Monday 23 November 2009

Surprise at Lunch

About halfway through lunch today, a little girl sat down across from me and asked "which state are you from?" with perfect pronunciation. Upon recovery from my shock, I replied "Michigan." She smiled and said "Oh! Me too! I'm from Troy." This is how I met Jessica for the first time, and it's a wonder to me that in all the time I've been here we had never spoken before. She is in 2nd grade, and perfectly fluent in Korean and English (with a vocabulary above the average American girl her age, I'm convinced) even though she moved to Korea when she was 3. From the way she talked, I could have sworn she just stepped off the plane yesterday- very impressive. It was astounding to me just to have a full English conversation with a person under 20 for the first time in 8 months.

But for all of her advanced communication, she was still a little girl, so we spent the next fifteen minutes talking about Disney World. We both very much like Splash Mountain and Animal Kingdom, but she recommends the test track at Epcot on my next visit. There is nothing more endearing than a little girl excitedly telling you about a hippopotamus blocking the track of the Animal Kingdom safari ride with a giant piece of meat the size of her hand half sticking out of her mouth. I hope I can run into her every day.

9 comments:

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  2. What a great moment! Thanks for sharing it! Dad

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  3. You are a lucky girl for having her at your school. What a fantastic experience. I hope you run into her again too!

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  4. Sara that must have been a great surprise and experience. Amazing the little girl could have learned English at such a tender age. I'm sure she is just as eager to see you as you are to encounter her. Happy Thanksgiving, we will really miss you and Scott. Larry

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  5. What I don't get is that the hippo had a piece of meat in its mouth. They're herbivores! What kind of sick and twisted hippos are they storing in Disney and should I be afraid?
    o.O

    That is pretty cool though. Awesome lunch =D

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  6. http://old.radio.cz/en/issue/122436

    This hippo may have eaten a bit of reptile meat.

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  7. Haha, the girl while she was talking, not the hippo. Funny how that can indeed be read two ways.:D

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