It's rude to stare

I went to Seoul for the first time last weekend and discovered that I’ve started to become more like Koreans than I expected to. Whenever I am in Danyang (the town I live in), I get a few stares from time to time because there are literally less than 10 non-Korean people in the entire town and seeing me is a bit of a novelty. This doesn’t really bother me because I know people are just curious. And sometimes I imagine that being stared at is what it’s like to be treated like a celebrity so then that’s fun for me too.  I’m basically Beyonce in this town.

But when I went to Seoul I was not one of only 10 non-Koreans. I was one of hundreds. In fact, there were so many non-Koreans that I wasn’t special at all! But the weird part was that I started to stare at non-Koreans because I was so not used to seeing them. I look at Koreans all day every day so to see people who weren’t Korean felt weird. And then I felt weird for feeling weird about seeing Western-looking people! It was a very messy cycle. But an interesting one because I learned that I have grown used to looking different in a place where everyone looks the same. Maybe I’m fitting in more in Danyang that I thought.  And I can't decide if that's a good thing or not.