Jaya

Before meeting Jaya, I had a brief encounter with Lisa and her husband (will refer to him as John Doe) who are visiting from Raleigh, NC. When I saw that John, the one sitting closer to me, was checking his iPhone, a chain of questions flew through my mind (What's your favorite app? What feature would you improve? Do you like viewing the fall foliage? According to climatologists this is supposed to be the perfect weekend for it, at least in the Northeast, etc.) But I asked Lisa and John what they thought about President Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Just as John began to overcome his reluctance to talk to a blabbering stranger and said that "it is premature," their friend (or relative) arrived and swept them away. As they were leaving I realized that my first chance to speak with a stranger from the heartland was slipping away. While I thoroughly appreciate speaking to strangers from foreign lands, I was really looking forward to a conversation with someone from the US - I just haven't come across them often enough at this particular McBreak venue.
After a few minutes of solitude, a girl carrying several backpacks, some of them over sized in comparison to her tiny but tall frame, settled next to me. Jaya is here from Korea on a month-long trip and made her way from California to New York all on her own. Jaya struck me as an unusual Korean name. It means "ye-ppeun ahee" or pretty child. She looked very young but her height (may be 5'8) and sensible demeanor threw me off. So I dared and asked her how old she was. She didn't seem to mind the question and asked me, instead, whether I wanted to know her Korean or American age. I told her it was completely up to her so she soft-spokenly said 20 (American age). I continued to indulge my curiosity and asked her how is it that she was not in school? Why did I assume that a 20 year-old would or should be in school? It comes from the age-old bias that Asians are nerds and from an ambitious desire that my kids will be off to college by that age, and hopefully a college that we can afford. By the same token, I hope my daughters will grow to be as confident and adventurous as Jaya. For now, let's hope they're not talking to strangers.
Jaya took some time off from school to undertake this trip across the Pacific and while spending only three days in New York, she managed to squeeze in the Broadway Musical Hairspray in her schedule. This was after a failed attempt to get tickets for Billy Elliott. As the latest Tony Award winner for Best Musical, Billy is indisputably in high demand these days. Billy the movie, ranks high in my list of all time must see films.
As Jaya wraps up her brief but hectic stay in New York and gets ready to head home, she is looking forward to a hearty simmering pot of "Denjang Jigae" – Korean bean curd (miso) stew (best made with mom's TLC). But aside from this favorite comfort food, she is an enthusiast of crispy fried chicken. When it comes to fried chicken, I like it the traditional KFC way or with a Korean twist a la Boom Boom/BonChon.