Friends in Korea: I'll be in Seoul for the next four days. Not a lot of time, and sorry for the short notice. If you want to meet up, send your number to: jstrauss AT gmail.com
Friends everywhere else: I'm flying to Korea today!
UPDATE: I've joined the Mile High Club! No, not that one! I'm talkin' internet access, five miles above the earth. There's wifi on this Korean Air flight, and I'm writing this from seat 30J, now looking out over the Sea of Japan. Travelling at 500 mph. And since I came gear-laden, I've also shot and uploaded some photos to Flickr, mid-flight.
See the latest: flickr.com/photos/jasonunbound
You just never know what you're going to find when you push that button on your answering machine. I got a message from someone named Ron, asking to speak to either Jiwon or Jason. He identified himself as a private investigator, and left his number. I called back.
A woman answers the phone at LRS Investigations, and transfers me to Ron. Ron informs me that Jiwon Shin, previously of Somerville, Mass, currently residing in California, is married to a man named Kevin L., and that he wants a divorce. He's going to send the sheriff to serve the divorce papers. He goes on to say that Kevin's been unable to contact Jiwon, and he just wants to get a divorce and move on with his life. I hear him out, fascinated, and then tell him that I think he's got the wrong woman.
He says, Are you sure? I'm talking about Jiwon Shin, originally from Korea, who went to graduate school at Harvard University....
[cue creepy music]
At this point, I short-circuit a little bit. I'd quickly looked Ron up online, and ascertain that he's for real. And his description, which presumably came from this guy Kevin, and has been checked out by Ron, is dead on. I protest: Jiwon & I have been together nearly every day since we were both 21. When is this supposed to have happened? Before I met her? As Ron pokes around to find the answer to that, he tells me that apparently it was a marriage of convenience, and that they were never really together. And then it occurs to me that this Kevin may be a stalker or something, albeit going about it in a strange way.
And then Ron says, does Jiwon also sometimes spell her name another way? And then I get it! Jiwon has never has, but in her early days at Harvard, there was an advanced graduate student in another department with the same name in Korean, but slightly different romanization. And it was the subject of occasional confusion in Cambridge. I told Ron what I knew about this other person, and he was happy to have a new lead. He apologized for freaking me out, and bid me adieu.
Whew. I called (my) Jiwon to tell her about it, but not before asking her if she did, in fact, have a second husband out there somewhere. Second husband?, she recoiled, when would I have time for that? Indeed.