You can't fake friendship like this...

At one of our all girl sleep overs! #Fun

Today makes exactly 9 months that I’ve been living in Korea. It somehow seems surreal to me that I’ve come to a new place and created this amazing life. But, I’ve decided to save talking about my amazing life for another entry. I’ve decided to dedicate this blog entry to a very special person in my life: my friend Toya.

Hmmm where do I even start? I feel like I could write pages upon pages but I’ll try to keep it short and to the point. I met Toya a few years ago while we were both attending college at FSU. We became really close and ever since we’ve been creating what has been a lasting friendship. I’m so thankful for our friendship and I honestly don’t know what I would do without my “TT” (as I like to call her, even though she hates it lol.)

Before I came to Korea, I was going through a very difficult time and like any good friend Toya was there for me. I know that I couldn’t have survived that time in my life without her. Like the quote says “Friends sing the song of our heart to us when we have forgotten it.” Thank you Toya for reminding me of the love and happiness that was in me all along. I can honestly say that my experience in Korea has been richer, because I’ve had Toya here to share it with me. I’ll try to give snap shots of random moments we’ve had in Korea. We spend countless hours talking, taking pictures, eating good food, partying and laughing.

We talk about every and anything, topics range from crushes, to what we should eat for dinner, to our childhood experiences, to random moments teaching to politics to life. And whenever my life is in shambles (although it never really is) Toya always gives me the best advice. No matter if I call to complain, to tell her how in love I am (insider), to share a random laugh, to talk about a new crush, to cry, to tell her about my day or just to say hi: she's always there to lend an ear. I really value or random conversations.  

I love, love, love taking pictures, so Toya can always count on me to take out the camera and say “Let’s take a picture.” (with a big smile on my face) Although she tries to object she eventually gives in.

So, obviously food in the States is very different from food in Korea.  And more often than not we miss good food from home. So we’re always on the quest to find yummy food. Sometimes we cook or we go to our favorite restaurant Ho Lee Chow. Ho Lee Chow is like the best Chinese food ever. (yes it’s that good lol).  I will certainly miss it when I leave Korea.

Partying in Hongdae

Koreans really know how to party. They are infamous for random late nights in Hongdae (a college town) or Itaewon (the foreign district) so as the saying goes: When in Rome…ya’ll know the rest. So naturally we’ve had our fair share of party nights in Korea. They have been quite epic to say the least. There’s absolutely nothing like good friends, good drinks, good music and random Koreans to make a fun night on the town J

 Oh and yes, we laugh a lot. I guess it’s what keeps us both sane. Anyone in Korea that knows us: knows that you can always see us smiling or laughing about something #ratchet as we like to say.

During our trip to Japan :-)

I’ve said all this to say that I’m so thankful to share all of these experiences in Korea with Toya. She has really made this experience all the more fulfilling. And it’s funny because after Toya and I met we went a few months without talking. Then we randomly re-connected (although I now know that it was meant for us to reconnect) and discovered that we were both interested in moving to Korea. And now here we are: both living in Korea having the times of our lives while on the quest to maintain happiness. And we honestly deserve it. We both went through so much before we came to Korea. But now we’re here creating the happiness we deserve and it feels so good.

Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend. ~Plautus

          

What is this Black girl doing in Korea?

I chose the topic of race for this blog entry because it is so interesting to see how my students react to me when they first meet me. On the first day I got everything from stares, to students touching my skin, to students wondering where the heck I was from. Korea is such a homogeneous culture that something as simple as hair texture baffles my students. Many of them have asked to touch my hair. Others have asked can they get a machine to make their hair like this. Koreans have a shared history that they can trace. Though they too have been victims of slavery many of them were able to stay in their own land and maintain their culture and traditions. Whereas many of the Afrikan people were forced into a foreign land and stripped of their culture and traditions. So it baffles my students when I tell them I was born in America but I do not know where my ancestors come from.

Unfortunately, in our world today race has played a major role in shaping peoples attitudes towards different groups of people. I'm inclined to argue that race is merely a socially constructed tool that has been used to divide groups of people. Nonetheless, the idea of race tends to dictate peoples attitudes toward other groups/cultures. Which in turn causes stereotypes to be formed. We all know that each culture has stereotypes. {Example Black people are ghetto or Asian people are smart} These are stereotypes that exist about each of these groups. Furthermore, how each group is portrayed in the media also has a large effect of the formation of stereotypes. And in my opinion Blacks are often misrepresented or portrayed negatively in media outlets such as: movies and television.

Well I have said all of this to say that one of my goals is to travel the world and expose different cultures to Black people {for the purposes of this blog entry Black refers to people of color across the African diaspora} and Black culture. I firmly believe that if a group of people have never met or encountered a Black person then they may believe all of the negative portrayals of Black people they have been exposed to via the media {television/movies}.

Thus, one of my goals during my hiatus in Korea, is to expose Korean peoples to Black culture. I realize that Black people are not monolithic and that we have many sub-cultures, but people tend to lump us all in one category and think we are lazy, ignorant or uneducated. Thus, I want to counter all of these negative stereotypes and demonstrate that we {Blacks} are educated, intelligent and hard workers.

Furthermore, it is my hope to travel the world and expose different cultures to the beauty of black people and to educate them about who we are and our contributions to the free world. Many of my students are surprised when I share different aspects of my rich culture. Educating people does not validate who I am and the contributions my ancestors made, but it does provide an opportunity for exploration, understanding and insight.

*~I'm just a Black girl trying to show the world my beauty, history and culture in the process of exploring the world one country as a time. My Black does not define me, but it inspires me*~