Fame in the Rice Paddies

Tonight the Mayor of Chungju, Honorable Kim, Ho-bok, invited me to join the special dinner for delegates of the 11th Annual Chungju World Martial Arts Festival held at the Tangeumdae United Nations Park here in my rice paddy town...town of nearly half a million. What an event!! Professor David Lee Chomsky (his name is not actually Chomsky, he's just been dubbed that by foreign professors who have never had a conversation with him that did not include the word 'Chomsky', such is the obsession of an ardent linguist) accompanied me to the dinner, and good thing he was there to cue me to stand up and take a bow when the Mayor introduced my presence before 200+ hundred international military, political, and civilian delegates thanking me for hosting him and the Chungju musicians during their trip to New York last spring...or perhaps he mentioned something about the music center house restoration I'm undertaking while teaching here at Chungju - at least that is what I like to dream, and feel I do have his blessing and all flows easily on from there. It felt wonderful to have people coming by and greeting me warmly by name, musician friends from years ago and late nights in the Happy Noodle Shop after lessons at the Ureuk Music Center downtown, actually a pilot who was escorting the Chief of the US Military in Korea, Mr. Michael...something...and whom somewhere between our first handshake and last of the evening the young pilot had been promoted from Captain to Major. And the National Intangible Living Treasure, Mr.Cheon (do I remember his name correctly?), TaekYeon Martial Arts Master. The warmth is so genuine, like we had bonding experiences together and then boom here we are in very different roles that we know are just roles and enjoying peeking through the holes out of them.
At the table was Joel from France his interpretor, they ate out of each others' plates which seemed too overly cute and reminded me the day my 7th grade French teacher, Mrs.Lee, taught us the word for mistress. There was a man from Kerala, India, a very friendly Thai man whose wife is in Boston, and a Vietnamese gentleman whose right-hand lady translated every word spoken to him; the first couple of times they spoke I thought they said they were from "Vienna" and my mind was doing back-flips to try to make sense of that. We drank apple wine and quickly ate a feast of sushi, eel, kimchi, and basically every dish that could be available in Korea. At 6:30 they announced the participants of the festival should be at the stage to be announced at 6:20. Honorable Mayor Kim walked directly over to me to shake my hand again and say he got my letter (of course I followed up a visit to his office last week with a letter to thank him for his time and offer that he may call on me as a friend to assist him personally or city hall with anything while I am here in Chungju again), and he had very positive things to say about the apple pie which he shared with his wife!! (I told him I'll make more! I'm certain I'm going to be famous as Chungju AnnA for my Apple Pie made of famously delicious Chungju apples.)
We processed over gravel roads, all 200 of us, across the open dirt park to the gate to greet the participants, who were arriving from a parade downtown. It seemed like half of the citizens of Chungju were in the parade, perhaps more, banging gleefully away on drums - metal, wooden, skin, and whirling their whirl-tassle hats. The participants acted like it was the Olympics, waving and bowing and laughing and winking as they went through the lit up series of gates. Then something very strange happened, as I was heading back towards the main stage where the participants would be introduced. A city hall member in a business suit with a walkie-talkie literally bumped into me, and as he apologized he recognized me and said, "Anna?" And I looked at him trying to figure out if I knew him and how, but for the life of me couldn't place him (maybe by morning I will...it's now 10:20 and 5 hours after I told the Indian man from Kerala I knew some Mallayalam but couldn't pull it out of my mind, I remember what Sam in Muscat Oman taught me at the hotel, "sahodera" means "brother"). This man gave me an intense look, as if I had broken his heart and he couldn't believe I didn't say his name, and what was I doing back in Chungju and there's no way we could possibly say anything else as he was running to catch up with the mayor. After a long pause, I just said, "yes" and reached for his hand and we had a beautiful handshake. I think I recognize that look, because I had given it myself just last week. Hmmm..... Perhaps I best make myself prominent the next 7 days of the festival, that he may approach me again and refresh my memory. It's nearly starting to feel overwhelming, each semester alone I have about 300 students (times 7 semesters, so far), and now learning the hierarchy of the university professors, and City Hall, and the governor and chief of police and director of the korean committe of the UN, plus all the famous pop singers opening the ceremony....just smile, and smile, and smile and mean it, and have my gaze prepared when the Mayor or the Taekyeon master, or Major Oh, or my escort for the evening happens to turn to me. Suddenly thrust into political life, but being a-political, as my mom says, and not really having any political agenda, though I suppose there are links between my restoration music house project and the governnor's office (can we say 'government grant money for restoration') and the UN and, and, and.... David is a great guide into political life, as he knows the background of when so and so representative was involved in this or that branch of the central government and precisely how many years back he met them....but when it comes to the people easy to overlook....he's not good with names, not only is the secretary to the top man THE person who's name to know, he's also the most important to endear oneself to (can we say 'in control of scheduling EVERYTHING').
What else? Ah, nothing else, I guess...until tomorrow....and I didn't even mention last night...out at the "philharmonic" and last weekend nearly proposing to someone who's drunken (and amazingly musical) brother was sticking acupuncture needles into my hand from across the table after the concert......retreating to my office and waiting for the change at the strike of midnight when it turns into a DISCO and I listen to Rihanna over 10 or 20 times singing along with "take a bow", snapping as I saunter across the floor as if it's my ghetto and everyone knows I'm a goddess (because we all are). Life back in motion, and alive again, and waiting and in awe as step by step pieces come together and together....and all the rejections of the week pile up and make me happy because they free me and I go on! Happy Eid Mubarak....