strange moments of subways

I was heading home from C.'s last night on the subway. It was later in the evening, so the trains were not jam-packed; this was pleasant. At Seolleung, I was waiting for the transfer, when I heard a commotion. Note: in Korea, subways and their stations are quiet, orderly places. People actually queue nicely to board the train. So shouting, which would barely cause the bat of an eyelash on SEPTA, is incredibly strange. Heads whipped around; people started muttering. Two men were shouting and tousling about 50 feet down the platform. The smaller one kept shouting "YAH!" (which is a big attention-getter here, I use it to make my students shut up instantly). I thought maybe he was drunk. Shouting continued. People began sprinting down the platform to the fight. There were punches thrown, limbs flailing, and a woman (his wife?) kept trying to drag the shouter away, getting hurled backwards in the process. Finally several men dragged him towards me, flung him down on the steps, and held him down, smacking him a few times, and then dragging him away.

I have NEVER seen anything like this here. The closest I've seen has been a drunk person acting stupid, although rarely belligerent. And of course, not knowing the language, I had no idea what was happening. Just then, the train arrived, so I got on, still full of curiosity. A woman who boarded next to me also looked perturbed, so I took a gamble and spoke to her. (Small talk doesn't happen here, linguistic barrier or not.) I asked her "Why?" in Korean. She answered in flawless English, "they were fighting. I'm not sure why." "Was he drunk?" I asked. "No, they were having a disagreement. You speak Korean?" she continued, still in impeccable English. "chogum" I smiled (means "a little bit.")

We chatted the whole way to her subway stop. She shares my fascination for languages, and works and attends church near C.'s place. We talked about cultural confusion and the Korean alphabet, about teaching and careers and all sorts of interesting things. She gave me a little package of ddok, a sort of sticky rice cake (which was nice, as I hadn't had dinner yet). We exchanged numbers and will probably have lunch at some point.

It was fascinating to me that one such strange occurrence, a public fight in Korea, led to such another strange happening: starting up small talk and finding someone with flawless English, making a new friend. It was a day full of interesting new experiences: I also went to my first Catholic service, which was also my first church visit in Korea. I tried Korean gelato as well (not quite as good as back home, but tasty).

Sometimes every day feels like an adventure. :)