A female co-worker was over in our little corner of cubeville a couple of days ago. She asked me “why are you so obsessed with Asia? What’s so great about it? I was in Korea once and I hated it!” ( I make no secret of my passion to return to Asia.)
“Where did you go?”
“Seoul and Osan”.
” And you couldn’t find anything good to do in Seoul? Clearly you were not going to the right places.”
” Well how about you-what is it you like about it so much?”
The conversation went on for some time-since she was female, I had to dance around the number 1 reason(s)-the women-and point out to her innocuous things like the excitement, good transportation, places to see, the hustle and bustle. And finally I gave her the reason that always seems to baffle the unaware, of which there are lot of Alabama:
“Because when you are there as a Gaijin man-you are unique. And that is worth any amount of being in Alabama.”
It went over her head-just as I expected it to. ” Well there is lots to do here in Alabama!”
“Maybe-but its all relative, now isn’t it? There’s a lot of things I want to do that I can’t do in Alabama-and there are things I can do here. But here the mudane things are just mundane and there they were not. Get it? No, I didn’t think you would.”
I think I will go back and show her this quote from Lola. It ought to really set her head on fire:
There are two types of people-those who understand and those who don’t. Those who understand Lola’s frustration can smile and shake their heads knowingly. Those who don’t understand-never will.