Disclaimer

Where to begin…well, first I want to say that I’m going to cover a few “controversial” topics today. There’s no guarantee than I’ll handle them well. Please bear in mind that I’m not trying to offend anybody and if I do, I’m sorry. I’m just being honest

On Saturday evening  I felt my first touch of homesickness. I wasn’t really “homesick” exactly…it was more a case of wishing that I had somebody to share all these experiences with. It was probably down to a number of factors. After just over two weeks here, the novelty of merely being in Korea is wearing off. Likewise, the novelty of having a Westerner staying is wearing off for my host family. I was also tired on Saturday and my eye was still giving me trouble.

Then all of this was capped off by a big family get-together at a seafood restaurant. Sore-eyed, tired of eating sashimi and definately tired of sitting on the floor, I wasn’t in the mood to watch people play happy families when I felt so far from everyone back home. Stupidly I wore my half of a necklace of which my brother has the other half, thinking it would cheer me up. It only made things worse. However, in the space of a month, there are bound to be bad days. I feel much better today and even at the dinner I knew that the spell of despondancy would be temporary. This was not the worst part of the dinner.

The worst part happened when we arrived and I sat down opposite a man. When I looked at him, my first thought was “Oh… he has Downs Syndrome”. I feel awful, I’m not trying to be mean! This seriously was my first impression – that he had some kind of disability. When I looked again I realised that his face just had a weird shape and that eyebrows sort of sloped diagonally down to his nose. With a bit of grooming he wouldn’t have looked too bad but, as it was, there was a touch of goblin to him.

That was a bad start. It got was when he way introduced at the 28 year old younger brother of Mrs. Sung. It was quickly pointed out that he was single. Everybody asked me if I thought he was handsome. What on Earth was I supposed to say? “No, I actually think he looks mentaly disabled”? That probably wouldn’t have gone down too well. So of course I agreed that he was indeed a stunner. The poor guy is painfully shy and was so embarrassed that he couldn’t look at me all night. Unfortunately, I was also mortified by what I was actually thinking and started blushing furiously. Naturally, my blushes were interpreted as clear sign that I was madly in love with the unfortunate looking fellow. Then everybody started trying to arrange a time when he could “show me around Incheon” or “take me to Seoul”. Oh Christ. Fortunately Geonmo, that darling darling child, angrily reminded everyone the I had A Japanese Boyfriend. I was saved! Hallelujah! Fiction has never before made me so happy.

That was the end of the match-making, but it wasn’t the end of my troubles. So far I’ve been able to side-step any touchy issues regarding Korean-Japanese relations, but recently the Liancourt Rocks have been in the news here a lot. If you don’t know what they are, then take a look here, especially at the “Recent Conflict” section: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dokdo

Basically, the Liancourt Rocks/Dokdo are two tiny islands claimed by both Korea and Japan. They are physically closer to Korea and the only residents are Korean, which makes me inclined to support Korea’s claim. However, I don’t know much about the issue and wouldn’t try to make something of it. Unfortunately when all the male relatives at the dinner found out about The Japanese Boyfriend, I was given a stern lecture. “Japanese bad…Japanese bad!” Then Geonmo chimed in “STEAL! They steal!” They told me (in Korean) the history of the islands and how the terrible overlords from the Land of the Rising Sun took our women and took our jobs and took our islands, blah blah, blah… To be fair, that is actually true to a certain extent and Koreans have a right to be angry about some of the things that happened. But to still carry a personal grudge today is irrational. Irish people might still resent the concept of “Britain” but you don’t take it out on the average English person. In my opinion, Korea should…relax.

Certainly they should not be lecturing ME for having a fictional Japanese Boyfriend that they invented. Bloody hell. I was in a pretty tough position. On the one hand I didn’t want to offend my hosts. On the other hand, I wasn’t about to turn my back on Japan when that country has given me friends, kendo and idols. And Gackt, who deserves a category all of his own I went “Hmmm….” and informed my accusers that they didn’t have such a bad situation. I launched into a detailed history of how the Fair Nation of Éire lost one sixth of her landmass to our evil British overlords, taking our women and taking our job and taking our whatever. Anyway, I knew they couldn’t understand me and eventually they got bored and left me alone to eat my sashimi (which I’m not allowed call by the Japanese name, I have to call it “heh” or something)

Fortunately, the night ended with cake and me rambling on in Irish for some reason. I had dodged an ugly 28 year old bullet and kept the Koreans happy without betraying The Japanese Boyfriend (and, more importantly, Arashi).

Just to spice things up, I’m thinking of taking one of the tourist trips to the Liancourt Rocks, planting the Tricolour on it and claiming it in the name if Ireland. What do you think?

Love,

Siobhán xxx