Grandma

My grandmother died a couple of weeks ago. I learned about it through an email from my cousin how 21st Century is that. I stared at that email in disbelief. I saved it. I still can't believe it. Her funeral was last Saturday. I wasn't that close to her but my personality was so much like her. She was my grandmother from my Dad's side of my family. She was actually born in the same month I was so we were both Virgos probably why we didn't get along to much like each other. When I was child my mother would always drop me off at my grandparents. She made me and my cousin wash dishes and hang clothes on the line and even shill peas as I call it. We complained about it all the time. Cleaning up after the boys and we couldn't go outside and play. Those were the best summers though. I don't regret any of the time I spent there. It made for great stories. The best thing I remember about here was her cooking. When the holidays rolled around we ate the best food Turkey, dressing, Hen, Greens and the desserts were to die for. My grandmother made the best sweet potato and pecan pie. I will miss that. She was old school. She loved her kids and her grands kids. She wasn't always perfect but she did the best that she could. I wished that I could have gone to the funeral see her one more time.

Reality

It one thing to study something in a book but it's another thing to live it. I read about Korea but nothing could have really prepared me for the reality of living in it. My first trip to Korea was in August of 2000. I already knew that it was going to be hard for me because I had a hard time getting hired in the first place because I was black. Most people here think that only Westerners come in one shade.. white. They even think that white people are better than them. a Korean person told me once that. That it goes that White people are first then Korean people and the rest follow. They spent a lot of money on products that make their skin white. You thought Micheal Jackson had a complex. Anyway I had read online about this. Then when I get here it was as bad as I thought it was. People stared at me all the time. I even scared a kid in the market she turned around it was like I could see her thinking "Oh my G-d she is black." It's now 2007. Korea hasn't gotten more use to Black people (African Americans or whatever you want to call it). I still get African saram all the time. (African Person). Doesn't really bother me that much but hey I am from Mississippi so .... you can guess my experience there.