| 1530h
Mood: very good Fact of the day: There are 24 symbols that make up the Korean "alphabet". event of the week: Exploring kyoto on my own. His name sounds almost like "thousands of thousands of gold". I should say not a very uncommon wish for Chinese parents to want their children to get rich. But I guess for him, his parents' wish didn't quite come true. When I become someone's mom, I would want my child to be happy. But even if his parents had named him Happy instead of Rich, their wish didn't come true either. My tour guide is not a happy man.
Because the rest of the tour group flew back to Singapore earlier than my brother and I flying back to Kyoto, the tour guide had some time to spend with us. Just the three of us, him, my brother and I, sitting at the airport restaurant, trying to kill time. We talked about a lot of random thing, my brother and him talking about Japanese music scene, me and him talking about differences between the girls in the different countries. And at the end of the day, I realise that he is not a very happy person at all.
He says that he's going to quit his job soon, because this is the 11th year in a row he's not spent Christmas or New Year at home with his parents. He says that he is still hoping to finally settle down with a nice Chinese wife and maybe set up a small shop business. While he was saying all these, I became fascinated with his gelled back hair and the fine lines at the corners of his eyes. And then, he says that on this tour, he's smiled more than he ever did, for a long time.
Indeed, he doesn't smile much. Even when he tells jokes, as all tour guides do, to entertain the tour group on long bus rides, I guess he moved his face muscles into a smile-like look, but his eyes didn't sparkle. The few times he did smile, were always because of this one kid's innocent remarks at his jokes. And then very funnily, I realised that he smiles like my ex. He has thick eyebrows and he sort of seems to be thinking of something cheeky or naughty when he smiles...yes, he smiles exactly like my ex, a very intriguing smile. But this smile doesn't come as often, not often enough.
I guess he's just a very tired man. Tired of travelling around Seoul, of entertaining tourists who probably won't remember him 2 months down the road, of regurgitating the same promotional facts about Korea even as Korea discriminates against his people, of counting the times he is away from his family, of realising the dimininshing chances of him settling down into a normal stable lifestyle. I guess tour guides just appear to be happy just so that tourists like us can be happy. Seasoned tour guides like him are simply too tired to even appear happy.
In that one afternoon, I felt so much for this one man, wishing so hard that I had the innocence of that kid to bring out his smile once more, to relieve him of his bitterness and cynicism. Sigh.....For the new year, I hope he'll become a happier man.
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