Before I went to Seoul with the girls, the school told me to take my passport with me and to visit the US embassy while I was there. I had to get an affidavit to notarize that background check I got. Unfortunately– I forgot to take my passport so I couldn’t take care of it when I was there. So to get my paperwork going, the school sent me back to Seoul on Friday (it was just a teacher work day). I didn’t want to spend the night by myself so I left on the 6:30am bus, got there at 11am, waited at the embassy for 2 hours, then got back on the bus to Gwangju. It was a long day but I finally got all the paperwork I needed.
I had never been to an embassy before and was excited. When I got off the subway, I was looking for the American flag. I was expecting a very nice building— I mean, I thought the US was this great country, so I just expected a great embassy. To my surprise, the US Embassy was the ugliest and oldest building on the block. Compared to all of Seoul’s LED lights and futuristc designs, the US embassy looked like it was built in 1959. It was that really ugly tannish brown brick color– Very retro in a tacky way.
After going through all this security, I took a number and waited in this musty room. It reminded me of a trip to the DMV– before Stanford was Governer. I was surrounded by American citizens. Some were Korean-Americans, some military, and others just plain people like me. Those were the people that I was greatly embarrassed by.
While sitting patiently enjoying my day off work, I observed the stereotypes the world has about Americans and found them to be repulsive. Just within 10 minutes of waiting, I heard more foul language than a rated R movie, saw body parts of bigger women that shouldn’t be exposed, and heard sad stories of single Army-mothers who didn’t know who the father of their new baby was. I felt so much shame for my country. I began wishing for the better life that waited outside the embassy walls–the Korean life. I know Korean’s say bad words. I know Korean families have broken homes and that many women chose a lifestyle selling themselves for sex, but for now- I am blind to most of that. I can’t understand people when they cuss in Korean and I can’t over hear conversations of sadness….and I appreciate that. Koreans may push their way through the street and bump into you with saying “excuse me” but I have never seen a Korean explode in anger or rudeness like I did in that embassy. Respect is a fact of life in Korea, as it should be everywhere.
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