Different

Last March, Maren and I drove from Las Vegas to Palo Alto. We stayed with her cousins Kendra and Abhi. While we were there, Maren and I did a lot of great stuff - walking around Stanford, visiting Alcatraz, ate Hot Cookie in front of the Full House houses, enjoyed a famed Irish Coffee and sourdough bread down by fisherman's wharf. Besides those really shining moments, what I remember are some conversations with Abhi. He had moved here from India (after completing university there) and had some very interesting thoughts to share with me on assimilating to a different culture. The simplest and most true thing I remember him saying is that I would "relearn everything - even the simplest thing like how to walk on a sidewalk".

He was scarily accurate.
I'm at the point where most things in my life are starting to feel normal. Being pushy (by my Midwestern standards), standing on the bus and NOT falling over at every stop, sitting next to strangers on the bus and subway, putting coins in for a shopping cart, buying my district's trash bags at the 7-11 downstairs, smelling that flattened cooked fish on my walk home every night (not that I like it, it's just no longer abnormal...). The novelty is wearing off - I'm starting to feel the rhythm of this chapter in my life. I no longer know how to answer the question "What's the weirdest or most different thing about living in Korea?". I suppose the next time it'll really be in my face may be when I'm back in the U.S. (unless I have a serious cultural difference moment between now and then...).

He said that I'd notice that something was different and that it'd be important to not make a valuative statement. I've found myself doing exactly that. I buy a Korean Frappuccino thingy, and I notice that uff da- that thing is SWEET (not "ish this tastes different than at home"). I maneuver my way down the street, weaving in and out of people because they're walking at a different pace thinking about where I'm going, rather than thinking "people here walk SLOW". Less me vs them, usa vs korea. More open minded. Just doing what I do and learning about the people around me doing what they do.

I am however still at the stage where I look for things from home. I am not sure that will wear off - food preferences formed over 23 years can't just be shaken without some emotional implications (at least for me....). I DO hope that it decreases and that I learn more about Korean food. In the last couple years I've been more courageous in trying new foods. I previously wouldn't eat any seafood and now I'm at the stage where I wouldn't order it, but I'm willing to try someone else's. It's just that things I'm not familiar with are hard for me to trust! Meat especially. I just get so anxious because I don't know food safety common practice here. Anyway - most everything I've tried has been delicious... but I've had to ask someone near me "what's in this dumpling?" or "did that taste fishy?".

Some of my favorite "food from home" finds :
string cheese
(generic) Wheaties; my favorite cereal, thus a serious victory.
cheddar goldfish crackers!


I've started seriously looking at my holiday plans - I'm getting ready to buy my ticket home for Christmas! The tentative plans are for me to go home for Christmas 2013, and then for Christmas 2014 to have my family come to Korea! So many exclamation points!