Homesickness

One of my good friends once said something very simple yet very true. "Alice," he said, "people always want what they can't have." It's funny how those words have stuck to me like parasites for the last few days. I don't usually completely realize what I want from the U.S. when I'm in another country. But then if I come in contact with something trivial that reminds me of home, I'm hit with homesickness all over again.

That happened to me recently when I visited my friend Rosemary. She is a Korean (from Seoul) whom I met in the U.S. when she studied there for a year. We decided to hang out for awhile last Saturday, and in the evening I went back to her house for dinner with her family. All I had to do was walk through the door, and I suddenly began thinking with exclamation points. The conversation inside my head started off something like this: "There is sanity in the midst of chaos! There is some peace in Seoul!" The exclamation marks just continued...

Their house was set up western style. First of all, it was an actual house, rather than a huge apartment building. Secondly, there were chairs around a dining room table! (The closest thing we have to a chair in my apartment is the piano bench--it's pretty typical for Koreans to sit on the floor.) Rosemary's family also had beds, not just pads and blankets on the floor, which is traditional Korean style.

And then, the climax came--there was a bathmat on the bathroom floor! It's odd to think that such a small thing can make such a big impression, but I must be honest--it was the bathmat that made me feel homesick. Most Koreans don't use a shower curtain or have a bathtub, so there is always water everywhere (hence, no bathmat).

This wet bathroom mentality is a cultural nuance I don't quite understand. It's convenient to not have to worry about making a mess, but the whole idea of allowing water to spray all over the bathroom just seems so bizarre at times. It means you have to walk through puddles for the next few hours or until the water evaporates--whichever comes first!

At my apartment we have a tub and shower curtain, which is a little unusual because many Korean homes only have a hand shower over a drain in the middle of the room. However, I don't think my roommate actually uses the shower curtain, because whenever I go into the bathroom after her, there is water everywhere—-sink, toilet, door. It's a little crazy!

And so my homesickness was perpetuated by the presence of a bathmat on Rosemary's bathroom floor. Perhaps I sound melodramatic--or whiny--but it nearly brought tears to my eyes. I know what I want but can't have: American--style dry bathrooms!