While minding my own business...

So, in light of the fact that I haven't posted anything for the last 7 months, I now have a lot of stories to catch you up on!  And lets face it... nothing exciting happened today.  So here's a short story from March?  April?  Um... I'm not sure.  I know it was after February.  Anyway, here you go!

One day in March (or April), I rode my bike to the gym.  While riding, I had to stop at a traffic light.  (Traffic here is not well organized - I literally almost got run over by a motorcycle one day while rounding a corner ...on the sidewalk!)  Anyway...so I was stopped at an intersection.  There was a Korean woman standing next to me, talking on her cell phone.  Maybe in her late thirties, early to mid forties.  More or less, I have no idea.  It's pretty hard to judge a Korean woman's age for me.  Regardless, she ended her phone conversation and peered over at me.  "Oh, pretty girl!" she exclaimed.  Alright.  So that's a weird thing to say to a stranger.  I said hello.  She asked me where I was going.  Also weird.  I told her I was going to the gym.  She asked where.  Um...what?  I told her the neighborhood.  I don't know why.  It felt rude not to answer her.  But it was weird that she was asking  The light turned green and I started pedaling away.  Saved by the light!  Except not.  She started running alongside me.  "What's your naaammme?!?!?!?!" she shouts.  I looked over at her and told her my name.  Then I pedaled faster.  At that point she finally gave up and stopped running.  Well, she didn't really have a choice because she was quite out of breath from laughing uncontrollably.  I have no idea what provoked that encounter.  No idea why she had a laughing fit at the end.  Just... literally no idea.

On a similarly strange note:  I was walking home from a friend's house the other day and was once again impeded by the terrible traffic.  I was walking on the sidewalk in front of City Hall and had a car swerve directly in front of me and then stop.  I hardly glanced up because I'm pretty used to ridiculous driving like that now.  But as it turns out, the woman driving got out of her car and said, "Excuse me," in perfect English. That got my attention.  Supposedly there was a foreigner festival happening 5 or 10 minutes down the road and she was one of the coordinators for the event.  She invited me to come along and experience some traditional Korean foods and try on some clothing.  I thought it was polite.  Maybe a bit desperate.  Then she said I should get in her car.  Now, I know Korea is supposed to be safe.  And I know she was a woman.  But I distinctly remember being told to never get in a car with a stranger when I was little.  I turned her down, and she looked legitimately crushed.  She gave me her business card, though, and told me if I changed my mind, I should call her and she would come pick me up from wherever I was.  

I must say, I this culture can be very hard for me to read!