In the past three days...

Here's the short of it, in the past three days I have tried to teach English to 20 young boys who can only say "yes" and "no", ordered way to much food for just two people (Shabu Shabu), made a two and a half year old Korean girl cry out of control, slept on the smallest bed in the universe, been side checked by elderly Koreans on the subway, and had to endure a very old man taking off his shoes and his socks while sitting very close to me on the train back home!

This past weekend I was teaching a class with a teacher from South Africa. We were explaining the rules to this word game we were about to play when we realized none of them spoke any English what so ever. Where I work, the kids come in and stay for one week. It's meant to get them comfortable having conversations with English speaking people so we get schools from all over the country. The cool thing about that is I get to meet a hell of a lot of people. The bad thing is that I never really get to develop a relationship with the kids, not a lasting one anyways. But usually we get kids who have been taking English at their schools for a few years....not this time. For an hour and a half my co teacher and I only heard "yes" and "no". We would ask, "How are you doing?" Answer, "yes". "Where are you from?" Answer, "no".

After my last class on Sunday I went home with Danielle and we ate at a place near her apartment. We ate something called Shabu Shabu which is basically very thinly sliced red meat with a huge place of veggies and some dumplings. The meat is raw and so are the veggies. They bring out a pot of broth and heat it up at the table. They then cut the veggies up and dump them into the bowl. We then take our meat and dip it into the boiling concoction. Because the meat is so thin it cooks in seconds. It's so good but I ordered way too much. Danielle and I knew right away we ordered too much. I think we ordered enough for 4 people. Now those of you who have ever eaten with us know that we order a lot of food when we go out normally but this was ridiculous. When you finish your veggies, they then bring out these fresh noodles and dump that into the broth. Then after your done with that they make fried rice at your table. We didn't make it to the fried rice. I will say this though, even though we ate like goats, I still didn't have that disgusting full feeling I have back in the states. I think that has to do with the fact that everything I was eating was fresh, not fried, and very few complex carbs.

Anyways, after feasting we headed to the grocery store because Danielle was out of food. As we are walking we're getting the usual looks. Danielle lives in an area that has very few foreigners. She gets looks because she's beautiful and has a small face (small faces are considered the best in Korea). I am getting stared at because I'm black, bald and weigh about 60lbs more then most people. We're used to the stares so we go about our business though, that is until we come upon a young girl and her mother. The girl is holding a balloon and she is so tiny I would never have noticed her had it not been for the balloon floating in front of my head. I look down and see this little creature staring at me. As soon as our eyes meet her eyes get large as she takes me in and then she runs behind her mother holding on tightly. Her mom looks up and me and smiles while chuckling a little bit. The girl stays frozen behind her mother and I point it out to Danielle. Danielle thinks this is funny and we move on. The little girl is very cute by the way and I have a feeling I am the first black person she has seen in her very young life. We continue to shop and about twenty minutes later we turn down an isle where the young girl and her mother are...they are looking at lotion. I am looking for a face scrub and Danielle is looking for chap stick. I purposely don't make eye contact with the little girl but I feel her small almond shaped eyes piercing my backside. I whisper to Danielle that the girl is back. She looks over at her and see that she's taking coverage behind her mother again. I decide to get out of there and at that moment the girl starts to cry like a banshee. Her mom obviously thinks this is hilarious because she starts laughing just as loud. I have yet to see anyone in this country laugh as hard as this mother was laughing. It brought a smile to my face but I still wanted to get away from her daughter. I look over at Danielle and she laughing almost as hard as the mother. So there's two people laughing and one little girl crying. Eventually the mother gave me a slight bow and while still laughing picked up her daughter and walked away. Danielle claims the little girl didn't start crying until she looked at her but I think we both know the truth. I wonder to myself if I was ever afraid of white people when I was two....I doubt it, I grew up in East Lansing, it's full of white people. The only white person I'm afraid of is George W. Bush and that has nothing to do with his color.

When I stay at Danielle's it consist of a two hour subway ride or train ride to get there. It then consist of sleeping on a bed that isn't big enough for her. Remember, Danielle has a small face and a small body. I do not have a small face and I do not have a small body. So I end up sleeping with half my butt hanging off the end of the bed. I thought my bed was the most uncomfortable bed in Korea but I was wrong.

Going back to my city yesterday I realized that I was being pushed around every time the subway doors opened by very old Koreans. They are rough. It's like hockey with no pads and no ice. They just push people out of the way to get to the front. I've been letting this slide since I arrived her because I didnt' want to be disrespectful of the culture but after talking to some of my Korean peeps they informed me I was being stupid. "What culture do you know of Chris where people are allowed to push other people out of the way?" Hmmmmm, good question. They suggested to me that I simply stop allowing myself to be pushed around. I remembered this bit of advice on my way home this time. It was bouncing around the inside of my head as I was getting bounced around the inside of the subway. Finally I had enough. This old women gut checked me as the door opened and then her partner in crime (I think it was her husband) stepped on my foot. I had enough. We ended up transferring to the same sub going to Seoul Station. The old man kept edging me over and over and then I stopped letting him. It really wasn't that hard since I weigh around 200lbs and he could not have weighed more then my arm. I simply stopped moving when he pressed against me. I think it took him a few seconds for it to click in. He was pushing but I had stopped moving. He kept pushing but I didn't move. He continued to push until I flexed my arm he was leaning against. I then must have looked at him the way Arnold Schwarzenegger has stared at so many people right before he smashes them with his fist. I didn't mean to look at him that way but that's what came out of me. The old man back off right away. I'm not proud of this but I was very tired and not in the mood to be pushed around any more. At least I didn't give him some stupid catch phrase.

I decide to take the train from Seoul Station instead of staying on the subway back home. The train has more space normally and you're above ground. Lucky for me the train was not very full at all and I was able to sit down and spread out some....at least for a while. People got on the train at every stop but the was lot's of room to sit. An older man got on at one of the stops and for some reason decided to sit right next to me. There were many open seats and he sat right next to me. This didn't bother me though, like I've said space does not belong to anyone in this country. However, when he started to take off his shoes and then his socks I started to wish he sat somewhere else. When he started to rub his feet and put them way to close to me I really started to wish I had stayed on the subway. I won't describe this mans feet because I don't want the image to be burned in your brains the way it is burned in mine. But lets just say that if this old man was around 70 years old his feet must have been 120 years old. The smell still lingers in my nostrils, any suggestions on how to get rid of that?

That was my Korean weekend.....tears, food, sleeplessness, body checks and smells!