Thursday, January 24, 2002.
My favorite
movie in the past 12 months: The
Yupgi Girl
(official site
in Korean, nice music/pics). I can't describe
how hilarious, cute, and heart-breaking every scene in this movie is. It was
definitely worth registering at Sam's Club, buying a new Daewoo 5700 DVD player,
and using the secret
code to play Region 3 DVDs. English subtitles too.
I guess I could have just bought a Region Free player here.
MY FAVORITE PLACE
The door to my favorite place has a hand-written sign on it. The sign says "P U L L" in English AND Korean.
And of course, I usually end up pushing it until I remember to pull, again.
This is my favorite place. The Korean store. I pass by it everyday going to and fro work. And every single time I have this barely resistible urge to go inside. Just to wander around looking at their music CDs, video tapes, movies. To listen to the people talking. To look for something fun to eat or drink. Like little strawberry drinks with strawberries actually in them. Or my favorite -- chocopies!
I had my first chocopie the first time I ever went to Korea, for our honeymoon in 1999. Amy and I were visiting her relatives in the country. They made us hike up this steep hill to visit the grave mound of their grandpa who died that year. Korean tradition likes to bury their dead above ground atop the highest hills around. They like to make the trip to heaven that much shorter and easier for their departed.
When we reached the top of the hill, her relatives left food at the foot of the mound for the grandpa. We each got to eat some of the food as well. Among which were plastic-wrapped chocopies. On our way down, I took another chocopie from the pile left at the mound. They were really good. Grandpa wouldn't miss it.
Things are always in slight disarray in Korean stores. Boxes of ramen, and rice, and other things pile against the walls and in the aisles. It feels homey. It reminds me of the restaurant I met Amy at.
I love the Korean store.
OSTRICH GIRL
Like most K-stores, a family runs it. A wife, husband, and some mean old granny who probably used to eat 7.62 mm bullets for breakfast in North Korea before she fled across the border to the South. More about her later.
When we first moved into the area back in May, there also were these two 20-something Korean girls who would alternate working there. They were like day and night.
One was Ostrich Girl. Long face with lanky body features. Slightly crooked teeth (moreso than K-singers Hanul or Ji Young in S#arp) with hair like burnt straw. She rarely spoke.
Most times when she'd see me coming into the store, I'd catch a glimpse of a slight smile cross her face as she turned around to stack video tapes. Twice a week I'd go straight to the K-pop music section, and then browse the video tapes and emerge with my latest recovered treasure. Often with a box of chocopies too. A Korean water clock is less predictable than I am.
When Ostrich Girl would check out my video tapes, she'd smile "to herself" avoiding all eye contact as if I couldn't see her face when she couldn't see mine. She'd look up only when saying "goodbye."
Her smile always made me feel welcome. I liked waiting for her to look up. But not the "goodbye" part so much.
Once when Amy was with me, I had picked a few movies at random. Ostrich Girl recommended a couple of movies I had seen already, and then she said something to Amy and took one of my videos out of the stack I handed her. I thought she was going to replace it with something, but she didn't.
"What did she say to you? Why did she take my movie away?" I asked Amy later.
"She said you picked a bad movie ... but not to tell you," Amy explained.
"... because it would hurt my feelings? Hahaha!!" I thought that was so funny. And sweet in a maternal sort of way.
I wanted to learn Korean better so I could tell her she had a lovely smile.
MOON GIRL
When Ostrich Girl wasn't there, Moon Girl would be sitting amidst (and neglecting) the stacks of disorganized video tapes. Often watching one of them in the VCR.
Moon Girl was the glamourous but distant one. Stylishly tilted fuzzy hat. Blue eyeshadow. Shiny boots. And often a down vest because she felt cold. Like Ostrich Girl, she wasn't very comfortable talking in English either.
She had that bored look that beautiful people get when they get tired of always having (the wrong) people falling all over/for them.
She asked if I spoke Korean once. Another time, she actually emerged from her shell of boredom when I rented the movie "Beat."
"This is my favorite!!" she said in accented English with stars in her eyes.
"Beat" is a 1997 classic Korean movie about the youth of Korea's lost generation; the ones who don't make the grade but make the streets instead. The young anti-hero in the movie drifts through a cityscape of corruption, alcoholic parents, gangs, teen suicide, sex, drugs, night clubs, and more gangs. I can see why she likes this movie, why most of the young people there do, in fact. It shows why they want to get out of Korea, and why they miss it when they do.
But I felt the real reason she (and any girl) liked the movie so much was because of the boyish loner with a conscience. At the end of the movie, the girlfriend waits for him to return on his motorcycle so they can start anew, like he promises her. But he's not an action hero. He ends up being a tragic hero.
