::A Geek in Korea::

My time spent in the affluent, education focused part of the city of Daejeon, is giving me distorted views of Korea. I don’t think about it often, but yesterday I had one of “those moments” where you know people are less likely to be around foreigners.

I got off the subway at one of the outlying stops not far from where the line ends. This isn’t a rural area or anything, but compared to my part of town it is new and a little less developed. There are still parking lots in spaces where buildings have yet to go up, and every since exterior space on each building around these parking lots isn’t covered in neon signs. In time, it will become part of the overdeveloped sprawl, but it’s not quite there yet.

Anyway, as I was taking an escalator out of the subway, two people, probably brothers, were on the steps in front of me. They were standing shoulder to shoulder, so I couldn’t get by. (I hate this.) I was listening to my mp3 player, but I could see the one boy turn around to see who was getting on the escalator a few steps behind them. The boy turned around, pretended to be doing something else, and then whispered in his companion’s ear, “THERE IS A FORIENGER BEHIND US! BE COOL, DON’T LOOK.”

It’s like in Indiana Jones, when someone would have a snake right by their head, and you didn’t want to panic the person by telling them they are in great danger, so you tell them to stay very still and hope for the danger to go away. You know, like telling the kid with a bee sting allergy to be still after you accidentally hit a bee’s hive with a football. I am the bee. Try not to disturb him, and he’ll leave us alone.

This sort of reaction amuses me. I don’t consider myself enough of a spectacle that I am worth being the object of such attention. I think of all the strange stuff I see that DOESN’T get a reaction, and really feel that the bar is set much lower for foreigners. I could be alone, minding my own business and I still get people hopping away from me when I sit down on the subway. (Shrug) Any open seat is a welcome one.

To be honest, I start to stare at other foreigners now myself. The low baggy pants wearing, heavily tattooed people stick out here so much that even I fixate on them these days. It’s not that I haven’t seen any of that, but it’s just not common, and I wonder how they deal with all that attention. There used to be a time when I could pass for one of those fresh out of college, “I don’t give a damn” sort of folks, but my job, and my desire to be upwardly socially mobile in Korea has hemmed in my choices. It’s not that I miss wearing pants the don’t fit me, but eventually I stopped fighting everything around me constantly. If clothes don’t define you, then you are still the same person if you wear pants that fit, or something that doesn’t.

That still doesn’t explain why I hate wearing suits, but that’s for some other introspective blogging post. Anyway, even at my most gawking moment, I don’t turn around and do a “Don’t look, be cool, don’t look,  but LOOK at THAT FREAK” sort of thing, even with my wife who enjoys the occasional spectacle. (We honestly did this way more in America than we ever did in Korea.)

Anyway, I knew the kid was going to be turning around. I took out my ear phones with both hands, threw my hands up, and went, “Oogoogly Boogoogly! Wooooo!” I just made a buch of nonsensical sounds and tried to act as CRAZY as possible until the two boys turned back around. They shot out from the escalator and looked back over their shoulders to see if I was following them. Not the most mature thing to do. If I fueled any anti-foreigner stereotypes, at least it wasn’t in a neighborhood I teach.