family avoidance

I'm never enthralled with the prospect of meeting my Korean relatives. A cousin of mine called a few days back to relay the message from his father (my mother's 70-some-year-old control-freak cousin) that the family "misses" me and wants to see me on Seollal (Lunar New Year's Day). My cousin then slipped in the following remark: "We also want to see whether you've gained weight, which we think you have! Ha ha!" It's true: I have indeed gained weight since they last saw me, but remarks like that simply piss me off and leave me with little desire to see their leering faces. I barely relate to my clan as it is. Language isn't the issue as much as personality; the fact is that some of my relatives-- not all, but some-- annoy the fucking shit out of me.

So I'm going to tell my cousin that I probably won't be seeing anybody until just before I leave Korea. Skipping out on family events has become my own little tradition here in Seoul; why break it?

UPDATE: Much the same goes for my father's side of the family, too. While I do like my American cousins, I can do without my uncle. (Clarification: the uncle who passed away in Texas was the husband of my mother's sister, so even though he was Caucasian, he was on my mother's side of the family. And I loved him.)


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