Saturday, September 6, 2008

Am I Famous?

So I get stared at a lot... A LOT. Typically I don't mind, and sometimes I don't even notice. Christian points it out to me. But the funniest thing is when Koreans come up to me and treat me like I'm the $5 they unexpectedly found in their pocket. They are just thrilled to see me. Well here are some examples. Last weekend I was at a subway station waiting for Christian and this teenage boy came up to me and started talking to me in English asking me where I'm from, and what I do in Korea and how I like it here. In this situation I think he was just wanting to practice his English, which was fine with me. He spoke very well. Then earlier this week I was at the grocery store that is in the same building as my school. I was just buying a drink and about 6 middle school girls saw me and just smiled so big and kind of gasped in surprise when they first saw me. They giggled to each other and then one of them said hello to me. I smiled and said hello to her, and they all just lost it. They started cracking up and just going crazy. Then I got what I needed and started heading to the check out and one girl said goodbye and I told her goodbye and they lost it again. Then the best one so far... this morning I was at the bus stop waiting for my bus listening to my ipod and this man came up to me and shook my hand and said "San Francisco". I was a bit confused and I thought he was telling me he had been to San Francisco. And I was like, "Oh, you've been to San Francisco" and then he said something else to me that I couldn't understand. Then I realized he was asking me where I was from. So I told him, "Atlanta, Georgia", this whole time he's still shaking my hand. Well apparently being from Georgia was all he wanted to know so he smiled real big and then walked away. It's so funny sometimes that I'm such a novelty to them.

Pray that I would begin to pick up more and more Korean. I love so much going to the Orphanage, I've been three times now, but it's also frustrating that I can't communicate well with the children. I know a few phrases like hello, thank you, and some other words, but not enough to really communicate with them. I know it will take lots of time and practice, but I want to be disciplined to learn it and patience in the mean time. Christian found a free Korean Class that we are going to try to join next week, so hopefully I'll be able to learn quicker than just fumbling through on my own.

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