:BRIGHTSTUFF:..Personal & Political Musings & Rants by a Liberal Leftist Black & Asian Teacher

My mother just returned from a month long trip to Korea and China. She hasn't been back to Korea for almost 10 years, and was initially reluctant to go. I convinced her to.

She made a few interesting observations.

Her observations on Korea:

Compared to Koreans, Americans are very,very overweight. She says that she didn't see anyone overweight and that she, who at 62 is in fantastic health, was probably one of the heaviest people wherever she went. My cousin, Monica, who went back to Korea a few years ago, swears that she will never go back again. Monica's a little overweight and she said that wherever she went, people stared at her.

My ummah also said that most Koreans have a very high standard of living. Everyone there seemed to be dressed very well- people just don't go out in t-shirts and shorts. In all fairness, she did stay in a wealthier part of town with my uncle who is a high ranking person at Daewoo (a few years back, he lived in Ghana and offered to fly me and my brother over to stay because he wanted us to get to know "our African side". I love that man), but she did travel all over Korea that month. She said it was very easy to pick out American Koreans by the way they dressed.

The streets and subways were astoundingly clean and very very safe. You just don't see people littering all over the place.

Her observations on China:

China was a bit dirtier than Korea and the people are definitely a lot poorer.

According to her, unlike Koreans who "like to show off" (her words), the Chinese seem to hide any signs of wealth.

When she was in China, their guide took them to a North Korean restaurant. Her group was explicitly informed not to commiserate or be too friendly with the waitresses (who were all "beautiful but acted like robots"). Apparently, these women lived in the restaurant and were not allowed to leave-EVER. The tour guide said that there were cases of North Korean waitresses who simply disappeared after getting to friendly with customers (or customers getting too friendly with them). Weird.

In all, she enjoyed her trip back home to the motherland, which I am thankful for. These days, she's been telling me that I should visit. She knows that I am a bit reluctant to go because of how I've heard mixed children like me are often treated in Korea. I think that for most of my life, I'd felt that I'd rather go to Africa than Korea for that reason in particular.

Things have changed, she tells me. Korea's are a bit more embracing of Americans these days, and if I went, I probably wouldn't have any problems.

Maybe one day.

What I'm listening to: Bauhaus "Slice of Life"