Responsiblahblahty

I have put myself in a very precarious situation.

I like to organize events; so I usually step up when it comes to organizing the "who, what, where, when and how" of things.

Its happened a few times over the past few years in Korea, but sometimes I end up feeling a little taken advantage of or stressed out when I'm approached with a lot of questions for an event I have nothing to do with. I have set myself up as someone who has a lot of general knowledge about things here, and I understand that I put myself out there as someone who can help- I wasn't dragged into it.

So its a logical conclusion for people to come to that I know whats going on. However, the truth is that I don't always know whats going on and sometimes I want to be left alone. If I haven't had a hand in organizing whatever we're doing, its probably on purpose so I can relax and just enjoy the event. It can become really grating when I'm trying to have a good time and people continually ask me questions about event timelines and "when are we doing this" and "when are the taxis coming" and "waaah I want to go home, can we call the taxis soon." Well if you want to go home so badly, then why don't you be a little more proactive? Yes, I said we were going to try to call taxis eventually, but if you're so desperate to leave NOW, just do it!

[And it needs to be said that this isn't an example from this past weekend.... its an old situation re-arranged for examples sake]

I'm usually so willing to step up and do things or be generally helpful that I've put myself in a place where it is now expected of me. "Oh good, you're here... you can order dinner for all of us!" (I speak Korean well enough to order food). And I think it needs to be noted that there were 13 people, 3 tables, 1 vegetarian, and 2 people who can't eat pork.... at a pork bbq restaurant. The poor girl I had to order from- I swear her head was going to explode.

I'm usually happy to:
-translate
-order food
-tell you how to get somewhere
-help find train times
-tell you where you can get a good hair cut
-speak to a taxi driver who doesn't know where you want to go

...BUT, sometimes I don't know the answer. And sometimes I just want to be left alone so I can have a good time with my friends. I cannot even tell you how many times someone has called me over and asked me how to say something in Korean, then walked away and saddled with whatever Korean person they were talking to. It's like.... just because I have a moderate grasp on the language doesn't mean you can deposit people on me if you don't feel like talking to them. Not cool.

I think I've made it a little too easy for people to "oh, I can just ask Katie" instead of figuring it out for themselves.