It's an odd thing to meet up with relatives that you've never seen before. Relatives that you didn't even know existed. And then you open the door to your grandmother's house and you see her and her daughter or daughters or sons; two or three or four more people to add to your family tree. I never thought it would be strange to meet someone that you're related to, someone who shares some small part of your genetic make-up, from a different country. But evidently, these people think I've just stepped off a spaceship from some far away land absent of any trace of ANYTHING Korean.
"Do you ever use metal chopsticks in the US?"
"Do you have Korean melons in the US?"
"Do you have rice cakes in the US?"
Or these remarks of absolute foreignness take the form of these:
"Wow, you eat kimchi so well!"
"Oh my goodness! You know how to wrap your meat with lettuce!"
Note to relatives, seen and never-before-seen: I just crossed an ocean to get here; not an entire galaxy. Also, both of my parents are indeed Korean and have not completely shed their Korean ways. Just because we have Taco Tuesdays and occasionally spaghetti on Thursdays, does NOT mean there are no more days left in the week for Korean food.
In other news, I made my first trip out to Dongdaemun and my head literally exploded from having seen too many clothes. A future blog is in store for the next time I go to Dongdaemun alone to actually buy stuff.
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1 comment:
i always hate it when relatives in India ask, with pity and surprise, "can you eat hot food?"
oh, i can eat hot food, bitches. bring it.
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