I was once sat in a coffee shop with a friend and we were discussing Korean people and the way they act/dress etc. The more intelligent of the two of us likened it to the film 'Pleasantville', in which Toby Macguire and Reese Whitherspoon (not with a fork, eh Dave?) get transported back to 1950's America. The likeness has nothing to do with, as I'm sure you're all thinking, the fact that everything is black and white (those grey tones being an affliction suffered far more by the country that I have just left) but by the way everybody dresses and acts in such an eerily old fashioned way.
Of course it is a very modern city, with a highly productive consumer system in place, and all of the regular American chains that you would expect to find in just about any city anywhere in the world, but the people in it are rather dated; the women will dress up to the nines, wrapping themselves in a sometimes unfeasible number of layers with far too many lacy and sparkly things all over the place; whether they are going to a nice restaurant for a family meal, out for a coffee, or to the shop for a loaf of bread. The men, though more lax in their dress, will still generally wear a shirt, possibly a tie and very often a suit. The younger generation may duck out on the suit, and will go for a more cutting, fashionable style; generally I think they go for Beckham, but end up looking like a French ponce.
But it is the behaviour that amazes me the most...there is such a difference between child Korean and adult Korean! The kids at my school, as much as I love them, can be absolutel helions at times...they will run about, throw things around, wreck any classroom you put them in and generally cause havoc...all very good, normal behaviour. But as soon as these kids hit 18 something weird happens to them, they suddenly discover these things called rules, and hold them more dear than anything. Sure, they know how to have fun; they can go crazy, rip it up with the best of us...but only within the known social norms and parameters, and only as long as nobody is really watching (a perfect example is the fact that you will never see a woman smoking on the street - it's frowned upon - but yet walk into any bar/coffee shop around [where the oldies don't go] and you'll find them all there, puffing away).
So it was to my delight that on my way into work this morning I came across this spectacle:
One of the more 'colourful' characters in my school had an apple, and deciding that he wasn't too hot on this as a breakfast option anymore, he tossed it into the road. With glee both him and his mate (and me behind them) looked up to see a bus approaching from around the corner, perfectly lined up to crush the apple. Unfortunately the bus driver had other ideas, and somehow managed to swerve in a way that meant the front wheel passed on the right, and the back wheel on the left of the apple, leaving it perfectly intact and rolling lazily around.
But wait! There's more excitement to come...as we carried on walking to school I noticed an old man out of the corner of my eye who began to cross the road, heading toward the apple. I couldn't really see his face much (he was wearing one of those silly face masks) but his eyes had a cheeky glint about them that could surely only mean one thing...? Yep! Sure enough the man looked back and forth to check that nothing was approaching, turned his walk into a jog, and then a faintly hobbled run, lined himself up....
'This is it!' I thought...I was actually getting excited at the thought of this little old man defying convention and booting this apple to kingdom come (or as far as his frail legs could allow). I could see him whacking it and winking at the kids like some kind of dubious old grandad on a worther ad, how the kids would revel in this display of free will...something so lacking in this country at times.
...and finally, the moment when boot and apple meet, when all my opinions of old Korean people are shattered and....
...wait...
...what the fuck is he doing...
...oh, for christ's sake...
And so I kept walking. Head down, iPod earphones firmly stuffed into my head I finished my trip into school forlorn, dissapointed. Because at that moment, the very second where it genuinely looked like he was going to make a nice clean, swift kick of it, the little old man stopped himself in his tracks, stooped down, picked up the apple, rubbed it down, placed it in his pocket and then turned to give the two (by now quite deflated) boys a stern look before continuing on his way.
And so the drivers of Dongsamdong are now saved of this tragedy in waiting, two young boys will continue inexorably toward a life of living by the rules, I still wait for the day when I see a display of a truly colourful nature in Korea, and the world will continue to turn.
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