In the last two weeks I've been asked out for drinks by two 50+ (Korean) gentlemen and had one hold my hand for a prolonged period of pun (minutes in Korean...couldn't resist the alliteration) .
Aaaah.
The first one was dnabsuh s'ssob ym. Amy thinks he has a crush on me. The second one was late at night when I was taking pictures in the park, and a 50 something man wandered over to practice his English. He wanted to talk about photography which was cool
, but then he pulled out a super creepy line "we should, go deeper, how we, have deep relationship?" and said he had a nice place we should go for drinks.....I hastily remembered that I was supposed to be meeting someone else......Or course being me, I felt bad the rest of the night for turning down Mr Creeper.
I wish I wasn't wired that way...its lose lose, either humour Mr. Creeper even though I don't want to, or feel bad for maybe hurting him and saying no.....
Anyway, moving on the handholding incident....I was hiking in the mountains last weekend (see previous posts) and in a hurry, trying to make up the 3km that lay between me and my friends before night fell in an hour........so I was flying past hiker after hiker....and
Much to my chagrin, one reached out and grabbed my hand and started enthusiastically babbling away.....and singing....even the Korean hikers thought he was weird....once he had me in tow, the songs were all english.....he did a rendition of Rocky Mountain High by John Denver when he found out were I was from, and tried to speak German with me, before realizing that Dutch wasn't Deutsch. Not much loss, as his German consisted only of Guten Dag.....
I briefly escaped at one steep point where he needed both hands, but my escape route was cut off and he quickly latched on again. Curses.
Eventually I was able to wriggle free and speed off into the distance. Keeping him behind me was good motivation for pushing myself on ahead........
As a footnote, the guys handholding is something they do here, so don't worry, its not actually that creepy.....just a funny cultural difference....
3 comments:
That's so funny ... the guys in Rwanda do the whole hand-holding thing to. But they don't keep holding on if it's obvious you dont' want them too. Nor do they sing John Denver songs ...
Maybe not John Denver, but how 'bout Celine Dion? I'd prefer 'Calypso' to 'My Heart Will go On'...
-Uncle Bill
Personally, I'm comfortable with teaching them a little Western culture and punching him in the face....and then apologizing with the misunderstanding. I'm not thinking you need to endure things you are uncomfortable with, even if it's "normal" for that culture or person. But I'm not a diplomat. Dad
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