We'd both spent our formative years in little old Huxley, Iowa, living only a few hundred yards from one another, attended the same church & high school (given the town consists of roughly 3,000 people, this was a very high probability) yet never really knew each. She is, however, a few years younger than I am, which could explain some of this lack of interaction. Oddly enough, our mom's know each other & tend to communicate w/some consistency; more so since I decided to tramp half way across the world to teach English.
Catching the train north was going to be a bit tricky for a couple reasons. First, it was Memorial Day weekend in Korea, which meant most everyone had Monday off & thus, would likely be traveling, so getting a ticket could be difficult unless I booked it online early. This depended, however, on ensuring I could catch the 9.36 pm train, otherwise I'd have to wait until nearly midnight.
The early train meant leaving work exactly at nine, catching a cab & hoping Friday traffic was still light enough to get to the station with enough time to get the ticket verified & printed out by the ticket agent & get to the platform before it pulled out of the station.
After letting James know my intentions & getting approval (there's usually 20 or 30 minutes of work after classes end at nine), I booked the ticket, printed out a copy & things fell into place fairly smoothly. Knowing the bus would take 40 minutes to get to the station, that wasn't an option, so I rolled the dice hoping to find a cabbie who was available to get me where I needed to be quickly. It seemed like things were looking good as Cherry (a nursing student in Toronto who is back in Gumi for the summer to earn money for school next year) lives near the station & thought we could share a cab. The price is basically the same no matter how many people are riding, although I think there is an charge per person initially but otherwise a good deal & she was going to call ahead & have one waiting exactly when we'd need it.
Outwardly, I really appreciated the gesture but was internally dreading the ride as she is the tremendously devout sort of Christian who is more than happy to let anyone around her know of her deep faith. The first time I met her she passionately explained how much she 'absolutely loves Jesus Christ, lives every day for him & can't imagine anyone ever not wanting to following the teaching of her lord and savior Jesus Christ.'
I won't get into my specific thoughts on religion (at least not this time) but needless to say, I kept my mouth shut & do my best to not have many one on one, non school related conversations w/her as I'm sure she'd be more than happy to 'witness' to me. I think she's a part of the Latter Day Saints group but I'm definitely not gonna ask as I can already visualize the whole scene transpiring into something I would absolutely much rather avoid.
At about 8:15 she informed me she hadn't called a cab yet but would do so soon. A couple minutes later she reported the bad news that 'all the cabs were busy & we'd really have a hard time finding one since they couldn't send one our way.' Great, not only does she wait until it's almost to late to call, she completely kicks me when I'm down. The little mouse on the wheel in my brain was, at this point, running crazy coming up with a plan of attack (for the cab, not Cherry). As usually seems to be the best option for me, I choose to take my chances & see if I might be lucky enough to catch one. James said he could drop me off but he had to drop two students off first and it would take at least 45 minutes, which did me no good.
Maybe I'm just lucky or perhaps Cherry said a little prayer for me. Either way, I walked out of the school, took about 7 steps down the sidewalk, turned in time to see an available cab tearing up the pavement. I hailed, he pulled over, I spoke a little Korean, he said OK & we were off. Wow, that was super easy, so much for being too busy!
The cab driver didn't speak much English but he said he'd been learning the language on his own for about 7 or 8 years. He was certainly not fluent but knew enough to keep the ride interesting. He politely tuned the radio to an English speaking station assuming that's what I wanted to hear (it wasn't) but the gesture didn't go unnoticed, even though he was frustrated at the poor reception, I think he was afraid it would ruin my impression of him. On the contrary, we were able to get a few new words written in his notebook for future reference - one being 'static' as that seemed to be a majority of the sounds coming from the station & the other was 'crappy' as in the terrible pop music I caught a bit of when the 'static' wasn't as atrocious as the music. As a service I like to provide all learners of this fair language, I wrote the words in English, in Hangul characters & then the pronunciation of the characters in English.
He was appropriately rewarded for his musical & English efforts as well as the swift precision in which he delivered me to Gumi station....I told him to keep the change of the 10,000 won bill I'd given him, which was basically about a $4 tip. It's uncommon to tip the cabbies as most are salaried employees of the city. Needless to say, he was very appreciative, thanked me a few times & even went out of his way to honk & wave as he drove away - this, in turn frightened the various bystanders waiting near the crosswalk who thought there might be something serious happening rather than a giddy cab driver.
