Sidewalk Encounters

There are plenty of foreigners in Changwon.  Many are teachers or engineers for the Korean conglomerates.  There are homemakers with their young children and study abroad students.  To see a non-Asian person walking the street is still a semi-rare occurrence, though; it happens only once or twice per day.  Sometimes, when we encounter each other on the sidewalk, I’m torn as to how to react.  Normally, I wouldn’t acknowledge a stranger but I certainly see the person and they sure-as-hell see me; it’s clear that we share the quality of being out of place.

But to acknowledge this stranger just for being white (it’s almost always white expats in Changwon except for a few East Indians.  Though I have seen a few Black people each time I went to Busan.) seems inappropriate and somehow racist.  I know it’s not like: “Lordy thank goodness am I glad to see a white man in a sea of these goddamned Asians!” but it feels like a step in that direction that, obviously, I don’t want to take.  I wonder if this blog will get a lot of visits now based on the search term “goddamned Asians”.  In any event, I’m overthinking it.  The best solution is to continue meeting more people (and adding their numbers to my contact list) so I can greet them as friends, not as strangers.