A Rare Freak Out at Rudeness

I've gotten used to the spitting, horking, the odd things that happen here in Korea everyday , but once in a while.....

It doesn't happen very often but when it does, there's not much I can do to control it. My temper. I consider myself to be quite a patient and calm person, a trait that comes mostly from my Mom. But there will be a time once in a while where I will just blow up on somebody, no matter how good of a mood I am in at the time. That happened today. When I told the story today to Billy and Kay, I conveniently left out a few details to spare my embarrassment and not to worry Kay about my very sudden mood swings, as rare as they are.

I was waiting for the bus to go back to school and a couple of middle school boys were also waiting. They were horking and spitting and I could tell that I wasn't the only one that was annoyed at the monotonous sounds they were making. When the bus arrived, one of the boys was about a half a meter from me and horked and spit again and dropped a ball of hork about a foot from my foot. This annoyed me I thought but before I thought anything I was yelling at the kid..."What the hell are you doing, you almost spit on my foot you f***ing idiot"! (the first outburst) A woman had to translate for the kid. I told him in Korean that what he did was dirty. He knew I was angry and fed on it with a couple of his buddies. After I sat on the bus, him and his 2 buddies sat behind me and I heard them say this in Korean:

(loud coughing).....

"Don't do that, it's dirty." as all three of them laughed.

They continued for the next 10 seconds or so, coughing, kicking the seat behind me, and saying things like "how do you say dirty in English"? hahahahaha

So finally I yelled at them to get off the bus and told them in Korean "You don't have any manners!" (2nd outburst) Realizing that what I said sounded ridiculous and wasn't going to do anything, I decided to ask the bus driver to kick them off the bus. "그 학생 에티킽없어요!" (Those students don't have any manners.) I didn't think he understood until he came to the back of the bus and asked what the problem was. By that time, I just wanted the bus to leave so I could get where I had to go and I told the bus driver to forget about it. I also felt like a tattle tail. I wasn't like that when I was younger was I??

During all of this I noticed a man watching and he smiled. Why was he smiling? Did I look ridiculous or was it because I spoke in Korean, or was it just entertaining to him? At least he was paying attention, I thought later. Nobody else around me said a word to me or them and life went on as usual. It's not everyday that a foreigner freaks out on someone on a bus is it?