Standing Out

We definitely stand out in a variety of ways here in South Korea.

#1- We're colorful!  I'll never forget the first time we walked outside of our complex and onto the streets of Seoul.  As we walked across the street I remember feeling like we were adding a rainbow to the city.  The vast majority of people here seem to fear color and dress in all neutral colors.  During the winter (I'm guessing), the overwhelmingly predominant color is black.  More than half of the people you see are only wearing black (at least that is all you can see with their coats on).  Of course, the fact that many of the people on the streets of downtown Seoul are business professionals, also plays into this as their attire is more formal.  But it was fun to watch our family in a rainbow striped scarf, purple coat, cowboy boots, and pink poodle hat bounding across the street amist the sea of black.  It made me smile.

#2- We have a lot of kids!  We actually have more than twice as many kids as the average Korean family.  When we go out, people regularly count to four on their fingers and then point to Danny and me as if to say, "are all four of these kids yours?"  We smile and say "yes" and everyone acts very impressed and often give us the "thumbs up" sign.  One couple we met on the street were so impressed (or maybe concerned for us), that the woman whipped out her wallet and started handing each of the children the equivelant of a dollar.  Upon seeing this, the man took out his wallet and began doing the same.  Our children were amazed and very grateful for the gift, which they promptly planned to spend at the street vendors.

#3- We just look and do things a little differently.  For instance, we get a lot of attention when Joy rides on Danny's shoulders--not an uncommon thing for a father to do in the US, but aparently it's not "everyday" around here.  And just as we look at little Korean children and find them so darling, the Koreans truly adore our children.  For a country without many children (relatively speaking), this is a country that truly has a great love for children.  People are constanly telling us how beautiful our children are or how they look just like "little dolls".  They smile at them and touch their cheeks and stroke their hair and give them high-fives and lift them up to sit next to them on the subway.  One day a man on the subway, who could not stop smiling and squinting his eyes and wrinkling up his nose and waving at Hyrum (like Hyrum was a baby), finally dug through his groceries for a gift to give to Hyrum and presented him with a container of apple juice just as we were coming to our stop.  The man was very delighted when Hyrum shook his hand and thanked him.  It was really precious.

#4- We're not conformists.  In Korea, everyone is very into the latest fad.  Even the older people dress very similarly to the younger people.  Therefore, most people looks about the same.  I'm pretty sure I'm the only woman in the city not wearing either skinny jeans or a mini-skirt.  Hyrum is the only kid that I've seen with holes in his jeans.  And although I used to tease my husband for his lack of fashion-sense, I'm so proud that he is not following current trends in men's clothing.  Scary!  The funny thing is, we've actually heard that we're not looked down upon for our "lack of fashion sense".  For foreigners, looking different is totally acceptable, but not for the Koreans.  For instance, they all dress in full-on hiking gear everytime they hike.  Everyone of them looks like they just stepped out of a North Face catalogue.  There is never a doubt in your mind when you see them on the metro that they are on their way to go hiking.  And if they didn't, it would be looked down upon.  But it's perfectly acceptable for us to go hiking in jeans and a t-shirt with a water bottle in hand.  Aren't we lucky!?

#5-We're foreigners, so I guess that makes us some kind of a novelty or something.  When we gather the kids together to take a photo, we're usually not the only ones who are snapping our camera in the direction of our kids.  Other times, people motion to encourage our kids to join in their photo shoots.  We try not to pay much attention to it for the kid's sake.  We don't want our kids to think they're rock stars or something, but it's pretty interesting.  Sometimes I'll just see people turn their phone towards the kids and take their picture.  It's a little crazy--we've never experienced any paparazzi before!