Despite the Lady Gaga concert being oddles of fun, the lead up to it that evening was the exact opposite. As Ruth and I were leaving school (separately, of course) and were about to set off to go straight to the concert, we both realised we weren't actually sure where we were going. There was some confusion about the area of Seoul that we needed, the name of the stadium the concert was being held and the subway station in which to disembark. Long story but basically there are two stadiums right next to each other and although the name of one matches the name of one subway station, it's easier to get to from a different subway station, with a different name. Anyway, with the help of a couple of our Korean teacher friends and fellow Gaga fan friends, we figured it out. Phew.
...But then something else went wrong. Not sure how I managed it but I missed my transfer station, and not by one but TWO stops, which is really quite unbelievable as it's the station that I transfer at on almost every subway journey I take. Anyway this completely messed up my simple and stress-free route and meant that I had to take a total of FIVE trains to reach my destination. FIVE. Just to clarify this absurdity- most areas of Seoul can be reached by two trains; if ever you have to take three, it's considered a bit of a nightmare journey. So never four. And never, ever, in a month of Sundays, five. Leave it to Chelsea to make that happen when she really needed to be somewhere fast.
So when I eventually arrived, all I wanted was to relax and have dinner before the concert started. Did this happen? Of course not. While Ruth and I were queuing up for Burger King, of all places, (there weren't many options for dinner!) I managed to end up in a big argument with possibly the most idiotic foreigner I've had the misfortune of meeting since arriving here. And that's saying something. Shortly after getting into the queue we realised that said stupid foreigner was laying into the poor Korean guy behind her and in front of us. Apparently he had pushed her friend and "it was NOT a accident!" OK, then. The girl was yelling at him, in English of course, and he just had to stand there and take it. He had the occasional response to her ranting but generally he just stood there quietly, trying his best to ignore her, beside his girlfriend who looked so embarrassed by the whole situation and somewhat frightened by this crazy American girl in front of her. I felt so sorry for her.
If the girl had stopped there wouldn't have been a reason for me to get involved, but she didn't. She just kept going, staring at him and talking completely inappropriately about him while still still staring at him. I'm not sure I've ever seen a bigger bully in action. It was really alarming. I almost lost it when she spat the words, "Pfft, what you don't even speak English?! Well there's a surprise!" What a nasty piece of work she was! Why should he speak English?! This is his country! And she seemed to have forgotten, and I get the feeling many foreigners do here, that we are guests in this country. People like her don't even deserve to be here if they are going to go around acting like that. Her and her actions were disgraceful! Such an embarrassment!
So when she wouldn't let in drop, I stepped in. I didn't have any other choice. What she was doing was not fair. It was wrong and I had to stand up to her. And she got quite the shock when I did as did the Korean couple that she'd been screaming at. I basically said something along the lines of, "Why don't you leave him alone?! You've had your say; you should let it drop now because you're embarrassing yourself and you are the reason foreigners have a bad name in this country!" And she didn't like what I said one bit. And just like that, she left the Korean couple alone because all her anger was now directed at me. But I could take it. I could stand up for myself which they couldn't. It got quite heated at one point and she was shouting loudly and by this point the whole of Burger King were watching. They've probably never seen anything like it. At one point she 'invited me, you know as these 'hard people' do, to, "come on then!! You wanna get involved?! Come and get involved!!" to which my rely was, "Erm, I think I'm already involved, am I not?!" She was 'all talk and no trousers' as Ruth so rightly put it and soon after I think she realised that she really had no other option but to shut up and wait for her food like normal people do.
The Korean couple were so cute afterwards. The girl smiled at me as they stood aside to wait for their food and the guy looked so thankful that I'd stood up to her on their behalf. He did the cutest Korean bow to show his thanks. Meanwhile the nasty clueless foreigner stood on the other side and bitched about me. I am so glad I stood up to her. There is no place for such nastiness in this world. It is so uneccessary and it needs to be stopped. I hope she thinks twice before pulling a similar stunt again and I hope the Korean couple's faith in foreigners has been restored to some degree at least. Honestly, we're not all bad.
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