...without words.
This happened to me several weeks ago, and I meant to blog about it but life got in the way.
I was running between the flute lesson I had just taught and a dance class, but I had just enough time to catch lunch. I wasn't super hungry, so I stopped in Panera and got myself a bagel.
I sat at a table by myself, and began one of my favorite activities to pass the time. People watching.
To my left were two ladies, both of which describing their vacations to each other in explicit detail. They were quite loud, and evidently jealous of each others destination choices. To my right were a mother and daughter, neither of which seemed to be very happy about anything.
Since neither of which people were altogether that interesting, I proceeded to just focus on eating my bagel. I then heard a very loud shout from the mother. "Heey!"
At this moment, a man, white, blond, and about the age of 30 stopped by the mother/daughter table. The mother seemed to know him quite well, but he didn't seem to be very sure of her identity. At his side was a little boy, whom the mother was told was the age of four.
My attention immediately switched to the child. He had mud brown hair, olive skin, and just slightly almond shaped eyes.
Oh yeah, I knew those traits. I have those traits. I realized he must be half-asian like myself right as his mother walked up.
100% Korean. Yup.
As I was about to ignore the group and get back to my bagel, the boy locked eyes with me.
Seriously, he was staring at me. I wasn't really quite sure what to do, when he got the biggest grin on his face I had ever seen on a child.
At this moment I realized that I was probably the first half-asian he had ever seen in his short life. It also occurred to me that he was in fact four, and could be just being ridiculous and four.
As his parents were talking to the mother/daughter pair, the boy proceeded to have a conversation with me, without talking. It went like this.
First, the boy, who was also eating a bagel, raised his bagel slightly, took a large bite, and smiled.
Two could play this game.
I raised my bagel slightly, took a bite, and wiggled my eyebrows.
The boy started giggling. He tugged at his dad's shirt, but his dad couldn't care less. He attempted to push the boy behind him, but to no avail. The boy first poked his head around his dad to look at me, and then found his way back to his dad's other side to continue our conversation.
At this point the child just pointed at me. His grin might have actually gotten bigger. At this moment I wondered if anyone else had noticed our interaction, but they seemed too enthralled in their own conversations. The boy attempted to direct his father's attention at me, but again, his father did nothing except attempt to push him behind him again.
Finally, when I had decided that the boy was probably just being silly, he did something curious.
He tugged at his hair.
Then he pointed at himself.
And then at me.
The intent was clear.
"You are like me!"
