I've Been Tagged! Six Random Things About Me Today

When Holly tagged me and I needed to come up with six random things about myself TODAY, I thought I would struggle with the list. I really don't find myself that interesting but here goes. Little did I know that leaving my apartment today would give me plenty of things to talk about. Only in South Korea:

1. Why am I not bothered that my cleaning lady dresses better than me? These are the shoes she wore today. I don't even own a pair that look like this. I met her at the door in a t-shirt and jeans. She wore a very smart looking black outfit. This to clean my home. It just makes me think I should step it up a bit.

2. I needed to go to the post office so I left the apartment building by the front entrance instead of the usual back entrance. There are small businesses in most of the storefronts with a few that are empty. As a passed one of the empty stores, I noticed a golf bag with no one around it. As I actually passed by the bag, I looked up to see an older Korean man inside the empty store practicing his golf swing WITHOUT A GOLF CLUB IN HIS HANDS. I stopped to see if my eyes were playing tricks on me. He looked at me as he took another swing. I hightailed it out of there. Now am I the only one who thought that was strange?

3. At the corner of our street is a police station. I often wonder what the police do here in Suwon. I know they don't arrest red light runners. As I waited for the light to change (which takes FOREVER), I saw a police car drive into the station. There are always two officers in the vehicle. The officer that was driving got out and then the other officer got out of the back seat of the car. He then reached in and grabbed an older Korean man. An officer each took an arm of the Korean and forced the Korean into the station. The Korean was clearly fighting and trying to break the hold each officer had on him. I was first surprised to see that one of the officers sat in the backseat with the suspect. We don't do that in the U.S. The second surprise was that I actually saw the police doing something.

4. I crossed the street and proceeded to the post office. I've been there at least once a month since we have moved and I still get the terrified looks when I walk in. I am getting used to it. Today when I walked in, I was the only customer. The postal clerk looked at me and smiled as she beckoned me up to the counter. Wait a minute, am I in the right place? It was so wonderful to be treated like a normal person. I left with a smile.

5. I left the post office and I approached the corner to cross the street. An older Korean man on a bicycle was stopped at the corner. He began to start pedaling directly at me. This is not the first time I've had to dodge a bike or a scooter or a Korean pedestrian for that matter. I try to anticipate which way they are going and move in the opposite direction. This guy was having none of it and headed straight for me. I just stopped to see if he would really hit me. He stopped less than a foot from me and started yelling at me in Korean. I took off my sunglasses and told him in Korean that I didn't understand him. He started using his hands to gesture something about my feet and I kept repeating that I don't understand. We had caught the attention of other Koreans waiting to cross the street. This was going nowhere fast so I bowed and said goodbye in Korean and walked as the light changed for me to cross. I wasn't sure if he would follow me but I kept walking. I don't know if my tennis shoes irritated him or what it was. I was just minding my own business.

6. I didn't have yoga today so I needed to kill some time before the cleaning lady left. I went to Home Plus and got a few things. I still had about an hour to kill so I returned to our apartment and decided to sit in the playground area and work on my maedeup. After about a half an hour, a mother with her little toddler came up. When she saw me, she immediately came over and wanted her son to say hello to me. He was a cutie and I told her so. She said thank you in English. After they left, I thought, this would never happen to me back home. I think I may just miss all the attention of being different brings. It brings good and bad at times.