A Walk in the Park

We think Spring may have finally arrived in Korea! Chris and I were able to spend a very relaxing Sunday afternoon at Olympic Park this past weekend. Apparently, this was the plan for thousands of other Seoul residents because the park was packed. People watching has become one of our favorite activites since we've been here and Olympic Park was the prime spot to get our watch on. Although we saw many very interesting people, our favorite was a very tortured Cocker Spaniel. I can honestly say that every dog I have seen in Korea to date has been wearing clothes. This poor dog not only wore a hoodie, but also a diaper, and elfin shoes. It was obvious the poor thing hated his life. This is the best picture we got.


After walking several different paths, we decided to take our watching to a bench and relax our feet. We bought some delicious corn dogs and found the perfect bench to soak up some much needed sun. Within ten minutes of sitting down, we got a lovely surprise. Out of all of the millions of people in Seoul we never expected to see anyone we knew at the park, and who decided to stop literally right in front of our bench? Sophia, from Jupiter class! I couldn't believe my eyes! I jabbed Chris in the side and told him it was Sophia and of course he said "oh no it's not, it's just someone who looks like Sophia". Now I was pretty positive that it was Sophia because I have labeled her as "my favorite student". She is the cutest little kindy who has such a boisterous personality; the last time I had seen her she had her arms wrapped around me and was giving my belly a million kisses saying "I love you, I love you". I said her name and nothing happened, I said it again and still nothing. Finally, I got her attention (they were only ten feet away) and she looked up, right at me, direct eye-contact. There was nothing, her face didn't change at all. She just stared at me expressionless. So of course, I was completely embarrased and realized that Chris was once again right. Then her mother in broken English said that her name is Sophia, ah ha! I was right! But still no reaction from Sophia. Chris and I quickly got up and introduced ourselves to her parents as Mr. and Mrs. Haws from BIS. They obviously knew who were and seemed so happy to meet us. We got down to Sophia's level and tried everything we could to get her to say something to us. Nothing. Fail. She didn't make a peep (even in Korean). We had a short conversation with Mom and Dad through 8-year-old sister, Julia (she spoke beautiful English) and then parted our ways. Chris and I were so bummed Sophia didn't talk to us, we were also embarrased and didn't want her parents to think they were wasting their money on English school when she doesn't even speak any. A few minutes later Sophia and Julia came running up to our bench - redemption! I knew Sophia was obviously running back to tell me how much she loved me. Wrong again, they each gave us a bottle of grape juice, which was incredibly sweet, but still no words from Sophia. Her parents came back and asked for our picture and of course we got one too. Still no words from Sophia, we barely got a smile from her. Fortunately, we did get a wave goodbye.


I went straight into Jupiter on Monday morning to talk to that girl. As soon as I walked in the door, Sophia, along with all of the other children, ran up to me. With her arms wrapped around me, Sophia began to kiss my belly like usual. She was so excited to see me that she practically knocked Nicky, the smallest of the bunch, over while he was attempting to reach up and kiss my lips (what's up with all the kissing in this country?). Well, Sophia was definitely not quiet this time. She quickly rambeled off something in Korean to the other children. They all started laughing and jumping and saying "Teacher, you see Sophia at park!". Sophia then said, "I'm so happy" - aw, she speaks! I guess this teaches me to not be so shocked when I see a child outside the classroom and they don't speak to me. The idea of us teachers being anywhere other than at their school is just too much for their precious, little brains.