Dutifully awaiting the signal to make my way through the crosswalk, anticipation was building & the expectation of a glorious weekend was nearly bubbling over. I couldn't get up the immense flight of stairs fast enough in order to have my actual ticket in hand to ensure my seat. After patiently standing in line, eye-balling both the clock on the far wall of the waiting room and the digital clock behind the counter, I finally found myself facing the ticket agent. It couldn't have gone more smoothly; presented her w/my printout, signed a receipt verifying my previous online purchase, courteously accepted my ticket & rapidly made my way back down to the train platform. All said & done, I had about 4 minutes to spare before the train was scheduled to arrive. Not surprisingly, though, it was a few minutes behind schedule but I knew if I had been late, it would have absolutely been on time & I'd have likely missed it, thus leading to the purchase of another ticket on the train nearly a few hours later.
The train wasn't nearly as full as I'd expected but as we continued towards north, it began filling up & I was more than happy to have paid a few extra bucks for the privileged of having a seat for the three hour trip rather than being relegated to a 'standing class' ticket, which is quite common. They are cheaper but can make for a completely miserable trip if you can't find a comfortable place to hunker down for the duration.
I had no idea how late the subway ran in Seoul & wasn't sure exactly where Tonya's boyfriend's place was located aside from the neighborhood & I wasn't really looking forward to wandering aimlessly in the middle of the night, meandering my way through the maze-like streets of Itaewon. My contingency plan if I couldn't get ahold of Tonya, would be to bed down in one of the seedy hotels that were bound to be strewn about the area surrounding the train station. I had texted Tonya a couple times on the train but heard nothing back, so I was playing the odds on spending $40 on a very crappy hotel room & starting over the next day if it came to that.
When we finally pulled into the station, it was about 12:45. I had pretty much written off hearing back from Tonya & Mark as I was pretty sure they weren't the 'night owl' types, I made my way through the train station I was anxious to catch a glimpse of some of the beggars I'd been warned about. A slight breeze had whipped up, there was chill in the air & light rain was falling, this happened to be enough to drive a majority of the vagrants into the public restrooms, where they had locked themselves in the toilets. Apparently they smoke a few cigarettes & work themselves into a relatively peaceful slumber for a few hours. It became glaringly obvious most of these guys were probably more passed out than sleeping, which likely led to the tremendous snores I was hearing as I went about my business at nearly 1 a.m. in a new & foreign city.
By the time I found the entrance to the subway, they were closing the gates & I realized I should have spent less time wandering around the station & just headed straight for the subway from the get go but nothing devastating as I still had no idea where exactly I'd be headed. With that opportunity nullified, I worked my way up & down the street for a few minutes getting a layout of the area & looking to find the least sketchy hotel to call home for the night.
Eventually, I had made my way to the second floor of what could certainly be described as low-end accommodations & I'd finally gotten a text asking if I'd made it, although it was a number I didn't have saved in my phone. Remembering Tonya had sent an email a few months prior saying she switched phone numbers, I was assuming it was her (questioning myself as to why I hadn't switched the number in my phone). Waiting my turn behind a couple of mid 20's Korean guys, I decided to give the number a call & see what might be waiting on the other end. The guys paid, received their room key & the nice middle aged lady patiently waited for me to step forward & follow suit. I held up my pointer finger (what I hoped was a universal sign for 'just a minute,' or we're number one, depending on what the situation might call for), hit send on the phone & hoped to hear a friendly Midwestern voice. After a few rings, Tonya answered & we devised a plan to get me w/in the general vicinity of where her & Mark were at & she'd meet me on the street.
I hopped in a cab, called Tonya so she could explain where the cabbie needed to go & we were on our way. The wound up and down some fairly empty roads towards Itaewon. This is where the main U.S. military based is located, offering this part of the city an even more International feel. Storefronts, bars & restaurants with English names was certainly a welcome sight but really having no idea where exactly I needed to go or what to look out for, I got to use my favorite Korean phrase, mo-lae-yo (I don't know), quite a bit when the cabbie looked to me for directions or some semblance of instruction on where he should be headed.
Needless to say, we called Tonya at least a dozen times as she explained where to let me out. Unfortunately, the name of the 'quickie mart' I was to be looking for had changed, which kinda made things more interesting. Eventually, the cabbie stopped and we waited for a few minutes. Him pestering me all the while that I should keep calling Tonya to make sure this was the right area. I think he was also both genuinely enamored w/my company & a concerned w/dropping me off in the middle of Seoul, knowing I obviously had no idea where I was. He also kept the meter running, of course.
When I finally decided to hand him money & get out, he kind of put his hand on my arm as if to say, wait until your friend is here but I was ready to get going & w/in a couple minutes, Tonya showed up & it was all good. It's nice to know people are concerned enough about other human beings to make sure friends arrive, which keeps my faith in humanity strong. I have noticed most Koreans are generally polite & helpful if the situation arises; which is always a welcome quality for a non-native like myself.
Anyway, that's pretty much the extent of actually getting to Seoul. I've got a few stories regarding the rest of the trip but this edition of the blog is long enough, so I suppose I can do a three part series for the weekend excursion.
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