Something Old

It’s Easter Sunday afternoon, and I am taking in the beautiful weather from the patio of Ahn’s Coffee, a little place not far from my house. Holidays are a little sad without family around, and my family is strewn across the globe. However, life is good so it’s only a little sad, rather than really sad.

And life is indeed good, for the most part. Weather is finally looking up, job has gotten less stressful, social activities are lovely. The only ungood thing afoot is that it’s yellow dust season, which means that dust (along with pollution) from China is blowing into Korea like crazy. Thanks for that, China. As a result, me and half the people I know have sore throats or are getting sick. Despite this unfortunate matter, last night I went to Charanga for Chile which was a salsa party / fundraiser thrown by some of my friends. Twas delightful. There were performances, including a hip hop dance by the folks in the class I’ve been going to. The people I’ve net here are some talented folks, which I like to see.

So for lack of a good segue, I’ll just jump into an interesting bit of Korea trivia for you all. Korean law works on the blood money system. If you don’t know what that is (and I only knew because it was used during the medieval period in Europe and you know I love me some Middle Ages) it’s when the perpetrator of a crime against someone is able to make restitution by giving the victim money instead of going to jail or paying a fine to the state. So if I punched someone in the face, I could give the person I punched however many million won and I wouldn’t get charged. I’m not sure how many crimes this applies to – like if you can pay the family of a person you killed, medieval style. I think it’s just such an interesting legal difference. Apparently, here and in Japan, entrapment is totally okay, and that’s how a lot of people get caught for drug use. Korea is super hardcore about drugs. If you get caught using anything, including marijuana, you get in serious trouble, and if you are a foreigner you will likely get deported.

In other news, last weekend I went to a meeting for the Daegu Theatre group and there is a plan for a 24 hour theatre project in the works, which will be fun. Also, the article I wrote for Daegu Pockets is in teh current issue, thus launching my career as a restaurant reviewer :P

I paused writing for a bit to have a pleasant conversation with the enthusiastic barista who wanted to practice her English. I have come to appreciate people like that because even though they are, in a sense, using you, they are a far better set of people to come into contact with than folks who are afraid of foreigners. And “afraid” is not an exaggeration here. There are people who will seriously go out of their way to avoid interacting with you and will be noticeably uncomfortable when they can’t avoid it. It’s very foreign (haha) to me that anyone over the age of about 10 could be afraid of people just based on their foreignness. I guess it’s a product of growing up around people of various backgrounds, but I just can’t imagine reacting to ethnic difference with fear. Part of it is the power dynamics that come with English speaking. English is major social capital so speaking it badly or not speaking it at all looks bad on a person (I know, it’s messed up) so people will avoid speaking to a foreigner so as to avoid revealing their lack of English skill. (When I am using foreigner here, I’m talking about “Westerner” because the dynamics with other non-Korean communities vary widely. A whole other issue is the terrible attitude many Koreans have to Chinese people. They repeat certain stereotypes about Chinese people that are straight up racist and I think it’s disgusting and ridiculous. Especially because the stuff they diss Chinese people about are the same stereotypes that other people have about Koreans. Anyway, I don’t expect everyone in the world to want to talk to me, but it’s pretty uncomfortable when someone does their best to not talk to you. This past week me and M went to Costco and I brought my good old Metro reusable grocery bags from home. So after checking out, I was standing near the ramp waiting for M to get us some water and this couple walks by and then stops as the woman starts to exclaim in Korean how beautiful my bags are. Note: she was not talking to me. She was talking to her boyfriend who also examined my bags. Neither looked at me or addressed me at all. That sort of scenario is so common here that the rudeness sort of wears off slowly.

From where I’m sitting, I can see a big apartment building with water, lily pads and fish painted on the side.

So it’s officially my birth month, which means I should start figuring out what I’m going to do to celebrate. I’m not sure yet but I’m thinking some brunch is in order. French toast is a very ideal birthday food. Hopefully by then the dust has subsided and the weather is delicious. Word is that Korea gets crazy humid in the summer. I’ll keep you abreast of the situation.

Well I should head home and type this up before I head to a temporary goodbye dinner for Susy, who is going home for a few weeks before she starts her next contract. We’ll be going to Maya which is rumoured to be the best Indian place in Daegu. They even have chai. Mmmmmm.

Love,
AAA