I took a cab down the street to the local Lotte Mart to do a shitload of shopping for the upcoming week. Not wanting to spend myself into bankruptcy by hitting restaurants every day, I decided to grab enough food to last me about five days, and to get some baby items which I can take along with me to Inch'eon in a few days.
The cab ride is usually barely a minute, and tonight's ride up to the store was no exception. The driver, however was nuts.
"YOU A SOLDIER?" he boomed in Korean. Old guy, big smile.
"No; I teach at Smoo," I said.
"AT FIRST I THOUGHT YOU WERE KOREAN!" boomed the driver.
"My mother's Korean," I said.
"YOU LIKE MARIAH CAREY?" he boomed, then cranked up the CD player or radio or whatever it was without waiting for an answer. Mariah Carey sang some bit of high-decibel love fluff.
"HOW OLD ARE YOU? HOW OLD ARE YOU?" he yelled, first in Korean, then in English.
"Thirty-seven, in American age," I said.
"ME-- SIXTY-TWO!" the driver shouted. "SOON--" he made the universal choke/rattle sound signifying death. Then he cackled.
"No, no," I said, "You're gonna live a long time!"
He laughed at that. Then he shouted, "DO YOU KNOW--" and named a series of Western pop stars.
At this point I was just nodding. I interrupted him to ask, "Have you lived in America?"
"NO, BUT I'VE LIVED IN... KOREA!!" he screamed, then cackled some more.
We pulled up to Lotte Mart and I said my usual, "Sorry for the short drive; take an extra thousand won."
The driver's parting shot to me was a vigorous thumbs-up and a gleefully barked, "YOU! FUSION KOREAN!"
I assume he was referring to my being of mixed race.
I like that term. Fusion Korean.
That's gonna have to go on a CafePress mug. But I won't be selling a mug to that driver: he's already got too much coffee in his system.
_
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Mr.Toad's wild ride
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
READ THIS BEFORE COMMENTING!
All comments are subject to approval before they are published, so they will not appear immediately. Comments should be civil, relevant, and substantive. Anonymous comments are not allowed and will be unceremoniously deleted. For more on my comments policy, please see this entry on my other blog.
AND A NEW RULE (per this post): comments critical of Trump's lying must include criticism of Biden's lying on a one-for-one basis! Failure to be balanced means your comment will not be published.