Woman vs. Car

Korea, being the tiny little densely populated country that it is, not only packs it's people like sardines, but also it's people's cars. Every car has a little tag inside displaying the owner's cell phone number in case that car is blocking another car in. And, if this in fact is the case, the car is always conveniently left in neutral to allow others to push around at their leisure.

Take my school's parking lot, for example. Everyday there are about five cars parked in the middle of the small parking lot perpendicular to the rows of cars that are actually parked in a legit space, thus blocking in a number of cars. Well today, my co-teacher and I had to leave early for a meeting at the Office of Education. Not so surprisingly, her car was blocked in. There were four cars lined up front to back that needed to be moved. She thought it best to move the two on the left, toward the exit of the parking lot, rather than the two on the right and toward the school. Fair enough.

We start to push the outside car away from the center. A nice, smooth, easy roll. No problem! I was actually pretty excited to be participating in my first car-moving-shuffle-puzzle (makes me think of those games where you slide little numbered squares around in a larger square until you get them in the right order).

But suddenly, just as I was thinking about how fun it would be to just go around moving cars around all day, the car started rolling fast. OF COURSE! We were on a decline, the car heading right toward the exit of the parking lot, into the street and SMACK into the side of another car. My co-teacher and I ran around to the back and used all our might to stop the car from rolling any further (mind you, she's a tiny little Korean woman).

We were able to make it stop about 20 feet before it got to the street. We just held it there together, laughing and looking at each other. She thought it a good idea to LEAVE ME ALONE, holding the car (which still reeeaaalllly wanted to keep rolling backwards) while she went to solicit the help of some of our students.

For what felt like about five minutes, but in actuality was probably only about 90 seconds, I used all of my isometric force to hold the car in place. Yes, it was me vs. the car. I toyed around with letting it roll back a bit, hoping it would slow down, but had no luck. I then tried to muster up all my strength and, all in one motion, push the car forward. I got it moving, but not fast enough to keep it going before it started rolling back down again.

"Hurry!" I yelled toward my co-teacher, who was now out of sight.

All I could envision at this point was the car winning this battle and me having to choose between letting it smash into the little tin-can car that was in its direct path, or maintaining my stubborn and wannabe tough-girl personality and continuing to try to stop it, despite it's gaining speed (the latter in which I would have also ended up smashed like a sardine myself between the two cars).

Luckily, just in time, the woman who runs the little toasted sandwich shop across the street came running over in her red apron and red hat at the same time as my co-teacher, and the three of us were able to combine our muscle power and push the car back up to a full stop.

This cultural and logistical practice makes perfect sense, but I can only imagine how many accidents actually occur because somebody pushes a car downhill. Then again, maybe not...

Lesson learned: Cars are VERY heavy. Even little Korean cars.