1987 Biking Korea

Days later, in a village so small it didn’t warrant a name on my map, I was like the circus that comes to town once every ten years. Though mouths remained mercifully closed, adult jaws dropped wherever I ventured and small children followed at a distance, whispering and giggling into their hands. The morning following my sojourn there, I was invited to the high school by a physics teacher. As usual the questions asked of me there revolved around my age and single status. My translated answers more than once brought forth the remark: “Oh, so you are old maid!” In one class 57 students requested my autograph and the staff would not allow me to leave the premises until I had lunched with them. When at last they set me free, the entire school population hung out the windows to bid me farewell.