You Cow!

"Chris, you have big eye...like cow...very good."
"Uhhhh, thanks?"
"Very big! Very round. I like..."
"Thank you....that is a compliment right?"
"Yes, in Korea, cow eye, very pretty, you cow".
"Oh, cool. Thanks."

I've been teaching the adults for the past few weeks and I love it. I can have conversations with them. Not that I can't with the kids but the adults are more detailed in their replies. The adults help give me insight into the Koreans closer to my age. Towards the end of the day we have conversation class and this is where I got the compliment about my....cowness. I never looked at cow eyes as being pretty but I'll take it. This conversation led to an interesting comment. I was sitting at a table of eight women and after they complimented me on my eyes they started to complain about their own eyes. They all said that they wished they had wide eyes. They discussed the plastic surgery procedure where the eye lid is cut to produce a more....."western" style shape to the eye. So sad. I told them that the world would be a boring place if we all looked the same and that variety in eye shapes is a good thing...they were having none of it. They kind of shrugged me off and discussed present prices of the surgery.

I've got my own issues. I'm unhappy with a lot of physical things about myself. I feel that my stomach is playing tricks on me. Some days it looks normal, other days I appear to be taking on Santa like qualities. I wish I was 3 inches taller. I've actually tried to will myself into being 6 feet taller...it has yet to work. But I don't have Micheal Jackson syndrome. I don't hate the features that are common in my ethnic make up. I don't hate the color of my skin. My full, supple lips are a godsend, and I find my nose to be just the right size. I do have some tiny ass ears though. I am constantly being reminded how small my ears are by the Koreans. You'd think they have never seen small ears before. Maybe a head as big as mine deserves bigger ears? My point about Korean eyes is this. The entire Republic of Korea (South Korea) is about 98.8% Korean. These eyes are all over the country and it's sad that so many Korean women feel their eyes are not good enough.

I find myself missing Portland at times but when it comes down to it the more things change the more they stay the same. Different landscape same human issues. I have friends here who act just like the friends I have back home. I have this buddy here who is cheaper than Toby. I didn't think this was possible but apparently it is. This guy is a great person. He's helpful, loyal, intelligent, etc. but fuck is he cheap. Now remember, we don't pay rent here. We get our paycheck and those of us who have debt pay a percentage off each month and then we are still left with a nice size chunk of change to play with. The thing is, there's really nothing to play with in Korea once you've been here a while. I mean, there's always something to buy but after a while if you're still making big purchases then I think you have a shopping problem. Items are cheaper over here. I really have to try hard to spend all my money here. With the exception of traveling (which I hope to do very soon) things just don't cost much. But this buddy of mine still finds reasons to be cheap. But he's crafty just like Toby. He's the guy who is around when your getting a pizza but says he's not hungry. So you pay for the pizza and he ends up eating half of it. This actually happened recently. This dude actually haggled over 20 cents in Cambodia. He was bragging about it. Cambodia is cheap as fuck. You could live like a king there for a couple of month with a thousands bucks and my friend was haggling over what came to 20 cents. My other buddy and I have a plan in the works to teach him a lesson.

It's funny that no matter where you go you still find people who are just like the people you've always known. But the good thing about living in a foreign country is finding people who are like no one you've ever known.

There is something I've been noticing more and more here that is disturbing. I've seen several men raise their hands towards women they are with and two of them have made physical contact. I was walking with Danielle when we spotted a young man aggressively talking to a young woman. He put his hand to her head and pushed hard, her head when limp and she did not resist. Danielle made the observation that she had the expression on her face like deserved the reaction she was getting. We slowed our pace and looked at the two people but they didn't seem to notice us. They also didn't seem to notice to two elderly Korean women who were watching them. I've heard stories from other foreign teachers who have seen men cock back and slap their wives or girlfriends while they were walking by. It's so weird to be a foreigner and see some shit go down that you know in your heart is wrong. I don't think being a foreigner is a good reason to not stop abuse but I feel like that's what I did. I can justify walking by this man pushing the woman's head because he didn't punch her or slap her but I know that's bullshit. It's not really like me not to inject myself into a situation like that and as you can tell it's been eating me up ever since. I mean, this is the kind of situation I read about in college. This is the kind of situation I've stepped in on in the past....so why does being in a foreign country change the reaction I have? I don't know but I'm going to figure it out because I have a sinking feeling I'm going to be put in this situation again.