I cause a stir over soup

This evening I thought it would be a delicious meal to have sundubu jjige, which is a spicy soup with tofu and veggies boiled in a steaming hot pot. I was eating it for the protein before I went on my daily run, but I wasn't keen on having rice and the stale sides that are the usual fare at this particular restaurant I go to. As the lady brought me the sides, I politely negatived and asked her to take them away. And thus I caused a stir over soup.
She was so shocked that she had to ask me several times to make sure that she understood me correctly. "You don't want the rice?" She asked me in Korean (I can get the gist of most statements in context, and I listen for words I know).
 "Anniyo," I politely declined.
"You don't want the jjige?"
"Yes, I do. But not the rice or the sides."
It was like I'd asked to eat my rice and beans without the tortilla, which I have done, and my mom looked at me like she wasn't sure I was her child. But declining tortillas at home was nothing like the ruckus I caused at this little Korean restaurant tonight. The lady looked at me with a look in her eyes that said that she understood she had not seen everything under the sun until I came along.
I decided to ignore it until I heard giggling at the table behind me. I wanted to turn around and say, "You know it's rude to point. I can see your reflections in the window." But eventually one of the girls gained courage and poked me in the back. She spoke in English. "You don't want the pap?" She giggled.
I smiled,  grateful to understand her."No, just the jjige. But I think I confused the owner."
"But the jjige goes with the rice."
"Yes, I know but..."
There wasn't any point in continuing. She simply giggled again as the rest of her group also broke out in giggles, including the two older gentlemen who were with this silly gaggle of girls.
Five minutes later, as I was eating my hot soup, the group left, but the owners were still talking about the strangeness of it all. They kept glancing at me, and breaking out into laughter.
                                   ********************************

  Why am  I still feeling so sensitive about this, three hours later? I'm so tired lately from work, and I know that that's part of it.  And our school is so disorganized, our curriculum and teaching material practically non-existent, and the management so draining that I am feeling constantly knotted up. The prejudice I've encountered in Korea has also left me feeling a little defensive, sad, and frazzled.
  I know that many people here, as happens all over the world, do very little to expand their horizons and that people can be small-minded, ignorant of the world and stuck in their ways. It just feels like the people I've encountered during my stay here are so hemmed in by tradition that there is a very low tolerance for any non-conformity, something I knew from my studies about certain cultures, but something with which I still struggle. And I can't blame people for reacting so strongly when they've been so little exposed to different races and customs beyond their own. In other words, I can't blame small-town people for not being worldly.
  It's still hard to deal with, though. Even though I know that Korea is slowly being influenced by the growing presence of foreigners and foreign traditions, I also know that I'm only part of the generation that gets to see Korea before that influence changes people's outlook on life. I get to see the old guard still clinging to what sets Koreans apart but also that which also isolates them from others. In all this, it's hard sometimes to remember to pray for the development of my own character in response to this challenge. Hard to pray against the rebellion, anger, and disdain that knots up every time I think about instances like these. Hard sometimes to accept that I can also be stressed out by sudden change--it's definitely there in my personality, I've just learned to be more analytical and self-aware about my stress triggers, and I over-compensate by going along with sudden changes in my schedule. But I can't expect everyone to have trained themselves in the same way.
  Anyways, my over-sensitivity notwithstanding, I needed to take a break from the world tonight. To try to let what happened soak in so that even if I cannot understand this culture, I can at least learn to accept it, adapt and learn to respond to it as it is. I can pray to have the strength to become a graceful woman under pressure and not to let it break me. I can pray  to grow wise because of  these experiences, and to become a more forgiving partner, teacher, person.