with Finland's
Academy of Fine Arts, Kakarainen uses the camera to foreground
the process of perception itself. the photographs in his TILA series
are images of architectural spaces-rooms, staircases, doorways,
windows-to which he has added various optical occlusions: extra
shadows, floating spots of color, and larger veils or scrims that
sometimes nearly obscure the original image. These interruptions
in the visual field complicate the act of seeing and encourage a
heightened awareness of the tension between the flatness of the
photograph and the illusion of spatial depth. The Finnish word tila
means many things, from "space" or "place" to "circumstance"
or "state of mind." Kekarainen's gorgeously complex images
convincingly show that the photographic representation of space
is completed in the eye and mind of the viewer."




Detail of above.


Exiting the Met, we motivated our way crosstown via Central Park.


Satchel, corduroy blazer, knit wool tie - vintage
Cashmere scarf - Club Room
Glasses - Bust Out
Shirt - Uniqlo


Midtown Manhattan skyline over Central Park.


Revisiting old haunts.

Hitting 86th and Broadway, we jumped on the 1,
bound for Columbia, where Lucas was lecturing at
4 PM.


Clearly labeled. I appreciate that in a campus.


Waiting around, eating roasted nuts [||] before lecture.

Stephen departed to spend time with an old friend,
David and I sat in on Lucas' lecture, Yoonjoo arrived at
Columbia, and we all linked up for dinner in Ktown at
Kunjip.




SO EXCITED TO FOOD


Yo it is real hard to get D.chen to sit still for a photo.


Dookbaeki bulgolgi, the first time I've had it since the summer in Ilsan.


ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yo


Redmango post-dinner. By this point, my stomach was real insistent.

After we walked Yoonjoo & David to the 34th st 1 train
stop, and made an emergency detour to a certain store,
we saw a large crowd gathering in front of Macy's,
where a large section of the street was cordoned off and,
as we discovered, the site of Thanksgiving Day parade
rehearsals.


Eunju, overcome by excitement and curiosity, hopped on
the barricade to peer inquisitively at the young performers.

After saying goodbye to Eunju & sgkim, I kicked it in
Ktown with Karmen for a little longer, then motivated
my way uptown to Columbia, again, where I hung with
my man Andrew and saw Ji Eun for the first time in 4
years, since we all finished studying in 北京 together.

Super on his grind... real talk, I got to Columbia
around 10 PM, and headed to Lucas' apartment
to spend the night around 2 AM... Andrew was
working on his pset the whole time and kept on
working for hours after I left! Homeboy is really on
track to being an academic baller.

Wednesday11.25.2009

Sleeping in, I woke up in time for lunch with
Andrew & Ji Eun at the only Korean place local to
Columbia, Mill.

I wasn't hungry, having eaten about 3 meals' worth
of bulgolgi and rice the night before, but Ji Eun and
Andrew were having none of it... so they loaded me
down with Bibimbap and a couple pieces of kimbap
from Ji Eun's friend Fei Fei. Thanks guys.






After lunch, I linked up with Lucas again to talk some words for a
brief minute, then we kicked it around campus at Columbia.

Hopping on the downtown 1 around 2:30, I hit Grand Central with
2 minutes to spare for the 2:57 to New Haven.

God's timing truly >>> my own.