Mrs. Star: How's school?
Me: Good.
Mrs. Star: Less than two months left!
Me: Yeah.
Mrs. Star: Where you goin' this summer?
Me: Korea.
Mrs. Star: What?? Mission trip?
Me: No---yes.
Mrs. Star: What are you going to be doing?
Me: Teaching English at a language school.
Mrs. Star: You know any Korean?
Me: Yeah, I'm learning. I'm nowhere near fluent, but I know the basics.
Mrs. Star: What did your parents say?
Me: My mother's fine with it, but I haven't told my father yet because he worries every time I travel. He feels that if I'm far away, he can't help me if something happens.
Mrs. Star: Aww, he's just being protective of his baby girl. So when are you going to tell him, from the airport?
Me: Probably next week, in person.
Mrs. Star: If you frame it right, it will go down easier. You going with people you know or you know somebody who's already there?
Me: No.
Mrs. Star: Girl, you're too grown! Where are you going to be, Seoul? My brother was stationed there and he liked it a lot. He said everything's cheap and the people are friendly.
Me: For one week's training, yes. After that they'll send me where they need me.
Mrs. Star: See, now, I don't know how I'd feel about that. I'd like to have a choice of where I'm going.
Me: Most of the schools are in major cities with a few in the countryside. Either way, I don't mind where they place me.
Mrs. Star: Oh, then it's all good. Maybe you'll bring back a Korean husband.
Me: I don't know about that...
Mrs. Star: There's some tall Koreans out there. Don't sleep! When I was at University of Maryland there was this guy on the lacrosse team who was FINE! All swolle and buff. I was like, "The Koreans I know back in New York look nothing like this!" And he had swag, too. Don't tell me you wouldn't give somebody like that a chance just because he's Asian.
Me: It's not that, it's just that I have to be realistic about the cultural differences.
Mrs. Star: You're right about that. But you never know...
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