The best part of vacation

A few weeks ago was a big Korean holiday called Chuseok.  Chuseok is a time when Korean families get together to express thanks for the good things in their lives and to honor their deceased family members.  From what I understand they eat a lot of food together and enjoy each other's company.  Everyone gets at minimum a three day weekend and at most a five day weekend.  It's really nice and highly anticipated.

Chuseok is also a time when foreign teachers go on vacation and get away from their Korean homes for a bit.  And that's what I did.

I went with a foreign teacher friend from Danyang, Rose, and a tour group to an island off the west coast of Korea called Deokjeokdo (do means island).  During our vacation we mostly just napped and ate ice cream.  Those are my two favorite things to do on vacation, so I was happy with it.  The trip was incredibly relaxing and I enjoyed every minute of it.

But this blog is not about exciting, relaxing adventures.  Because those things are boring.  This blog is about awkward encounters in new places.  So now I must deliver.

Right before we left the island, the group was sitting around waiting for the ferry.  I was quietly eating chips by myself (the third thing I did on vacation was eat chips, seriously, I ate so many bags of chips) when all of a sudden a Korean man came up to Rose who was sitting across from me and asked if he could take her picture.

Rose is the friend that was with me when I got paparrazzi'ed before and she was equally uncomfortable in this situation.  All of the other foreigners in the group just stared at her like "What are you going to do?" and I said, "Just say yes," with a glint in my eye.

The man stood behind her and gave me his phone.  His friend came over and also handed me his phone and then I snapped both pictures.  Both men were grinning and so happy and poor Rose just looked like she wanted a hole to open up in the ground and swallow her.  One foreigner told her not to look so constipated.

The Korean men sat back down and started talking to each other.  Then one of the foreigners in the group, who apparently speaks Korean, translated what they said.  I guess the two Korean men had previously been talking about girls and saying "She's my style", "She's more my style", blah blah, but the foreigner didn't know who exactly they were talking about.  After the men got their photo they sat down and this conversation happened:

Man 1 to Man 2: "Are you happy now?"
Man 2:  "Yea!  I'm super happy!"
Man 1:  "I'm so glad I studied English so I could talk to her."

How cute is that?!  Ok, maybe cute isn't the right word, but it's at least a little bit funny.  Plus, it gives me a good idea for how to motivate my students to learn English.  To pick up girls!