Afterwards, we headed over to Yeouido Park to walk around a bit, and then get some dinner. After touring around a bit I needed to use the washroom. While I was in the washroom a 20-something Korean girl started following Julianne around.
Julianne says that she kept within 1-3 feet of her the entire time I was in the washroom and Julianne was trying to escape and evade Nut-girl. Also, Nut-girl kept doing something on her cell phone the entire time she was stalking Julianne.
Julianne kept trying to walk away from this girl to put distance between them but Nut-girl kept following her.
I come out of the washroom and immediately see something is wrong. Julianne looks extremely uncomfortable. I ask her, "What's wrong?" She says, "Let's just get out of here."
I look around, and repeat my question while noticing the same girl I had seen standing behind Julianne when I went to the washroom (even then something had registered with me but not enough at the time for me to stay with Julianne to help her deal with whatever was going on). Nut-girl was now 3 feet away from us, and when I stopped Julianne and turned to see why she was in such a rush to get away from the area Nut-girl rapidly approached me and said,
"Do you have weed?"
I said, "WHAT?! GET OUT OF HERE! NA GA RA! ANIO! NA GA!"
She repeats the question, "Weed?"
I say, "GO AWAY! ARE YOU CRAZY?!"
I turn and grab Julianne's hand and we start walking away--with Nut-girl following close behind.
I decide to walk up to what looks like a park security booth. I tell the 20-something guy (not a good sign: young, no English skills, and looks confused before I start speaking to him, argh) that a crazy girl is following me in limited Korean. I point at the girl who has paused about 10 feet away . . . she smiles---NUTS!
I walk away with Julianne after seeing that security-baby doesn't have enough English, and I don't have enough Korean, to deal with the problem.
While leaving the park I see her talking to security-baby . . . and I increase the pace Julianne and I are walking at . . .
Luckily we didn't see Nut-girl again as we left the park.
Seriously--this is one of the weirdest things I've experienced in the 4+ years I've now been in Korea.
Now here's the question: Did this girl have some kind of mental problem? Was she an undercover narcotics agent for the Korean cops? Had she just watched too many movies and memorized the wrong English to start a conversation with a foreigner? Or . . . what?
Feel free to offer theories about this cause I have no idea what the hell was going on . . . NUTS!
NUTS!
J
The reality is that you will never know the real reason why. One of the many aspects I too experience here in Korea.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is no matter what the reason, she was still crazy for just asking you in the first place oh and following you around.
"The reality is" her reality was F'd up.
ReplyDeleteI already know I will never know the reason why, but thanks for reminding me of that, lol.
I was more interested in people being creative and funny in their comments here about what her mindset and/or motivations might have been . . .
So, my questions still stands: What was going on in her head?
J
She probably thought that the probability of a white person having weed on their person was high. Seeing as how often you see news stories of foreign language teachers get caught possessing illegal substances, this doesn't strike me as odd.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is something like this.
ReplyDeleteShe once had a westerner boy friend and somehow was exposed and then intoxicated to "weed". But they broke up when he cheated her dating a westerner girl who resembles Julianne. Julianne reminded her bad memories and she decided to revenge by stalking her and asking “weed” in public to embarrass her.
Just a joke. But you know, Korea has zero tolerance about drug problem so it must be very difficult for her to get some. That's why I guess she had some bad relationship before. Who knows?
Anyway, how the cherry blossoms?
She wanted to see your wee wee, not weed! :P
ReplyDeleteOkay . . . so far Amanda's comment wins for most funny and most original!
ReplyDeleteI was sooooo not expecting what you wrote Amanda--naughty girl! Good Man should be notified so he have a chance to give one of his awesome one-liner insights into English culture.
Thanks for the comments everyone.
J
p.s. The cherry blossoms were very beautiful. I will admit, though, that this year I didn't really enjoy them that much (compared with previous years). I took about 300 pics, and I'll try to edit and post some of the better ones this week.
edit mercilessly, Jason. I only want to see the absolute best 280.
ReplyDelete"edit mercilessly"?
ReplyDeleteI'll try . . . but I seem to have issues not putting every angle, view, slightly different detail picture up . . . lol.
I'll try . . .
J
That girl probably had a mental defect. Then again I put nothing past the korean "police" system here. She could've been living her 21 Jumpstreet dreams.
ReplyDeletedianoga wrote:
ReplyDeleteShe probably thought that the probability of a white person having weed on their person was high. Seeing as how often you see news stories of foreign language teachers get caught possessing illegal substances, this doesn't strike me as odd.
I think something like that may be what was going on, but not exactly for the last reason.
When homosexuality was still completely closeted in Korea, my then-roommate, a very tall Caucasian dude, was regularly getting propositioned in random subway locations (a couple times a month), even though there was no gay vibe from this guy at all.
Why would a propositioner do that? Easy: If that's what someone is looking for, a non-Korean-looking dude would seem to be more likely to be open to it, and if they're not, they're likely to not be able to say anything loud to embarrass the guy making the proposition.
This girl wanted weed (do Koreans say "weed"? That makes me guess she lived abroad) and on a weekend the White guy might be a sympathetic soul who has some or knows where to get some and, more importantly, will probably not be inclined or able to rat her out to the Korean cops. A no-lose situation.
Another possibility is that she had heard there's some foreign guy down at Yoido selling weed and she thought it might be you.
Either that or she was trying to say "Do you half with?" which is Konglish for a threesome (with = together, half = sharing). Dude, you blew it.