It just keeps getting better....

It just keeps getting better....

I got over the "fat" comment. But it doesn't end there. Today at the beach, after surfing, I was talking to my friend VJ. He asked me what was wrong with my teeth. Huh? There's nothing wrong with my teeth. He asked, in his broken English, if I smoked because I had some discoloration on my teeth. "Yes...like some black on the front of your teeth...if you use 1000 type sandpaper is possible to remove it." I welled up with tears, dismissed myself and went to sit with a few of my friends as they were playing the local board game Carrem. As with all Asians, they enquired about my marital status. It went something like this...

"Cailin, this year- you still not married?"

Me- "nope, still not."

"But having boyfriend?"

Me- "nope".

"NO BOYFRIEND?"

Me- "nope."

"Okay, okay- that's because your parents are choosing husband for you- yeah?"

Me- "Nope. They don't choose our husbands in the US."

"How OLD are you?"

Me- "27"

"Oh. Very old. And you no married? No boyfriend?"

Me- "No."

"Okay- so you are alone. Always alone."

Me- "yep, something like that."

"Well...maybe marry soon. You are old. Maybe no marry if you wait more. Too old. All alone."


Fat. Single. Old. And bunk teeth.
Bahahaha.

Spent my morning devastated. But trying to find the humor in the cultural differences. And also remembering to take it as a compliment, as the boys wouldn't talk to me about these kind of things if they didn't care. You can think of it as a much more warped, extreme, third-world version of your best bud telling you that you have something on your face, or broccoli in your teeth....it's not an attack, just a simple heads up about the (unseen) obvious. Ayeyaya. What a day.


Cailin Callahan
www.cailincallahan.blogspot.com