Cars are a really big deal here, and it's taken me a little while to realize how big a deal. I've not yet done this, but I think that you could quiz any man about the cars his colleagues drive, and he could tell you. No, not just about makes of cars in general, but the actual car each person drives. Probably down to the license plates, since half the population drives white cars or SUVs or black Lexuses.
My first clue was a year ago when I was on an outing with a student's family and needed to pick something up at my boss's house. I knew it was on the way, so I asked my student if he could stop. He never asked me directions, but he drove straight to my boss's house. Flabbergasted, I asked if he had been there before. No. Had been invited there before? No.
A few weeks later, a female student texted me. "Teacher, where are you?" I politely texted her back, but she already knew where I was. She had seen my car.
I was so proud of myself for consequently figuring out how my other student had known my boss's house! My boss's car was parked on a road that he took often, so he must have figured out that it was the same SUV parked at the institute half the time.
But I had no idea that car stalking is epidemic.
A few weeks ago some of students came to class. "Where's A?" they wanted to know. "He's not here. I haven't seen them," I told them. "No, he's here. His car is outside," they insisted.
Another time a girlfriend came over to my apartment for dinner. She got to the area she thought my building was in and pulled up, it turned out, across the street. "Where does the foreigner live?" was all she needed to ask a couple emerging from their apartment building. The woman didn't know. The man pointed. "She lives over there, she wears [local dress], and she drives the grey Kia there."
Yet another time I was in a local shop and struck up a conversation with the girl manning the register. I told her I lived in the same neighborhood, and she said, "Yes, in the [name of a restaurant in my building] building." "How did you know?" I wondered. Because they had seen her sister's (American) English teacher parked out front there on a number of occasions. So she surmised that must be my place. One of his college friends stayed with me for two weeks at Christmas, and he picked her up and dropped her off a lot. He never set foot in the apartment, for propriety's sake, but I had forgotten to reckon on the car stalking.
I think that a student has commented to my roommate before on when she was or wasn't at work because he saw her car at the institute. Yikes! People are always watching. We joke about it now. I mean, what else can you do?
A couple of weeks ago, one of my teenaged students was heading out of the classroom. "Teacher, what is your car?" I think I asked him why. "I'm going to go find it," he told me. Why he needs to find it doesn't even bother me any more. "The grey Kia," I sighed. It's now part of my identity.
My first clue was a year ago when I was on an outing with a student's family and needed to pick something up at my boss's house. I knew it was on the way, so I asked my student if he could stop. He never asked me directions, but he drove straight to my boss's house. Flabbergasted, I asked if he had been there before. No. Had been invited there before? No.
A few weeks later, a female student texted me. "Teacher, where are you?" I politely texted her back, but she already knew where I was. She had seen my car.
I was so proud of myself for consequently figuring out how my other student had known my boss's house! My boss's car was parked on a road that he took often, so he must have figured out that it was the same SUV parked at the institute half the time.
But I had no idea that car stalking is epidemic.
A few weeks ago some of students came to class. "Where's A?" they wanted to know. "He's not here. I haven't seen them," I told them. "No, he's here. His car is outside," they insisted.
Another time a girlfriend came over to my apartment for dinner. She got to the area she thought my building was in and pulled up, it turned out, across the street. "Where does the foreigner live?" was all she needed to ask a couple emerging from their apartment building. The woman didn't know. The man pointed. "She lives over there, she wears [local dress], and she drives the grey Kia there."
Yet another time I was in a local shop and struck up a conversation with the girl manning the register. I told her I lived in the same neighborhood, and she said, "Yes, in the [name of a restaurant in my building] building." "How did you know?" I wondered. Because they had seen her sister's (American) English teacher parked out front there on a number of occasions. So she surmised that must be my place. One of his college friends stayed with me for two weeks at Christmas, and he picked her up and dropped her off a lot. He never set foot in the apartment, for propriety's sake, but I had forgotten to reckon on the car stalking.
I think that a student has commented to my roommate before on when she was or wasn't at work because he saw her car at the institute. Yikes! People are always watching. We joke about it now. I mean, what else can you do?
A couple of weeks ago, one of my teenaged students was heading out of the classroom. "Teacher, what is your car?" I think I asked him why. "I'm going to go find it," he told me. Why he needs to find it doesn't even bother me any more. "The grey Kia," I sighed. It's now part of my identity.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment