Happy Humpday Haiku #69

On Feeling Foreign pt. II

No experience
Will be able to shorten
The perception gap.

            Little over a year ago to this day, I wrote about how it felt to experience being foreign for the first time. If you've never had the opportunity to try it, I highly recommend it. Nothing has been more humbling than trying to navigate through life in an unfamiliar setting populated with people who are acutely aware of your differences #selfconsciousisthenewblack 

            I've established myself in a place where I no longer feel uncomfortable or anxious in public, I no longer feel like an object. Instead, I've had to contend with the cultural differences amongst the expat crowd. Daegu has an abundance of foreign expats living within its confines. Many of these individuals I'm grateful to call my friends now. Yet there are things that I desire that I know cannot be satisfied.

            Take for instance Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Matter of fact, take the entire NHL postseason for instance. Despite watching the games from illegal streams on my computer, despite checking scores in the middle of class and freaking out when I've gone over my phone's data usage, despite having to miss games because I live in South Korea and the games air anywhere between 8am and 10am, despite any of this I still felt I was at home. For a brief hour or two I was back in Chicago rooting on the boys to another dynastic-clinching championship. Then the games would finish, and there would be no one I could go to talk to. 

            This represents but a minuscule example of my reality. The reality is that even in the US there are huge cultural differences between regions, states, and cities. What hope have I to be able to connect on a level as essential as where I'm from in the place that I am? Understandably it took me a while to realize that being a foreigner here is not a common denominator. There is no common denominator. Just the understanding that we are all different. Every one of us.