Musings from the House of Jinju

ON MAN LOVE

Not only is there no "unspoken rule" about personal space here, as there is back in the States, but there is also no assumption of homosexuality when two males, young or old, want to hold hands, put their arms around one another, or even spoon. Yes, spoon. Some things I've seen in my students:

One boy sitting on another boy's lap. Boy on bottom's arms wrapped around boy on top's waist, hands clasped.

Boy walking down the hall with arm around the shoulders of other boy.

Boy one sitting behind boy two. Boy one leans forward in his desk and puts his arms around boy two's neck, hands clasped.

Boy one and boy two laying together on a few desks pushed together--spooning. Literally.

It's great. We should really loosen up back home...

ON BUS DRIVERS

They're crazy. But, crazy in a very different way than the bus drivers I experienced in Guatemala, who were "I'm-about-to-die crazy." The crazy bus drivers here are just a step up from the already terrible drivers that make up most of Korean drivers...

BUT, I never thought they were crazy AND mean, until recently:

I was in the back of the bus with about ten other foreign friends on our way to the mountains for a nice weekend hike up one of Korea's taller peaks. It was a solid 3ish hour ride and we left early Saturday morning so a nap sounded more than appropriate (not to mention, the past few nights had been a little late--it had been a rough few weeks for many of us and admittedly, we literally wanted to drink our sorrows and frustrations away; healthy, we know).

My friend Paul was in the seat across the aisle from me and had spent the previous half hour stretched out with his feet in my seat. It was my turn next, so I took my shoes off and put my feet across the aisle, put my headphones on and got comfortable. Just as I got to that half-asleep, half-awake phase, I sensed something...

The bus had come to a complete halt. I opened my eyes to find the bus driver standing over me. I ripped the headphones out of my ears because he was looking straight at me. I suddenly realized that he was yelling at me, and angry. VERY angry. This man was literally yelling at me out of anger (and it definitely wasn't just a Gyeongnam way of speech, as they often sound angry when they speak--he was ANGRY). I didn't actually understand the words he was saying, but as I continue to find out the more I'm in countries that speak languages other than my own, one doesn't necessarily need to know words to know what somebody is actually saying. He yelled at me to sit up, face forward and put my shoes back on. Every single one of us was completely taken aback, and didn't know how to react to this situation. Naturally, I sat up and put my shoes on and the bus driver walked away and started driving again.

We were doing nothing wrong, and I will stand by that until the day I die. However, this man was scary enough that any time he even so much as looked back at us in his rear-view mirror, we all sat up a little straighter in our seats and shut our mouths.

When I got off the bus I made sure to tell him thank you in Korean and "Have a nice day" in English. And of course, I flashed the biggest, kindest smile I could...