My 15 minutes

As humble a man as my friends know me to be, I have to admit that I do enjoy being the center of attention once in a while. And so far at my school, I've been getting more attention from people than cargo ships in African waters do from Somali pirates.

I thought I would easily blend in with the rest of the Korean staff (being the Asian fellow that I am), but I have actually gotten stares from day 1. Word spreads and for reasons like me being American and being a relatively young teacher, I have quickly gripped the attention of students and teachers like a bucket of KFC extra crispy chicken does at a Weight Watchers meeting. The other English-speaking teachers like getting to know me, the non-English speaking teachers are stunned when I can say a Korean phrase moderately well, and as shy as my students are about speaking English, some of the more goofy ones have shouted at me "you are very handsome!" in class, "Hi!" when they see me in the hallways, and one girl even professed her love for me in class (humored, I replied, "that's good"). Word got out that I speak Chinese too, so students have been telling me "ni hao ma" (hi) and "laoshi hao" (how are you, teacher?) at random times. In fact, just yesterday, a group of about six girls came up to my desk after class and encircled me -- like a pack of vultures do to a gazelle's carcass on the African sahara -- just to ask me to speak Chinese.

It does not take much to strike the curiosity of students their age, so I'm just going to keep a level-head. When I head back, I'll just be another average joe in Hawaii. I would be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy all the attention... just a little.