DATE: 1 December 2003
LOCATION:Song Tan, Korea
Back in Korea, life seems ordinary. My apartment feels like home, and I finally feel like I know what I’m doing at work. For Thanksgiving, my squadron cooked up 24 turkeys and we all brought side dishes to celebrate. I only had a short while to enjoy as I had to work the afternoon shift. Christmas will be similar, although I think I’m working the morning shift.
I have a favorite restaurant. I have no idea what its called, but it’s 3 blocks from my house. I go about 3 times a month--whenever I have visitors, and the ladies who work there all know me. I sort of stand out, so it didn’t take long. One of the ladies speaks some English, which is probably why out of the 30 restaurants near my house I picked this one. Due to leave, it had been about 4 weeks since I’d been there. When I walked in, the ladies all rushed over, smiling and bowing. I guess they missed me. Cum Ja, the woman who speaks English exclaimed “Oh, I am happy! I think you are hating my restaurant”. I assured her I didn’t. I explained I'd been away, and just got home. I ordered “the regular”, which is beef cooked with onions, carrots, garlic, mushrooms and broth called bulgogi. I also ordered sodas. When she brought the sodas she told us they were on the house, so I would come back. I guess my story wasn’t enough of an assurance. I went back again last week, and she brought extra meat, and again, the sodas were free. The men at the lot where I normally park also noticed I hadn’t been around. An older man with an English vocabulary limited to nouns mans the booth. When I went to park my car, he said, and I quote, “Hey, long time, no see”. I busted up laughing. I wonder if he’d heard the term someplace or if it just came out like that on accident.
I live above a karaoke bar. It’s pretty loud, so I have to sleep with a fan on to muffle the noise. Paul came to visit, and we went down to check it out for the first time last week. Many Korean bars have small couches as seats, which makes drinking pretty comfy. There were only a few tables, and it was decorated in “old fashion” traditional Korean style. The woman at the bar recognized me, and was pretty excited I came in (it only took 6 months). The only drink choices were whiskey or beer. We went with Korean whiskey. A group of people in their 40’s came in, and went to town singing. They obviously do this often. After listening to 7 or 8 songs, Paul decided he needed to try, and no amount of pleading or threatening on my part would dissuade him. I implored he at least pick a fast paced, short song (if you’ve ever heard him sing, you’ll know why). He chose Billy Joel’s Piano Man. It was almost an international incident. He insisted they didn’t know he was bad, since he was singing in English. RIIGGHHHTT…
These folks protest about EVERYTHING. I don’t begrudge them that, I mean, I like a good protest as much as the next gal. Protests can accomplish things, and certainly have a place both in history and in modern politics. This country is still getting used to democracy, it’s been run by the military since the end of the Korean war until, well, we’ll just say very recently. Since the right to protest without getting the crap kicked out of you by the police is new, I can understand the exuberance. They’re also big on counter protests. A big anti-US protest will inspire a pro-US protest. This week, one man’s hunger strike against the government inspired another man’s counter strike for the government. They both say they will not eat for longer than the other guy, no matter how long that is. I’ve stopped trying to understand. My views on the protests are a topic for another time, in part because of the complex issues involved, and in part because I’m not exactly impartial. Impartiality is hard when you are what they are protesting. It’s only a small minority of people who hate us, but my troops are separated from their families for an entire year, sacrificing, and working hard for somebody else’s freedom. Believe me, none of us really wants to be here, and most would go home tomorrow if they could. Add that to the incoherence of the reasons for protests, and the short sightedness of demands, and they get downright annoying.
There are protests outside of the AF base pretty regularly, or at least they try. The shop keepers and bar owners, aware of how bad protests are for business, usually stop things. Either they file with city hall for a pro-US protest before anti guys can file, or last year they literally beat up a couple of protesters. This was right before a couple of shop keepers cut their hands to write I love the USA in blood. Yikes. I stood inside the gate one day and watched a protest that actually happened. The Korean national police had the protesters outnumbered 4 to 1, and they all had shields and sticks, standing shoulder to shoulder, 4 rows deep in front of the gate. When the protesters got too close, or too rowdy, the police would step forward in unison, beating their sticks on the shields in unison. It gave me the chills. The purpose was intimidation, and it worked on me, the person they were protecting. I even felt a little bad for the protesters, who looked pretty scared.
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