This morning, I was walking to school, listening to my iPod as is my wont. As I was climbing the hill to get to my school, a police car drives past me and pulls over up ahead. I don't really think too much about this, because...it's a car pulling over. Who even notices that? Well the policeman gets out of his car, and starts walking toward me.
ME (bowing): Annyeong haseyo
ME (in my head): ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrap whatdoidowhatdoidowhatdoidowhatdoido
OFFICER: Are you very busy?
ME: Oh, I am walking to school right now
ME (in my head): oh god no now he's talking to me
So then the officer beckons me into the backseat of his car. His POLICE car. Now I don't know about you, but the backseat of police cars is neither a place I have spent much time, nor a place I WANT to spend much time. So mentally I'm FLIPPING OUT at this point.
Anyway he starts talking to me, asking the standard Korean questions for when you first meet a person: "What do you do?" "How old are you?" "Are you single?" "How's your sex life?" (I'm only kidding a little about the last one, very few people have asked me that). Of course the natural American response is "Are you coming on to me??" but here in Korea these questions are just a way of putting you in the social hierarchy.
As we're talking, two things happen: first, it comes out that he just wants to practice his English. Which, great. I know I'm here to be an English teacher, and I don't mind talking to you, but I'm seriously on my way to my job for which I do NOT want to be late, thank you very much!
The second, and more distressing, thing that happens is that we drive past my school. JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL. Turns out that he misunderstood me and thought I was teaching at Osan University. Wonderful. After much negotiation, and my one post-it note with the address of my school on it, he understands that I am an elementary school teacher and drops me off at school. Late*. Wonderful.
I gave him my email address, and I think he wants to email me to have a conversation time, so I guess I made a new friend...yay?
*I was only five minutes late, and we are supposed to be at school 20 minutes before class starts, so this only really cut into my prep time before class. Still sucky, but not the worst thing in the world.
Dude, he's a cop. Couldn't he have written you a pass or something?
ReplyDeleteAlso, you did not mention how old he was. Is this Korean grandpa material? Or is he more like your crazy Korean uncle?
Please give me all the facts, sir.
Too funny! Wonder if he had any clue what was going through your mind??!
ReplyDeleteAhahahaha!!! You were late to clas!!!! And you made a new friend....hopefully not a creepy one either.
ReplyDeleteWhen ANYTHING cuts into my prep time in the morning, I'm livid--but that's mostly because I hate mornings and I always have too much to do before class starts. Being accosted by a random police officer in a foreign country must be its own special type of terror. I get a similar (though almost certainly less potent) when angry parents yell at me in Spanish.
ReplyDeleteOn the plus side, cop-friends in a foreign country are a GOOD thing.
ReplyDelete