I did a 40-minute interview with Park Jin-keol of the Washington Joongang Ilbo yesterday morning (about 10:20AM to 11AM). The very polite Mr. Park, who is roughly half my size, proved to be more knowledgeable than me about many religion-related topics (not surprising, given my boundless ignorance about most matters); maybe he should do this walk! He was a good sport about my taking his picture; we had a good time both reviewing the salient aspects of my upcoming walk and talking about Korean religion. Our interview was mostly in English, which Mr. Park speaks excellently; I don't trust myself to speak technically about religion with my broken Korean.
I found out today that the article is already out, and I'm apparently on the front page! This would be much more exciting if I actually had a copy of the Joongang in front of me, but I'll obtain one by the end of the day.
Big thanks to my mother, who has many connections within the DC-Metro Korean community, for arranging this interview. It's definitely a leg up, and if it leads some Korean Buddhist temples to open their doors for me, that'll be fantastic. And again, many thanks to Mr. Park for taking the time out to interview someone who hasn't even started his walk yet! Not many media outlets put their faith in mere promises.
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