Our first featured member - Ginger, a blogger and longtime member of Soompi. Born in South Korea, she was adopted into a Caucasian American family as an infant. She currently is an English Teacher in Seoul, South Korea.

- How long have you been a member of Soompi?

I lurked around Soompi in its first year or two and started posting frequently in 2000. I'm adopted and there are very, very few Asians in my small hometown. I had to turn to the Internet to glean the knowledge that so many other teens could easily chat about at school with their friends. Soompi was my first window into Korean-American and Korean pop culture.

- How long do you browse Soompi a day?

My work days are so unbalanced in that I can have no free time one day and four or five hours of free time the next day. I'd say, on average, maybe two hours? I usually post in beauty/fashion, 20+, east Asia, and K-pop celebs, but I also poke around in tech, love and relationships, and k-pop music.

- How did you come up with your user name?

Before the Soompi crash in 2005, I went by the name "sweet miss ginger." Looking back on it, I kind of cringe, because there were hundreds of girls with "sweet/swt" or "miss/ms" in their user names. It was hardly original! However, my grandfather who passed away in 2000 used to call me his "ginger", and I loved that name. He was the only person who called me by it and I wanted some way to keep using it. 

- What kind of topics do you blog about?

At first, I didn't have anything specific in mind for them. The first dozen or so are pretty random and lacking any sort of form.. It took me a while to write more comfortably and constantly.

Now, I know that a lot of Soompiers are interested in learning about life in Korea, so I try to include small cultural differences or issues. Teaching English in Korea has also become very popular in the last few years, so I know that people want to read about realistic experiences in that field. I write about my day to day life without getting too personal. I like to relay the previous week's events and write commentaries on them, but I'd never blog about my serious issues with friends, family, or my fiance.

- Is there a reason you decided to blog on Soompi, as opposed to LJ, Xanga, etc.

The Soompi blog was intended to be a smaller blog just for the Soompi community. However, feedback for the Soompi blog was exponentially greater than for my blogspot one, so after a few months, I just let that one die. I feel like I'm actually helping people that want to come to Korea to work, study, or visit family/friends, which is something that I never felt with blogspot.

- Why did you want to teach English in Korea?

When I was a sophomore in college, I was about as clueless as they come. I had chosen English literature as my major but had no idea what I wanted to *do* with said major. So I saw a poster in our college mail room one day that was advertising teaching English in Korea. It said something about free housing, decent pay, and I was instantly hooked. I immediately went back to my dorm room and began Internet researching.

I mentioned before that I'm from a small town and I've always wanted to live in a big city. Also, since I'd been a Soompier for so long, of course I had a lot of curiosity for Korean culture and lifestyle. It just seemed like a perfect job--live in Korea, have a good job, a free place to live after graduation, and have something cool for my resume.

- Current favorite K-pop artists?

My favorite k-pop artists are Big Bang, TVXQ, Brown Eyes, Shinee (my greatest guilty pleasure--can't believe I'm writing this...). My favorite non-pop Korean acts are Epik High, Dynamic Duo, Nell, The Moonshiners, and Loveholic.

- When you go to Karaoke, what song do you have to sing?

When I sing in English, I choose random things from Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, The Cardigans, Maroon 5--your general pop stuff. For Korean, I stick mainly to ballads because they are easier for me to sing without embarrassing myself. I especially like "Manyageh" by Taeyeon.

-Who is your celebrity crush?

Keira Knightley is probably first, but it's a girl crush. I can't believe that she's my age and that she's done so many films! I also think she's absolutely gorgeous. For guys, I think Won Bin is beautiful and I get a big kick of the snarkiness from Changmin (TVXQ).

- If you were stuck on an island, what 3 things would you bring?

I'm going to exclude the logical answers of "airplane", "pilot", or "boat" and go with things that I would want if I were really stuck there for good. Definitely a huuuuge blank notebook, an endless supply of pens or pencils, and a photo album. For me, I have to write things down or else I go crazy, and I also get in moods where I feel like, if I don't draw something, I'll explode. Paper/pens are a must. Also, I'm a very nostalgic person, so I'd want to have some tangible way of accessing my memories. 

- Plans for the future?

Well, I'll be in Seoul until March 2010 and after that, I will probably relocate to New York City. Maybe I'll get an M.A. in something or maybe I'll immediately try to find work. I really don't know...I'm just kind of playing things by ear.

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