The Aquariums of Pyongyang (book)
Taxi Driver (movie)
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (movie)
The God Delusion (MP3)
Post Office (Book)
Brian's Book (Book)
Letter to a Christian Nation (Mp3)
The End of Faith (Mp3)
The Wedding Crashers (movie)
A Tale of Cinema (movie)

When I met my girlfriend, her English wasn't as good as it is now. She bought an electronic dictionary. We use the dictionary less and less, but I can never forget the first time we took her new dictionary to lunch.
We were talking about her mother. I...oh, so naive in those salad days...asked my girlfriend if she'd told her parents about me (we'd been together two weeks).The short answer was "no." The long answer was in broken English , with intermittent typing on the fresh, blue, Sharp electronic dictionary.
The translated words were:
"Xenophobic"
"A radically homogeneous nation"
and
"Mixed blood," as in babies of...

The purpose of this blog is to chronicle the moments leading up to my eventual meeting with my girlfriend's father. In my estimation it will be two or three months from this time. Of course it could be longer. I can't imagine it will be shorter. Unfortunately, this meeting depends on him more than me.Sometime before that I will probably meet my girlfriend's mother. Perhaps a less daunting task, but troublesome all the same.

The real trouble is that my girlfriend is Korean. South Korean, of course. Being an American I can't go to North Korea. Sometimes I feel, if the people had their druthers...I wouldn't be allowed in South Korea either.
One of the aforementioned "people" is my girlfriend's father. It's nothing against me personally, I'm sure. He doesn't know me. He saw me once. More on that later.It's just that Koreans think Koreans are Koreans and should stay Koreans. Eat Korean food, marry Korean people, have Korean babies. That Koreans and Koreans only should live in Korea. Some people (Koreans) call that idea Korean Culture. Others might call it The Master Race.I fall somewhere in the middle. Depends on the day and what my girlfriend's parents have said about me most recently.
Generally, I love Korea. I enjoy the food and I love the history. Now and again I call myself a student of the language. And I'm in love with a Korean girl...what's not to love about Korea?

I'm an English teacher in Korea. I've had some other jobs in my life. I guess at this point it's been a while since I graduated from Univeristy. Yes, the years are adding up at a brisk pace.I'm not young and I'm not old. My girlfriend is younger than me. That's not the trouble. Yet. I'm American. That's part of the trouble, now.

The lowdown

I met my girlfriend shortly after I arrived in Korea. We've been a happy couple. No major break ups. Yeah, we fight now and again, but nothing extraordinary. We are in love. We have been in love for some 16 months.