A "REAL" story

Although I announced stupidly in class that, “My life is boring!”, but actually, I think my life, so far, was quite interesting. You may throw out a question like, “How is it interesting?” or, “What make it interesting?” To be honestly with you, I may need a few minute to think of “why”. There are many things that happened in my life, whether it is good or bad. I am sure that there are more good things that happened in my life, but it is only the bad things that I can remember clearly. So to write an UNBELIEVABLE REAL STORY, all I could think of was all these bad and sad things. And I don’t want to be pessimistic and make everything sounds sad, so I decide not to write all these things down, because these memories are what I prefer to forget, but it is difficult because it vanquish 2 GB of my brain memory already. So I decided to leave it there because it brings no harm to my present life any way. And now, I want to wash these pessimistic thoughts with a happy story! Since I said happy memories aren’t as clearly kept in my mind, of course what I will say in the next few lines must happened recently, but before I tell this story, I have to say one that insure the “litigant’s” rights, so except the two person’s name that will occur soon, EVERYTHING WAS REAL! And also, if the dialogue is in blue, then it was spoken in Chinese, if it remains the color black, then it was spoken in English. So here’s the story!

         Today is a normal afternoon. Although it’s almost fall, the weather is still humid and warm. My two friends and I were waiting inline for the MRT to come. There are not a lot of people, but it is enough to fill the carriage of the MRT. As we were waiting, we were chatting loudly in Chinese about different things that happened in TAPA.



I forgot we are in public.....



        “Hay Bob! Tell you something really funny that happened when I talked to one of the freshman call Larry. He’s face is kind of chubby and white so I ask him is he Korean, then his eyes turn as big as a ping-pong ball!” I laughed as I said.

        “Hahaha! Why?? Is it because his eyes were small?” Bob laughed and replied.

        “I guess so, WAITED A MINUTE!” I yelled, “Hadassah is a Korean too!”

        Bob turns his head and look at Hadassah, “You are a Korean?”

        “Yes! A Korean that can speak many languages!” I said loudly as Hadassah nodded her head.

        Then I laughed and giggle for no reason. *as usual*

        “WHAT?!” Hadassah lean backward and put her hand out as she yelled out, “I DON’T WANT TO BE A TAIWANESE!”

        We paused and look at her. We know she didn’t mean anything, and it is normal for us to criticize each other and joke around like this. And usually, we will say something stupid back in response just to continue the joke. But we paused. Why? Because we realized where we are today is different. Today is not a typical day in TAPA when we just joke around stupidly with each other IN ENGLISH. We are in the MRT station, but moreover, we are in Taiwan.

We realized it and we paused. We looked around to see other people’s reaction, and obviously their face are full of disgust and degrade…but moreover they are mad.

I knew we have to say something; something to make the joke continues so we can just laugh and everything go back to a “typical day in TAPA”, but we paused. Hadassah knew it and she response quickly, but not as the way I thought. She reflectively looked at the old couple around 65-70 years old who stood in front of us and she said, “Sorry, I didn’t mean it. I am just joking.”

        I smiled and said, “Yea, we are just joking.”

        Hadassah bow 45 degree and apologize sincerely. But the old man turns around and said, “Is fine. That’s ok if you don’t want to be a Taiwanese. You can go be…the…African, or Japanese, or Chinese, or…the…people in the sky/heaven if you want.” The old man said it seriously in a really strong Taiwanese accent’s Chinese.

        Hadassah felt bad and embarrassed, she give him another 45 degree bow and said, “No, no. I was just joking, I am really sorry!”

        But the old man just said, “That’s ok, that’s ok. Is fine, but next time don’t say something so stupid. Think before you say anything so you won’t be like a fool,” and he turned back.

        The MRT came and make the sound of machine and wind. We looked at each other and I laughed awkwardly. Then I said to them, “That’s really stupid. Well I mean, if we just laughed and continue on with SOMETHING, then it will be fine. If we speak in English and laughed and joke, or if you just add something to the sentence you said, then it will be fine.”

        “I know,” Hadassah look to the side awkwardly, “but I feel really bad, I didn’t mean it. I said that because I am a Korean, I don’t want to be known as a Taiwanese.” She looked at us as she lower her voice. I can tell from her expression she felt really bad. But we know she was joking and we were fine with it. So I tell her, “That’s ok, you don’t have to feel bad because we know you were joking. This won’t happen again so don’t worry.”

        “Yes,” Bob said, “You don’t have to take it that serious.”

        We continue our talk as we walked into the carriage. We stood next to the seat with the old man in front of us, so I lower my voice and tell Hadassah, “He stand next to us.”

        Hadassah looked really bad and said, “I really didn’t mean it. I am so stupid.”

        I laughed loudly and we tried to comfort her, but then I tell her, “You are always so interesting! You always make my day!”

        Hadassah laughed awkwardly and said, “Shut up Betty~”, and I laughed.

        We were not ready for what is going to happened next because that’s one reason we spoke in English for the rest of our conversation. The old man looked at us again and asked, “Are you guys from USA?”

        We paused and looked at him. I laughed even more (but quietly) as I looked back at them awkwardly and Hadassah’s eyes just widen. Then Bob looked at us and said calmly, “Now we can’t even speak in English.”

        To be honest with you, that’s exactly what I want to say when I looked back at them, but I just signal Bob to be quiet. And Hadassah replied nervously in English, “No, we are just…students that know how to speak English…so…I”

        I laughed inside because I know she’s trying to say we know how to speak English because we study in American school, but she’s just too nervous to express her thoughts.

        Then the old man smile as in “everything makes sense”, and he said, “Oh! Ok! It took me a while to understand what you guys said afterward. So you are not American, and not a Taiwanese? So where are you from?”

        We answer quickly with her saying, “She’s from Korea.”

        Hadassah continue to explain, “Because I am from Korea so that’s why I don’t want to be known as…a…Taiwanese…I was just joking…I didn’t mean it…really!” She makes all these kind of weird movement in the air with her hand as she explains.

        I laughed and I just looked at them because I don’t know what to say and I know this is not the time for me to say anything. I looked around to see other people’s face, and I know someone out there must understand us too. The old man just looked at us and said, “That’s ok. It’s fine.”

        The MRT continue to make noise as it slows down to its next stop. When the door opens, the old man went off with his wife, he kind of look back at us when he said good bye to us. We smile and said good bye to them quietly, and Hadassah seems to be released from all her pressure and nervousness. We, too, were released. We looked at each other and smile. Then the first thing we all said was, “He can speak English?” Because this is really amazing to us, a man around 65-70 can understand us even though we speak really fast. Then we lowered our volume and said, “I thought guys like his age can’t speak English…I mean…”

        “Yea, I know…He is so….amazing…well educated…” Hadassah said with concern.

        “Haha, I understand,” Bob replied.

        “He’s just amazing…and cool…,” I said.

        We look at each other and smile awkwardly. We speak in Chinese because we feel stupid to speak in English after all that happened. And this is the story. Although it is not so UNBELIEVEABLE, but it is really dramatic. If this really happen to you, you make think, “No way! That’s stupid…and that’s really UNBELIEVABLE.”

        LOL~that’s what I mean.
        But it is often small things like this that make up our life. It is short, funny, sweet, and interesting. Although this may be one of the small things I will never forgets, but there are still other good things that happened in my life. If by any chance you get to know Hadassah and Bob too, just smile and don't criticize their stupidness, espeically Hadassah, she didn't mean it. After reading the story, if you know who they are, you can keep it as a secret or confirm with me, but don't laugh at them, because only I can. This is my 100% real UNBELIEVEABLE story.