Shut up and start enjoying yourself

Source from http://joongangdaily.joins.com/

At this point, I started prodding her with the usual “ain’t it tough to be a foreigner” questions, but Desmarais wasn’t having any of it.

“It still surprises me to hear foreigners who have been here for many years complain about being treated badly. Get over it, I say!”

And then came a very apt summation of expat life in Korea as it is today.

“You get to live somewhere where you will never be a part of their culture, no matter how hard you try and how much Korean blood you have, which means you eventually stop trying to fit in and forge your own path. You live your own life in the way you want to live it, which I think is the way to go.

“Of course, you must respect where you live and the culture you live in, but luckily you can choose which rules you have to follow and which rules you don’t. There’s a certain sense of freedom in that.”

Desmarais is currently the co-owner of the very cool Berlin lounge, which sits on the hill overlooking the entrance to Itaewon.