Curiouser and Curiouser.

I have to be happy about moving to Northern Virginia; the past five years have given me opportunities I might never have had. Granted, I moved here to be near my parents over the tumultuous transition years between high school, college, college and real-life, but, by actually being here NoVA (as it's lovingly-- or annoyingly-- called) has changed my outlook on life itself and has allowed me to really see who makes up this world.

I don't think I would have ever had the same opportunity to discover and explore ethnic, cultural, and racial diversity anywhere else; certainly not in Oklahoma, and definitely not to the same extent as New Orleans. I also have to give kudos to George Mason University for helping out, too. Named one of the "most diverse" colleges in the country, Mason also had a hand in my discovery phase.

I guess what prompted this post was an event that occurred this past weekend; I spent Saturday afternoon with my friend Gracie wandering around the Korean shops in Annandale, Virginia. We stopped at a Korean bakery called Shilla for pastries and coffee, where green tea was sold for your "well-being" and good health and giant bowls of fruit and shaved ice were a hot-ticket item.

Earlier that afternoon, we had stopped in a little gift shop where I bought some Rose paper for folded flowers. Gracie had mentioned that she didn't know how to make these particular roses, so I offered to teach her once we settled in the bakery. After a quick tutorial and an hour or so of gab, we noticed people staring at our table. After checking ourselves to make sure we hadn't spilled anything, I thought maybe they were staring at me, I was one of the few non-Asians in the restaurant, but no! They were looking strangely at Grace! She caught on and wondered as we were leaving, how strange it must have seemed for a Caucasian to teach a native Korean to make paper flowers.

We thought it was odd, and nonsensical, and hilarious. And it's my diversity story for the week.



"Oh, dear! What nonsense I’m talking!" --Alice's Adventures in Wonderland