I handed Mrs. June my paper report, too. I had created a portfolio of pictures of my family from the last few years with us eating different types of Korean food. My summary was attached.
In My Blood
by Krista Kim
Here are the foods my family and I eat a lot. We eat lots of other things too, but when I think of my family, these are the foods that come to mind. I don’t know a lot about Korea. I wasn’t born there. My parents don’t speak the Korean language at home. I’ve never even been there. But when my family eats Korean food that is when I know I am Korean. There is something about the flavor, the way the dishes are served, the way you eat it, that is so comfortable.
My grandmother has been teaching me to make Korean food. It is bringing us closer together. I can’t really describe how I feel when I am helping my grandmother make dishes that probably her grandmother taught her to make. But I can say that I feel at home. I want to learn it because I think I am learning about myself. She tells me the words for dishes in Korean because there sometimes isn’t even an English word for it. The foods that we eat around our dinner table together as a Korean family teach me more about being a Korean girl living in Canada than reading any Korean history books would.
CHAPTER 18
The class recovered from the excitement of my grandmother’s presentation, and I managed to change out of my dress and put my jeans back on. Then we had PE. It was more of the Celebration of Dance preparations. Now that my presentation was over, the next biggest stressor in my life, other than not knowing if I still had a best friend, was still hanging over my head.
Denise was in a bad mood and yelled at us a lot.
“No! Your timing is all wrong!” she shouted. “We have only a few days left before we present this! Focus, people!”
I remembered to tie up my hair and bring comfortable shoes to PE today, but I was so glad when PE was over. The entire gym smelled like sweaty kids and it was not a nice smell. I had spent a lot of time with the girls the week before, and I was so thankful that they helped me learn the steps better. Denise hadn’t singled me out once today, because I had nailed it. I was almost having a good time.
Before I knew it, the lunch bell rang. As we went to grab our lunch kits, Jason suddenly said to me, “You know, your grandmother is not so bad after all. She invited me to dinner at your house tomorrow.” I was feeling so happy that he spoke to me in the normal way he would have before all this weirdness started between us.
“She surprised me too,” I admitted. I was trying to be calm, but I was overwhelmed by happiness when he spoke to me. It felt like a moment I couldn’t let pass me by. Maybe Jason had been looking for a reason to talk to me and ironically enough, the reason was my grandmother. Then Madison grabbed me by the arm.
“Come on. Join us at our table for lunch again?” she asked. After talking to my sister a few nights ago, I felt like I needed a little space from the girls. I just wanted to think things through. I felt like I had to learn the ways of girls a little better before I rushed into spending all my time with Madison and the others again.
Then, I looked over at Jason. After days of awkwardness, he and I finally talked normally and now, he looked like he was about to walk off.
“Oh, you know what? I think I’m just going to hang out with Jason today. Thanks though,” I said.
“Okay,” she said slowly. Then she gave Jason a long stare. She lowered her voice and said, “Actually, I was also wondering…did you manage to ask your sister if she could help me out?”
“Oh right, I forgot to tell you. Tori said she was flattered, but she’s just way too busy.” I had hoped Madison would forget about it and not force me to talk about it again.
“Oh, thanks anyway. I’ll catch up with you later.” Madison tried to sound bright and happy, but I could tell she was disappointed as she walked off to join her friends.
“What was that about?” Jason asked.
I waited until I knew she was too far away to hear. “The other day, she asked me if I would ask Tori if she would make her a dress.”
“What did Tori say?” he asked curiously.
“She said no way,” I replied.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” he said. He knew Tori about as well as I did. “Did she say why exactly?”
“She didn’t want to repeat ideas, and plus she said that she thought Madison’s request was kind of stepping past some kind of friend boundary, since we haven’t known each other too long,” I said.
He looked at me for a second. “Did you think it was overstepping?”
“When she first asked me, yes, I was a bit shocked. She wasn’t asking just me, she was asking me to ask somebody else. But at the same time, I really don’t know how other girls operate, you know? Is that what they do? Is that kind of ask normal? I
