Sunday, May 29, 2011

You are very pretty....

You have big eyes and a bridged nose.  I get that a lot.  I don't know if I should take it as an insult or be a little worried about what their perception of beauty is.  I edge more on the latter.  I don't think Koreans realize how beautiful they are if they stop with their incessant need to look like a "Westerner".  I guess, we as foreigners are no different, I hear the term "exotic" brought up when talking about Korean women and their looks and why the guys are attracted to them.

In any case, this is really not the point of this post.  It seems that whenever Diane and I do something, its either an adventure of some sort, or the funniest things will happen.
Case in point.  Getting a taxi to the subway station, we got a cab driver (and we always seem to get awesome drivers) that was super excited to be driving us "waygookins" around.  We opened the door to an exuberant "Anyeong haseyo.  Bangap sumnida" and when I brought up my students talking about soju, mekchu and macgeolli his ears perked up and he went into his excited mode and started telling us that soju gives him a headache and how much he hates it; about his love for dongdongju, and when I said I liked it he gave me the lowdown on what food goes well with it (to which I have no recollection of it now).  But he was the cutest, most excited man I've met and I couldn't stop laughing the entire ride.

Tonight we went out for dinner.  Exhausted from coming home from Seoul, we checked out one of our favourite restaurants that just got renovated.  Unfortunately, the meat's not the same and it changed ownership but the woman that attended us was amazing.  I believe that sometimes us expatriots get the Foreigner Experience.  They put our meat on the grill, they turn it, cut it and place it on our plates for us, essentially, doing everything for us.  This woman was amazed that I knew the little Korean I knew.  She told Diane that I use chopsticks better than a Korean (which is a total lie) and I ate better than a Korean (because I love my garlic!) and she was impressed with my Korean.  She then later told Diane that even though she is Korean, I spoke better than her (again, total lie, with my vocabulary of maybe 25 Korean words).  She then said I was pretty.  Maybe just because, but her reasoning was pointing to her eyes and her nose, as if to say I have the face they can never have.  And in Korean she told Diane that they can only have plastic surgery to have these "beautiful" features.  It is a little disheartening hearing it.  I wish Koreans didn't have to look to the media to believe what is beautiful.  If only they knew that the Western world finds them gorgeous the way they are- they don't need wide eyes or a bigger nose to be so.  She was though, the nicest woman.  She was damn attentive to what I needed.  Replacing our lettuce tray and my onion tray without me even asking.  It was amazing, and I would gladly let her adopt me as her daughter if only I could speak more Korean.  I just hope she didn't inflate my ego because she was just amazed that a Foreigner knew how to speak any Korean or know how to use chopsticks at all!
And to end our dinner we received an American $2 bill.  I don't know why they're giving them away.  It is real.  Its nice to know that the first time I've ever had an American $2 bill was in Korea. 

Born this Way

This is my direct reflection after experiencing Pride in Seoul on May 28,2011:

I never liked Born this Way by Lady Gaga until I attended the Pride parade in Seoul today.  I have no problems with her, but I've never been a big fan of her music.  Yes, she is almost integral in promoting LGBT to the rest of society, but in my personal opinion, I feel Madonna set the landmark.

Nonetheless, I am straight.  I have lesbian and gay friends.  I try to promote tolerance whenever I can.  Being a minority, this is the way its always been.  Many people may guess I'm Indian, but I try to talk about Goa whenever I can.  My Indian friends will tell me I'm not "Indian enough" or "white-washed", sometimes it gets through to them that the way I am is because I was born in Canada or my culture is inundated with Western influence so sometimes I can't help it.  I've always wondered what it means to be Indian.  I've always wondered what it means to be truly understood.  Not pidgeon-holed or assumed to be something else. 

Which brings me to the Pride Parade.  I live in Toronto.  Unfortunately, I've never been able to attend the Pride parade in Toronto, which made me want to attend the Seoul parade even more.  Call it the Eastern culture, but they are more conservative, believe in family values and tradition (even more so than their Western counterpart), so I was even more curious to see how Koreans would react to this parade. I love being around people that just don't care.  Don't care about what people think of them, what society makes them believe they should be and people that challenge the dominant views of society.  What I liked even more than seeing the turnout of LGBT's, were seeing Koreans bringing their families to the event.  It makes me happy to see people changing the ways of society; being more modern.  I'm a big proponent in the acceptance of the LGBT community, because I really do believe they were born that way and you can't take that away from someone.  They are no different than me or you, and you shouldn't belittle them or look down on them because they are attracted to a different sex than the heterosexual community.  I do believe that religion is a driving force behind this fact, but that's a topic for another day.


I've had many conversations with family members and others in the acceptance of the LGBT community.  I understand their apprehensions because it is something unknown to them; something that challenges the way they view the world and what they believe.  I never believe that naivete is a bad thing, just that it needs to be corrected by trying to teach acceptance.  I don't want to preach.  That's not what this post is about, and somehow I feel its going there.





What I would like to say is that, I'm proud of Korea.  I have never been to Homo Hill in Itaewon, but I love it.  I have met some awesome people because of the Pride Parade.  I will definitely party in Itaewon again.  And its not because I love the attention I get from gay men because I'm one of the few females in the place. But because, I love to see normalcy.  And normalcy to me, is people being themselves and not worrying about judging stares and what people are going to think of them if they act themselves tomorrow or the day after.  This is how I try to live my life.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Teacher Late!

I have a tendency of getting to school right at 8:30am.  Two of my grade 6 girls have to clean up the front of the school around this time and if they ever see me they have no problems yelling out "Teacher!  Late!!  You are soooooo late!"  to which I'll always ask them what time it is.  Sometimes they'll retract their statement, other times they'll tell me I'm a little late.  Either way, Joung Hwa and Su Bin (who used to be Crystal but then I guess became embarrassed having the only English name in the class) are two of my favourites.  Maybe because they give me candy, and I can have semi-conversations.  But this is the start of my day. 
When I get up to my floor which is full of my third grade students, they always yell out my name, bust out a "nice to meet you!", either give me a high 5 or run across the hallway to fling themselves in my arms. 

Monday's are always the worst day of the week and I hate the thought of teaching and being at school but my saving grace is that I only have third grade classes and they are the cutest things ever.  They always have something to say.  Surprisingly, they can talk a little bit in English so its not too difficult.  And they are just too adorable.

The only problem is, I miss my little cousins at home.  One is turning three tomorrow.  He is the joy of my life and sadly I can't be there to run around and play with him.  Either way, I hope he plays with Thomas the Tank Engine's for a few more years before he moves into being a suave Ladies' man, which I know he will become. 


Happy Birthday!!