Tomorrow we leave at 9:30AM to board the buses for a very long and winding road to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Haeinsa. A national Korean treasure, the a Buddhist temple in the mountains is the home to Tripitaka Koreana, the whole of the Buddhist Scriptures carved onto more than 81,000 wooden printing blocks which has been there since 1398 (supposedly the first ever even before Guttenberg). Read more about it on Wiki here.
So I'll do the best I can, because it's 1:35AM here right now and I should really go to sleep very soon before the trip. But I do want to at least mention a couple of things.
Understand that due to gender-segregated dorms (strictly segregated), the guys have become quite comfortable with each other. Not sure how this serves a meaningful purpose to the following anecdote, but I'm sure a good liberal arts student can tie it back to this theme soon. I just can't be that right now.
Clint is the one African-American male in the entire ETA contingent (3 Af.Americans in all). He went to Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia and has been a great guy overall so far. The guys have all gotten pretty close to each other already and have become comfortable enough already to start cracking jokes.
This was funny, and is supposed to be funny. The following occurred, and is being retold, in good, but not trivial, jest.
Now understand that cafeteria food has been repetitive and bland, even if it's Korean food. No one holds its quality against any individual human being, but the desirability to eat in has been diminishing over time. Nearly every meal we just bite the bullet because the alternative is going to the village of a city and actually pay for a meal that is of limited variety, even if it's a bit tastier.
So lo-and-behold, we have what for dinner? Fried chicken. Fried chicken. We are American-cuisine-starved group of Americans who have seen nothing remotely close to something other than bap (rice) and the staple kim-chi (spicy fermented cabbage). Needless to say, we began to chow down.
Clint, the African-American shows up. He gets excited by the chicken. Then notices something that no one else noticed, which is that beside the tray full of fried chicken is a tray full of slices of watermelon. He comes up and says, "Dude, I am so excited by this chicken. But these workers were just trying, trying to get a reaction out of me." We laugh, Clint included; "How did they know to put the watermelon right next to the fried chicken?! Come ON!" I ask him, "do you like watermelon too then?" And he replied, "No I hate watermelon! It's just water and...crap." We burst out laughing, and he admits that "they got [him] with the chicken."
I know there are serious issues underpinning this short moment from which many of us laughed. It was of course a deep laughter, a less-than-comfortable one that embodied a tremendous obfuscation of historical, legal and social elements that have been embroiled in tension and injustice for centuries. One could deconstruct this very moment with biting acuity and without mercy, and frankly a part of me wish I had some exposure to such modes of thought if only to learn about that mode of thought. Books can and have been and will be written about these very moments, and I know that. And I am one to acknowledge the significance of these problems and the kinds of questions these incidents raise, and in the right setting engage in these discussions. But I am also one who picks his battles, and is willing to laugh every once in a while.
*sigh*
It was funnier at the time, that's all I'm trying to say. I guess it really fails miserably on paper.
The other thing I wanted to mention is this name tag that we have to constantly wear and its influence on my experience as a Korean/Korean-American/American.
(clearly) I am not very familiar with the politics of identity (distinct from "identity politics" which assumes the rigidity of identity rather than its fluidity and fluctuation), but I have been launched into the heart of this matter. I knew this when I signed the contract about 2 months ago, but that the reality has been striking goes without saying.
But alas, this is for another post, because I do have to really go to sleep.
I'll take pictures at the temple and post them when I get back! Hope all of you are well!
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