Global Overseas Adoptees' Link

Helloooo!

So the past 2 days have mostly involved my internship. I went there yesterday for the first time. It was pretty boring and disorganized, as most NPO/NGOs are (the disorganized part). The first couple of hours were fine. Full of orientation-y things. There are two other interns. The girl from France, Miriam, was also adopted. She started a couple of months ago. The other girl is starting now. Her name is Monica and she is going to be a senior at William and Mary. Also, her brother will be attending Wash U in St Louis in the fall. Small world, anyone?

The first thing I need to tell you about it the Dual Citizenship Campaign. GOA'L is currently working on a this as the big project. You can go read all about it if you want. Basically, we're lobbying to get some changes so that adoptees have the right to dual citizenship. It will not be an automatic thing, they will need to apply for one of the two citizenships because not all adoptees would actually want this. There are a couple different solutions to the mandatory military service. One thing is that all orphans are not subject to serving the military, and most adoptees are registered as orphans. If for some reason this is not the case, there are a few different options that are being explored. Anyway, read about in that link.

Now, I'll tell you why you needed to know all that... We're trying to get 50,000 signatures by December. I was wondering if you guys could follow the link and print the signsheet (it's 2 pages). If everyone could just get one sheet filled (12 signatures) that would be supremely awesome. Let me know if you need my address and I'll send it to you. If you don't want to, that's fine. I just thought this would be a great venue in which I could try to get some more signatures.

So, aside from that, one of the biggest services that GOA'L offers is the birth family search assistance. That's where I'll be spending a lot of my time. So, today I went to YTN, a big 24/7 news station, to accompany a searching adoptee on a filming for a show. She basically told the circumstances of her abandonment and what she knew of her birth. Then, Tuesday I will go to MBC station (a big cable network). They have another similar show called "그 사감이 보고 싶다." Which is a show for all Koreans who have been disconnected from family members in any way (not just via adoption). There is usually one adoptee live and one adoptee via webcam. That show is a full hour. The YTN thing is just a short blurb that they add to weekend news.

So that's pretty exciting. I don't have any pictures. I'm catching a cold, or maybe it's just allergies. Don't worry, Inseon takes good care of my just like you guys do.

Today, after the filming, I went with an adoptee to the Immigration Office. It was long. And annoying. And I'm tired. But at least now I know what to expect when I go to get my card... /sigh. The visa I'm here on is less common so the process isn't perfect and it seems like each person working there asks for different documents. Ehh, anyway. I'm taking everything I could possibly need.

Anyway, for now, I'm going to take some advil and take a nap. It was a long day.

Bye bye!