"why i'm awesome: part XXIV - missed connections" by claire white

ok ok ok

so 

SO

a lot of things happened this weekend

friday was michael's birthday

i realized i am by 10 years-ish the youngest person at work

age is funny

it doesn't seem to matter tootoo much anymore

we went to a very fancy beer place

then a semi-fancy one with a HORRIBLE live Filipino (i have no idea how to spell that) band

and one middle-aged Filipino man would not leave me alone

like as in i started to get angry

ok ok ok

so here's the deal

all this strange attention is incredibly flattering

but i know it's often not even about me

because they say almost immediately,

"from america?"

which is fine, but it's the WAY they say it,

        americans OBVIOUSLY are sluts

like that's what they think

thanks hollywood

but it's the same deal as all the white bros tryin to score some asian ladies

(remember that sex workers' art show performance with the hello kitty anyone?)

like it really is starting to weird me out 

how people objectify women in a racial way

it's super creepy but it doesn't seem to bother most people.

that being said, i love the way korean boys act with me

they're so shy and when one comes up to me, he'll say, "hi! how are you? where are you from?" and then kind of giggle. "ok! nice to meet you!" and like try to shake my hand usually offering his left hand. korean boys are total sweethearts and the most action they try to get is hand-holding, which is done totally expertly here. i think it helps that friends hold hands.

after those TWO places, we (the korean ladies and michael and me) met up with the other foreigner teachers at a bar with giant pirate statues. and they ordered six foot tall skinny keg things? 

THEN we went out to eat some snacks at a traditional korean place

the sun was coming up.

SATURDAY

i went with tanya to hongdae to see her husband's band

they were great!

and the korean band was freaking awesome

and played a kind of rolling stonesy / then kind of punk rock "hound dog"

there i met this great girl from seattle who was a music major in college and blah blah blah and we have the same interests and she's actually smart and nice(!) which doesn't always happen with interest twins.

THEN we all went out to a cool music request bar called "woodstock"(??)

then tanya and i went home "early" at 2 and we found me a dumpster easy chair that kind of smells like old lady and smoke but i've been febreezing the crap out of it!!! there's still hope!!

TODAY!

i decided to go to korea's biggest aquarium

it was on the subway line 

BUT IT TOOK TWO HOURS!!

ok but here's the thing!

this is the thing

the thing is!

i had my first real missed connection!

maybe it's just that emily's letter got me thinking about missed connections and their wonder that i started thinking that way

but oh my goodness.

this man

was perfect

he had a grace, a masculine elegance

that i'd never before seen outside of old movies

he looked maybe middle eastern, with bright blue eyes, a great regal nose, little smile crinkles around his eyes, and salt and pepper hair

(ok, ok! he was significantly older than me, but just soooo quietly magnetic)

i felt like i knew him from somewhere

like he was an actor or a prince or something

but i just couldn't figure it out.

i was so drawn to him i felt like i HAD to look

so i kept sneaking peeks and i caught him sneaking peeks at me too

and we even had some eye contact(!)

first he was standing near where i was sitting

and he even sucked in his negligible gut for me (oh, yes, the gut-suck was for me) while pretending to smooth his shirt, which totally killed me. 

then, some seats opened up, and instead of sitting in the seat right by where he was standing,

he sat in the seat directly across from me

but then i got all nervous, because looking at him was sooooo obvious then.

when he got to his stop, we kind of smiled at each other in a kind of sad half-smiley way and 

that 

was that.

i just can't even explain

like it wasn't even that he was insanely good-looking or styled out or anything,

he just had something special.

and you could just TELL.

you could just tell that he was a great man 

he seemed like a king, the good kind, the really compassionate, wise kind of king in old stories

who dresses down a bit and rides the subway to be amongst his peoples undetected.

he was THAT COOL.

and i'm sure he was totally entranced by me, too, haha.

has anyone else had any dorky experiences like this?

so yeah, the loooong ride wasn't so bad, haha!

and it was worth it, anyway.

the aquarium was great.

i'll post pics later!

it was in a gigantic underground mall

that was eerie in a pleasant way with colored light passages 

 i ate a fantastic western dinner at the HYUNDAI DEPARTMENT STORE!!

CARS AND HIGH FASHION OMG

they sell verrrryyyyy expenisive things there

like prada and fendi and marc jacobs and chanel

it's insane!

then i went home and cleaned and organized my apartment

I'M AWESOME