• 2.2 Winter 2020-2021

    Arrival

    I have arrived to the land of eternal summer. I will be in America for the next month, dodging COVID and getting chubby, while I take my teaching exams and catch up on holidays with the family. Time is slow and languid like molassess here. The streets are wide but empty, the neighborhood is sunny but devoid of human life during the weekdays. The air is clear, the sky is wide and blue, and there’s not a coffee shop for literal miles. Koreans would be confused: “are you talking about the countryside?” No, just the strange in-between that is suburbia. I love the green and I’m thankful that the mild…

  • Favorites,  Thoughts & Drabbles

    Aging

    South Korea went from being one of the poorest countries on Earth to the world’s tenth largest economy in less than 70 years. Korea has almost all the luxuries of American life, plus benefits my home country lacks: universal healthcare, cute school supplies, and extensive food delivery that UberEats only dreams of being. But seventy years is not a long time and even through through the Miracle on the Han River, age cannot be hidden. American culture seems almost ashamed of the elderly– put them in nursing homes until they are forgotten. I never really saw age until I got to Korea. In spite of the massive economic growth, sparkling…

  • Favorites,  Thoughts & Drabbles

    Touch

    On a long bus ride home, several people avoided sitting in the empty seat next to me, less because I smelled (probably), and more because sitting next to a foreigner can always be a little bit scary. Finally, the bus was too full to ignore me any longer and two very tall college boys got on. One gestured to his huskier friend to take the seat next to me but that friend insisted on standing. The first guy sat down in defeat. The seats were too small to avoid touching thighs even though he gripped the seat edge and sat rigidly straight on turns to avoid bumping shoulders. There was…

  • 2.2 Winter 2020-2021

    November 15, Ice at Last

    Busan’s ice rink certainly took me by surprise. For once in my life I was 15 minutes early and for once in my life this did not help. The woman at the door explained in Korean what I assume was something like they needed to disinfect the area and resurface the ice so I should come back in 15 minutes. I thought of the conversation I had when I went thrift shopping with some other expat women yesterday. The thrift shop ladies were amused by four foreign women squatting on provided baby stools thoroughly rifling through the 1,000 won piles but those ladies didn’t avoid us or make us feel…

  • 2.1 Summer & Fall 2020

    Happy Peppero Day~

    It’s 11/11 so you know what that means… Lotte’s commercial holiday is here! Peppero is a chocolate-dipped pretzel that is long and thin like a pencil. I pretend that means I can eat the whole package as one serving. In China, this is actually called “Singles Day” due to the many “1s” in the date and everything goes on sale. Here, rather than singles celebrating it was a corporate festival and all day I saw businessmen carrying around stacks of Peppero boxes I assume were meant for coworkers and bosses. As it was our last in-person class, our first period teacher had gone through the effort of cutely bagging up…

  • 2.1 Summer & Fall 2020

    November 7, Small Talk

    Saturday carried me once again to the center of the city and bustling night market. If you’ve ever been, it’s reminiscent of Namdaemun. I scared a poor hot cake seller and a different barista with the threat of speaking English when they looked upon my foreign face. The young hot cake promoter spoke English to me even though I answered him in Korean to put him at ease; his shaking hands didn’t escape my notice, though. I scared him once more once I reappeared at his side a few minutes later and mid-sentence to return my empty paper cup as Korea has no public garbage cans. “And then I— oh…

  • 2.1 Summer & Fall 2020

    November 5, Mistake

    It seems that I committed a blunder. Luckily, our textbook has a whole chapter on apologies. I’ve spent over a year in Korea hearing that I look tired, don’t try on that dress because it’s too small for you, why is your butt so big, do all Americans have hairy arms, you have a nose like Pinocchio, your face got smaller, you look tired. None of these were ever made with ill intent and as a large foreign woman in Korea, I have to accept these comments for what they are. I want to tell you that Korean culture rubbed off on me, or that I’m just carrying that straightforward…

  • 2.1 Summer & Fall 2020

    November 4, Campus

    Today was my first… and second to last day of in person classes on campus. It was a taste of all the things that could’ve been but weren’t and I don’t know how I feel about it all. It was a cold morning and campus was empty at 8AM save for our four level three classes. My teachers were both somehow much much shorter than I anticipated, and upon remarking this one Chinese student hit me in the arm as if this was inappropriate. Ironic considering the amount of commentary made on face, beauty, and weight every day by the average Chinese or Korean. If it was wrong, just chalk…

  • 2.1 Summer & Fall 2020

    Halloween 2020

    The night before Halloween, House Owner and I experimented with several Halloween recipes that ended with chocolate all over the kitchen. The morning of Halloween, House Owner was working so I invited Freshman to come make and decorate marshmallows with me. On Halloween night I found myself running through the streets of Busan in a green jumpsuit while House Owner filmed me. (An ode to 원류환). Our Halloween party had finally came to fruition after the fateful discovery of wigs in storage. The four roommates plus Brazilian’s girlfriend and House Owner’s mother and sister came to our festively decorated café. Corgi also made an appearance and ran circles around the…