I'm a Barbie Girl, apparently..

Sorry for the lack of updates since I've gotten back to Korea. The flight was fine, the bus ride was ...ok, and getting back to work has been normal. Two exciting things (you could say) happened this weekend, and I realized that I seem to be a hot commodity in Korea (well, as long as the Koreans are drunk or crazy. Or both.)

Last Friday night the CUA crew met up in Itaewon to exchange Christmas and New Years stories over dinner at Santorini's (a VERY good Greek restaurant). After dinner we were walking to a bar to for a drink and this drunk Korean girl comes from behind us and shouts "Hello Barbie Girl! Happy New Year!!" ... So I waved and said hello thinking she'd leave, no harm done. Nope. Then she came up, shouting "Wow! Beautiful! Really Barbie. Really!" And then asked to touch my hair. Thinking it would make her leave I had a moment of weakness and said sure.. she SCRATCHED my head, gave me a hug, and started kissing me on the cheek. She wouldn't leave till I kissed her on the cheek. yea. It was strange to say the least. But hey, she was happy.

The next day, I was walking to the bus stop to meet Andrea, Kirsten and Liz at a travel agent. While I was waiting to cross the street I noticed a scruffy looking Korean man sort of twirling on and off of the curb. So, as one does with strange people on the street, I ignored him. Well, that seemed to really amuse him and, I kid you not, he began to follow me. And I don't just mean he went to the bus stop and hung out. I mean he was like my SHADOW. I believe he really was harmless but if nothing else it was so aggravating. He was in my face and shouting God knows what at the top of his lungs. I don't know why, but none of the Koreans around me were even trying to stop him. I missed my bus because I was trying to avoid him (you really have to flag them down here) so that meant I had another 15 minutes to spend with him while I waited for the next one. Well he really loved that and sat right down next to me. It got to the point where I couldn't hold it in and I finally yelled "Ka!!" which means go in Korean. That only got him more excited and he shouted some more. I actually tried to shoo him... which didn't work. One younger girl did try to help me and distracted him when my bus came, but he noticed, and GOT ON THE BUS AFTER ME! I wasn't too shocked when he got off at my stop, he'd come this far already. I couldn't help but laugh when I saw my friends and told them, "So here's the guy that's following me." It was so awkward. He was sure excited to now have four girls to follow around and started playing shadow again. I knew that just going into a coffee place or something wouldn't work because he was likely to just sit down next to us! So we went into a police station and explained our situation to the officers, which they found pretty amusing. We waited a while and when he didn't leave, the cops told us that we could go, and they would make sure he didn't follow us. The whole time we were inside the crazy man was standing outside with a huge grin on his face, seemingly pretending to be on of the cops and standing in rank with them ...?! As two cops held him back while we left he shouted back at us, I'm sure saying goodbye or something .... strange.

Both of these incidents are only more funny when you factor in that they happened to me - the person who hates making friends with strangers. I'm sorry, I don't know you, nor do I care to, I don't feel obligated to chat with you while we both wait for ... anything. And these two whackjobs I met only SUPPORT me in that decision as they were both crazy and best to be avoided. Good grief. Only in Korea!!