A life like drama

Mom, do you know the Korean drama Autumn in My Heart? I want to watch it. A Chinese girl in my class watched Autumn in My Heart with her mom and cried a lot. She said it was so good. Let’s watch it too!”
my older child said.

My younger child, who had spent about a month in Hokkaido, Japan, said:
“Mom, do you know Yon-sama?”
“Why?”
“Well, the Japanese ladies found out I was Korean and went, ‘We love Yon-sama!’ They were going crazy. Who is he?”

We went to the Sunnyside Library in Queens. They had a lot of Korean drama DVDs. I borrowed a few to help teach the kids Korean. But after watching a couple of episodes, my head hurt so much—probably because I held back tears, too embarrassed to cry in front of the kids.

“Mom, why do people in Korea have so many side dishes on their table?”
The kids watched the dinner scenes in the drama and started drooling. It looked so different from our usual dinner at home—just soup, kimchi, and one more side dish.
“It’s because it’s a drama.”
“Can’t we eat like that too, with lots of tasty food?”
“No. Eating too much isn’t good for you.”
While the kids were sighing over the food, I was sighing for another reason. In the drama, the artist studied abroad in America, came back to Korea, and became a professor. She was successful, living in a beautiful studio. I told myself, “It’s just a drama,” but still felt down. I studied abroad too—but my life is nothing like hers.

Many Koreans say Korean dramas are really fun. At first, our family thought, “What’s the big deal?” But once we started watching… wow, they were so good. I borrowed the DVDs, saying it would help the kids with their Korean. They lost interest after a while, but my husband and I were hooked, staying up late for days, watching until dawn.

My cheekbones, which already stick out, looked even more pronounced after several nights of lost sleep. My husband looked at my exhausted face and, shocked, said:

“This is an addiction. Seriously. Don’t borrow any more.”

Then he looked at me with a dumbfounded expression when I was compared to the cool female painters in the drama.

“Stop watching and go paint something in your studio!”