Second to being unable to read or speak Korean, the lack of ethnic diversity is the most difficult thing to get used to around here. I usually see no more than five non-Koreans in a day. I don't blend in too well with my blonde hair and comparatively pointy nose, so people tend to stare at me. I know they talk about me in Korean; they tend to think I will be oblivious if they cover their mouths and speak in a hushed voice while staring directly at me, but I'm not really bothered because they're not too offensive or threatening.
Well, most of them at least. The other day I was followed home by some older guy in an SUV. I was walking my usual route back from school and had turned off the main boulevard. I'm on a two lane street with stores and apartments on my right and a church and rice paddies on my left. As I pass the cat shop, a silver SUV honks its horn loudly, but people do that often enough around here that it doesn't phase me.
I keep walking and see the same SUV parked up ahead. It starts driving again once I walk past. I glance out of the corner of my eye to see the driver slow down and stare at me. I figure he's just gawking at my non-Koreanness, but he stares for an awfully long time. I turn and stare directly back at him and he speeds up, continuing down the street. I get suspicious and take my headphones out.
At the intersection where I turn right to walk through the fish and meat market, the SUV is parked on the side of the road again. I glare directly at the driver as I walk past him and cross the street. As I continue walking on the left side, he's slowly driving on the right, still staring at me. Then he waves at me - he's not being friendly because no one does that here and he's reeking of "creeper". I do nothing. He does it again. I keep walking, resisting the instinctual urge to flash him a rude gesture or tell him to f*&% off.
The guy follows me the entire length of the block, then turns down the street I normally take a left on. He parks right in front of Family Mart, fifty feet from my apartment building. I stand on the corner, debating whether or not to risk it or take a shortcut. I choose the latter and alter my route, walking half a block up, cutting through a construction site, and taking the back alleys. Aaand the "Creeper of the Day" award goes to silver SUV guy!
But that's not the point of today's entry. I've only been followed home once, I've been stared at countless times, and I've been asked (randomly on the bus) where I'm from. Only once has a Korean approached me, been openly friendly, and started chatting.
Today I was walking down the main boulevard coming back from E-Mart after doing a little shopping. I passed a tall, thin, and very beautiful young Korean woman with her Starbucks Frappuccino and thought she looked like one of the Korean flight attendants. Only seconds later I hear, "'Scuse me! 'Scuse me!" And the young woman comes up to me with a little notebook. She hands it to me and says, "Hi. You can please read?" It's a rough draft of an application letter... for a job as a flight attendant. According to her draft, her name is "Ji Young Seo and that is dandelion the flower."
She asks me if there are any mistakes (there were a few) and if I could please correct them for her. Then she asks if I am Canadian, what I am doing in Korea, and what my phone number is because she wants to thank me by taking me out for coffee. I give her my email, she thanks me again, I wish her luck, and off she goes. That encounter took me completely by surprise and brightened my stressful day.
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