Being the only American on staff at my job means that I'm the only one who dresses up for Halloween. This is me and my co-worker, Ciaran, posing with the pumpkins I'd carved the day before. The school's director, Mrs. Kang, told me that in all the years she's done Halloween at her school, she's never seen pumpkins that were carved as well as the ones I made. It was one of those moments where I felt like singing the chorus of that Lee Greenwood song: "...and I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free..." I get those moments every now and again out here. Like when I visit the local Pizza Hut, or when my Korean friend tells me that the same Levis I bought at Costco back in Texas for $22 cost about $170 out here.
Regardless of my sentiments about American pride, I have to say that the glasses I got had the kids laughing all day long. Those and my bulging breast pocket full of pens, which isn't featured in this shot. I'd also managed to pull my pants up above my belly button, and do the classic 'part in the middle' hair style. Ciaran had said he was going to dress up like a geek as well, but as you can see in this shot, Ciaran opted to dress up as some character in Grease, minus the long, dorky late-70s style hair.
This post brings up a good question though: Am I proud to be an American? Sadly enough, I don't think I can give a quick and ready answer on that one. We've done good, and we've done bad, so to say that I'm proud of everything we are is wrong. I know there's no other nationality I'd rather be, and I know that I really like being American. I know all the people from other nations that dislike us come from nations that do both good and bad as well. Is it just a measure of how much better our good is and how much less our bad is compared to other nations? Is that what makes a nation great, something to be proud of? We'll work on that in the next post or so.
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