From Han-Mi to Costco

I'll always remember the Sunday grocery shopping trips my mom would take me on. Instead of just going to Costco, we'd have to make a pit stop on the way there to the Han-Mi (Korean Mart). The journey we took in the mini van from the Han-Mi to Costco "was a journey from an ancient culture to a youthful one" (Rodriguez). In this small Korean mart I'd wander around wondering why it smelled like fish, but also hoping that my mom would let me get some Milkis and Banana Kick (my favorite Korean snack). I'd follow my mom around pestering her hoping that she would give into my whining and buy me some snacks while she'd get the fish that I thought was so smelly as well as some cabbage for the kimchi that she would spend hours preparing. 

When we were done in the Han-Mi, we'd make our journey to the Costco where I'd see massive boxes of pre-made foods and powders that magically turned into drinks. I'd do my best not to get left behind as I always got distracted by the samples. I didn't know what to ask for when we were in Costco because there was always so much. In the end I'd usually just get a chicken bake and call it a day. 

When we got home my mom would immediately start making the pepper paste and putting the massive heads of cabbage into a salt bath, my sisters and I would sit on the floor with giant bowls in front of us slathering the paste in between the leaves of cabbage mediocrely, tasting the small bits that would fall off the leave as we went along. When we were done with one head, we'd put it into a plastic container and move onto the next one until the plastic container was filled with kimchi. I'm not sure how familiar you might be with the process of making kimchi, but the whole point of it is that it'll get fermented over time. When my mom and dad were children, it would be stored underground in clay pots, but now we simply have plastic containers that we put in the refrigerator. By the end of this long process all of our backs were dead from sitting on the floor, but it's the lengthy process that makes it special. It's the way that my Korean ancestors did it.

The day after we'd all be tired from grocery shopping and kimchi making so we'd just microwave the Bagel Bites we got from Costco. It was quick and convenient. 

That's the difference between my two identities. One is ancient and slow while the other one is fast and in the moment. "Both sides can claim wisdom," just as both sides have given me the life that I live.