Although I myself am of "Korean decent" (notice I didn't say "Korean" or "Korean-American" because I am actually one of those confused "third culture adults": born in Korea, grown up in Brazil, lived in the U.S. for most of my adult life, and have moved yet again to Australia in 2006), in the early days when I started reading the blog, I felt like an "outsider", almost like an "intruder" because at the time I was childless and felt like I was trying to get membership to a club I clearly didn't belong.
Nevertheless, I continued following and reading the blog on and off, but never leaving any comments. Okay, maybe I DID leave one or two comments, but when the writer(s) never replied to my comments I REALLY felt like I was intruding and never bothered to comment again. Until...
...about two weeks ago, on the last day of 2010, one of the writers did a "giveaway" which I participated in! Although I had been a silent reader for a long time, I no longer felt like an intruder since I have...
...this little one in tow. :)
I have NEVER won anything in my life. The only time that I ever came close to winning anything was when about the first or second year of our marriage, Jim and I went to some boat show. Towards the end of the show, we sat through some kind of presentation at the end of which they were going to give away a week-long trip to Hawaii. There were only seven couples including ourselves sitting through that presentation. We were number 4. The winner was number 5! Yup! Even when the odds were low, we didn't score.
By the way, this was a very memorable boat show because Jim always cracks up and tells everyone the story about how much I embarrassed him when I spotted a celebrity and yelled "Look! It's Patrick Swayze!" as he walked past us, when in fact the actor was Kurt Russell!
So back to my original story! So I entered the giveaway just for fun, without putting my hopes too high. It was a fairly easy giveaway to enter. I simply had to comment on that particular day's post, by a certain deadline, telling them what are some of the traditions in my family when celebrating the New Year. Easy-breezy, right? So I did just that. Then, the day before the deadline, I noticed that only forty some people had left comments! 'Not bad!' I thought.
A couple of days after the deadline of the giveaway I get an email from the writer, and this is what it said:
Hi Claudia--
Congratulations! Your name was drawn for the ______ giveaway! If you still would like the girls size 2, please reply with your mailing address.
Thanks,
Julie from Kimchi Mamas
I was stoked! My FIRST time winning something! Yay!
Here's what I won!
This is a child's hanbok - a traditional Korean dress worn as semi-formal or formal wear during traditional festivals and celebrations such as New Year, weddings, or babies' first birthdays.
A Happy New Year indeed!