I think deep down that Moon Girl is still waiting for him.
I told Amy I was going to say "I like your hat" in Korean the next time I saw Moon Girl in her stylish hat.
MISSING
But I never got to say either of those things to the K-store girls. They were never there anymore.
For awhile, I had to deal with the old Korean granny in the brown-tinted sunglasses whenever I wanted to rent a movie. This would have been fine, except everytime I gave her my video tapes to check out, she'd put them back on the shelf, thinking I was returning them.
The granny was nice enough to Amy when I was with Amy, but when I went to buy groceries (usually CDs and snacks) by myself, there was a distinct change in demeanor. She'd frown despite my attempts at saying hi in English and Korean. I figure I must remind her of some American GIs from back in the Korean War or maybe those half-babies from then that people despised for the same reason.
After a couple months, Amy asked if the other girls still worked there. Apparently, Ostrich Girl quit and had a baby. Moon Girl found her prince, and got married.
And they got two new people to work the video section.
Two guys, one of which looks like he's eighteen or so, with a shaved head, spikey bangs and multiple earrings.
I even tentatively tried to speak a little Korean to the spikey haired guy.
ME (in Korean): "Um... do you ... do you have the Musa video here?"
SPIKEY (narrow eyes widening in surprise): "Huh?"
ME (in Korean): "Do you have the Musa video here?"
ME (pointing to Musa movie poster behind him).
SPIKEY (in English): "Oh yeah. Yeah, it's over there, man. Lemme get it for you."
ME (in English from now on): "Um, thanks."
SPIKEY: "Do you know Korean then?"
ME: "I'm trying to learn still."
SPIKEY: "Hey, that's cool man."
ME: "Thanks. Seeya."
SPIKEY: "Seeya."
I like the replacement guys already.
(Next time I'm going to ask them if they've seen the Yupgi Girl. It's my favorite movie now by far.)
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DISEASES THAT ARE MORE COMMON IN ASIANS
I recently read an article in The Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine (Vol.69, No.1, Jan.2002) about diseases you see in native Asians (or recently immigrated) more than other groups. I'd never seen an article like this before so I figured I'd add a little medical info to this doctor/artist/half-Korean journal. (By the way, I didn't make up the "Vol.69" part above either.)
Some highlights:
Lactose Intolerance - Found in as many as 75% of some Asian populations. Asians with watery diarrhea could be started on a lactose-free diet prior to more extensive workups (i.e. a big ass tube with a camera in your ass plus biopsy). I know you wish you were Asian now.
Hepatitis B - More common in Asians (8-22%) versus US population (0.2-0.9%). Consequently primary hepatocellular cancer is more common among Asians compared with US residents. Liver failure can turn you yellow (jaundiced) too.
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (cancer) - Remarkably common in Cantonese Chinese, presumably because of the high incidence of Epstein-Barr Virus in the region. Who would have guessed?
Tuberculosis - Most cases in foreign-born Asians develop within 2 years after arrival in the US. A BCG vaccination (common in Europe and Asia) does not interfere with the TB PPD skin test (we use in the US) after 10 years. And even then, the new CDC recommendations don't place much emphasis on whether BCGs were given if any signs are present.
Depression - Not more common in Asian immigrants but more difficult to diagnose because of cultural stigma. Sleep disturbances are common, along with post traumatic stress disorder (often related to why they came to the US in the first place).
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RICE BORGS
This is a plug for my Other Favorite Place (on the web) -- The Rice Bowl Journal Discussion Board.
It's a great place to learn or talk about Asian topics or anything else really. The topics are pretty broad - from recipes, to games, to music, to cultural issues, etc. There's even an interesting Gay Asian section, which seems kind of unique as far as Asian communities are concerned. Lots of nice and interesting people there, so why aren't some of my favorite peeps there (that would be YOU)?
You do NOT have to be Asian or even have a journal or have lactose-intolerance (or be gay for that matter) to talk on the board either. So don't sweat it if you're Asian-challenged (just be glad you aren't lactose-intolerant).
I especially like posting my K-pop and Korean links there as well. Things that would take up an entire entry here if I posted them in my journal, if I had time.
The moderator for the K-pop board is kind of a little bitch though.
And the Korean forum moderator ("Tigers of Shinshii" section) should have his credentials checked. That nose doesn't look very Korean.
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CHOCOPIES !!!
Linda asked me where you can get these delicious chocopies. So I thought I'd help people find and identify these little heavenly snacks.
You get them at the Korean store of course! Check out the snack or cookie shelves. The ones in the blue box are a bit better and softer than the other brands. Accept no substitutes.
They're as yummy as a K-girl's smile!
(And a lot easier to obtain.)
