Day 1 Two words: sensory overload. Hongdae is a stacked array of Parisian-inspired dessert bars, skin food labs, multilevel arcades, karaoke bars, and cafés boasting fruity lattés topped with marshmallows and whipped cream. There’s a sleek Boba tea spot with a line of people waiting behind a velvet barrier rope. A woman with a headset … Continue reading My Week of Seoul Searching
How to Be an Outsider in Cambodia
“Can you speak Khmer?” The customs officer asks me this with his eyes squinted. It’s 10 p.m. at the Phnom Penh airport and I just got off a six-hour flight. “Can I speak—no, no, I can’t,” I answer him, blinking. “Where were you born?” he asks. Literally, you have my passport in your hand. “USA.” … Continue reading How to Be an Outsider in Cambodia
What the Khmer Kids Taught Me
I know I should be listening but I’m zoning out. Teresa*, the head of A New Day Cambodia, is explaining to my family and I how the school works as we sit cross-legged in their main hall. But my gaze is on the long scroll of paper tacked to the wall and covered with Magic … Continue reading What the Khmer Kids Taught Me
Meeting My Korean Relatives
Let me just say, it was unreal. My mom, dad, brother, and I approach a tall building with an escalator traveling into its middle. We wander to the third floor, quietly, because the corridors are silent. (I don’t know why. This is apparently a mall. The hair salons, micro-gyms, and clothes shops must be sealed … Continue reading Meeting My Korean Relatives
My Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation
“Do you want a bindi?” The girl who asks me blinks with her synthetic rainbow falsies. I’m at a tapas bar in England, shimmying to reggaeton beneath a canopy of upside-down sombreros. “Sure!” I shout back. The girl—a white English girl—untacks a gemstone from her paper and presses it against my forehead. There. A bindi. … Continue reading My Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation
Losing My Memories of England
My friend is due here in twenty minutes to play tennis. I sit on the edge of my bed with my laptop perched on my knees. The email spreads before my eyes. Due to inactivity, Dropbox has deactivated your account… Oh crap. Let me back up. Six years ago, at the tender age of eighteen, … Continue reading Losing My Memories of England
How to Show Outsiders What Sanford is All About
Historic Downtown Sanford is too good to keep a secret. Recently we hosted a team of Instagrammers and bloggers from Orlando and Tampa to show them what a weekend getaway in Historic Downtown Sanford may look like. Many stayed in the beautiful bed & breakfast The Higgins House. First Stop: The District This is the happiest … Continue reading How to Show Outsiders What Sanford is All About
A Proposal in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Part One: Asian Food The plan was to meet at HOMES Brewery. Saturday late afternoon, my parents pick me up from the Detroit airport in their rental car and we speed towards Ann Arbor. I shiver in the backseat and check my brother’s girlfriend’s Instagram story. More images of cacti with puns. I’m glad I … Continue reading A Proposal in Ann Arbor, Michigan
