I swear! I'm not stupid!

But my Korean language professor seems to think otherwise. I know we all have those days where like, we're kind of out of it, and then bam! Something hits you in the face.

So I had a similar thing happen to me earlier today (about 18 hours ago, so I guess it was yesterday). Korean class just finished, and as usual, me and two of my classmates are walking with the T.A. and asking her about Korean profanities.

At this point, I'll admit, I was tired as hell. I sleep as much as an old man (or as much as a bear) when it's winter time. So the two classmates ended up having a side conversation, because we all strayed off from the common topic. I was talking to the T.A., making my way down the road towards the Union Building, and then bam! A speed limit sign right in the face.

My initial reaction? My face goes: o_o...? Picture my face with the question mark and the blank stare. That's what I looked like. The two classmates saw the whole thing, and are dying of laughter. The T.A. is covering her face, trying to hide her share of the laughter. And then, as if that wasn't already bad enough, my professor is walking up the road from where we just came from.

Some part of me wishes that the first thing out of her mouth were along the lines of, "Are you okay?" or as if she would have said, "괜찮아요 (gwen-chan-a-yo)?", which virtually means the same thing but in, well, Korean. First thing out of her mouth: 바보 (pa-bo). What could that possibly mean? Especially to people who don't speak or understand an ounce of Korean? It means "stupid."

Yes, my professor called me stupid.

She knew I understood too, so she tried to justify the word: "Oh no, pa-bo in Korean isn't really a bad thing. It just means like...stupid." Not a justification! :'(. But I appreciate the effort, and the fact that my professor is comfortable enough with us to be able to say something like that to me. Yeah...that was the highlight of my day. That and I got a 58 out of 60 on the Korean midterm :).