Remember my American-girlfriend-seeking, cheesecake-bearing, potential stalker, Hee Soo? (No? Well refresh your memory here and here.) Anyway, here are my updates on the topic - although most of this happened several weeks ago, and I simply didn't bother posting.
One night, maybe two weeks at the most after his initial visit, he sowed up at my door at around 11:00pm. Now, we all know that I'm pretty anti-social, and I'm never particularly thrilled by surprise visits by close friends when I'm preparing to go to bed... and I certainly had no desire to open the door to some dude I'd met only once before. Seriously, at least come when the sun's out! So, even though the lights and television were on, I sat very still and waited for him to leave. For all he knew, I'd fallen asleep in front of the TV. Or was taking a shower. Or had popped 'round to the corner store, and wasn't actually in doors. Now, several jobs ago, I had to knock on a lot of doors... and I knocked on many where I knew for a fact that someone was home. But hey, if no one answered my knocks, I'd leave a little note and skeedaddle. This fellow beat on my door for something like 15 minutes! I was definitely a little freaked out.
About a week or so later, he came by again. This time it was around 8:30pm, and he happened to enter the yard (the gate often isn't closed all the way) right as I was closing my balcony window - damn! Been spotted! Well, I needed to return the plate he brought the cheesecake on anyway. I gave him the plate and he asked if I wanted to go have coffee; I said no, perhaps some other time. And I gave him my cell phone number. (Nothing says I have to answer the damn thing if he calls, right?) He said he'd call me in two weeks (?) and we would go have coffee. Um...
Well, he never called, and to be honest, I was quite relieved. I'm all for welcoming the foreigner into the community and bringing her cake, but I'm always turned off by people who are interested in dating people of a specific race. I don't actually mean people who are only interested in dating those of their own race, although I'm not a fan of xenophobia either. I'm referring to the person who, for whatever reason, decides to look for a boyfriend/girlfriend in a specific other race or nationality. Like Hee Soo, wanting an American girlfriend.
See, I am very different from the average American... but to someone interested in finding "an American girlfriend" would that matter? Would he care if I were liberal or conservative? A Christian or an atheist? Wealthy or poor? Intelligent or moronic? Would he be just as interested in the American version of the complete opposite of me? Or have these questions never occurred to him? Probably not. I'd venture that someone on a quest for an American boyfriend or girlfriend either A) Has a preconceived notion of what all Americans are like (and trust me kids, I'm probably not gonna fit it) or B) Wants a US passport. Either way, I don't want to be involved.
But, it seems that I'm not going to have to worry about Hee Soo any more. Simon, Gwen's brother-in-law, lives in my neighborhood and knows Mr. Yu (my landlord, not one of the many other Mr. Yus currently housed downstairs), and apparently they're drinking buddies. The other night Mr. Yu told Simon (who told Samson, who told Gwen, who told me...) that a "friend of John's" (John being the fellow whom I replaced at Oedae, and the one who set Hee Soo on my trail in the first place) was coming around a lot and seemed to be bothering me... so he told him to stay away. Hooray for Mr. Yu.
1 comment:
I experienced a mild case of this when I was a student in a German high school for a year. There was a group of guys obsessed with Elvis and they invited me to their gigs and concerts and asked me endless questions about various models of mid-century cars...because I was American, not because I knew anything about their interest. At first it was kind of funny, but it got annoying really quick. For some people, knowing an American was a status thing. For others, not having anything to do with Americans was a status thing. I have to say I am more annoyed by the latter. At least the first type will give you the time of day.
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