and now... a look at our sponsors

meet a few of the lovely people of the korea literature and translation institute (KLTI). they're the ones who are making my 6-month sojourn in korea possible because they provide the clams. and mucho clams they are, too, in comparison with what other pinoys here and ACPI participants are getting.

they treated us to lunch the day after the ACPI welcome party. this would be 31 march then. it was one of those KLTI/yea jin moments when we'd be asked to go somewhere or do something on really short notice. (of course, we don't mind. we get paid not to mind) in this case, i was awakened by asma at around 10am to tell me that yea jin and the KLTI driver would pick us up at 11am because The Boss wanted to meet us and treat us to lunch. we would also be oriented about our duties and obligations as writers invited by the KLTI to experience korean life and literature. more on that later.

the gentleman on the left is dr. chin hyung-joon, president of KLTI. he has a PhD in french literature and has a funny habit of lighting a cigarette, taking a couple of puffs, and killing it. and then lighting another one almost immediately. that lady beside dr. chin is dr. park hyeju. she's also a character. she manages the research team of KLTI. five minutes after we met her, she overheard us reading the poster for the seoul young writers festival that KLTI is also organizing. she apparently misheard us and said very loudly: "she's not that young!" --referring to the woman in the cubicle to which the poster was attached. matindi yata ang intra-office laitan sa KLTI.

they took us to a chinese restaurant and we were fed lauriat-style, except that instead of the big communal platters we're used to seeing in ma mon luk & other chinoy restos, we were each given individual tiny dishes full of tasty stuff. little dishes kept coming and coming and we kept eating and eating until we were all uber-busog. and then dr. chin looks politely at us and says, "okay, what would you like for your main dish?" i'm not making this up. parang joke, diba? but it really happened. if you analyze the smiles we have on this picture, you might detect up to 28% queasiness from all the food we had to cram into our mouths.

so here they are again, our lovely sponsors. they're amazing people because they have so many simultaneous projects and the results are often better than expected. yea jin, for example, is in charge of this whole writers residency exchange program that we're part of. and she's the only person handling the project. and she has other projects too. and she's only 24. she's really cool, krungers but cool. so, one more time... that's kim yeajin, chin hyung-joon and park hyeju. try saying all their names 5 times fast with your mouth full of kimchi. i dare you.