On the way to the bookstore...

Sunday I went with one of the foreign teachers to the bookstore. We took the subway. When we reached our destination, we ascended the stairs to the street level. We were surrounded by thousands of people standing and sitting in the street, chanting (in Korean, of course) and holding signs. We had no idea what was going on, but it seemed like some sort of demonstration or riot. There were speakers set up and at the far end of the street, a man was standing on a stage yelling into a microphone. It was an angry, Hitler-esqe yell. Kristin and I had to push through the crowds several blocks to get to the bookstore. On the way, I saw many signs featuring none other than George Bush. Although I couldn't read the writing, I can assure you they were not nice signs. Then, I saw a sign with the Statue of Liberty on it, with a skeleton face. Suddenly, I realized that it may not have been the best place to be an American. Luckily, there are many other people who look like me (i.e., white) who are from Canada, Australia, England, Ireland, etc... in the country, so they can't necessarily tell that I'm American.
We got to the bookstore without incident. On the way back to the subway, the protest was still going on. This time, people were handing out newspapers with GW on the cover. I found out that the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Corporation) meeting is being held in Busan, South Korea (a city about 3 hours away) this weekend. There are expected to be over 100,000 people protesting free trade and President Bush. The press is warning Americans to stay away from that city.
I decided that from now on, I'm from Canada. Thanks, GW! Due to you and "the powers that be", I have to pretend I'm from another country so people don't hate me.