Out and About

This last weekend wasn't the best.  I wasn't feeling very well so stayed in bed the whole time.  Monday evening I thought to myself, enough is enough.  I'm getting up and out of here tomorrow.  Tomorrow came.  I wondered if I should just go to the office and work on lesson plans.  But you know, if I am going to all the work of getting out of here then I should make it worth it.

So I bundled up, grabbed tissues and my purse, and started hiking to Namsan to catch a bus.  Didn't get very far.  The shortcut behind the cafe that goes down hill... had ice.  I fell of course.  A Korean lady saw me and ran over chattering in Korean.  I gave her a thumbs up and she motioned me to the other side of the brick path.  So I jumped over and gave the thumbs up again and she knodded, chattering a mile a minute the whole time.  I smiled to her and went on my way.

At the bottom off to the side is a backyard to some apartments.  Oh Lord please hide my blunder from their eyes and memory!  Kept walking.  Got to the front of those apartments where people were waving and saying goodbye to some other people.  I bowed and kept walking.

One of the cars passed me and stopped.  I walked up to it and looked inside.  I couldn't tell if he was a teacher here or not.  So many look the same.  He offered a ride and so I climbed in.  I said Jain, and he asked where after that.  So I said Sawol station and he knodded and said Gyeongsan.  As he drove, I learned he was the father of a freshman highschool girl age 18.  He had another older daughter, but would really like a son.  His English was good (to me, he didn't think so) because he went to seminary in the Philippians.  I was like, "Seminary?  So you are a pastor?"  He knodded and said he was director of something or another at the conference office.  Oh boy... someone important.

He asked where I was going from Sawol and I said downtown.  His office is downtown so he kept driving.  I want to buy presents for family back home, but I don't know what to buy.  He said truly Korean gifts required a guide to find them or make them.  He gave me his business card and I wrote his wife's name and number on it.  She will take me shopping sometime next month.  I am excited, but unsure what it will be like.  Anyrate, he dropped me off at Banwondong.  Or so I thought.

This is the stop on the route where you can either walk or switch trains.  I always have walked.  Well, I didn't recognize anything.  So I went downstairs and went to exit 12.  It was not the exit 12 I knew.  How come I get lost every time I go downtown by myself?  Anyrate, I figured out that Banwondang plaza and station are two separate things.  I started walking in the direction I figured was the right direction (and I was right.)

As I was walking along, a tall Korean (taller than me by a lot) spoke English to me.  I was surprised and he carried an easy conversation.  He said he had seen me around there before and did I work in the area.  I told him I was a teacher, and no I didn't.  (I think it was a pick up line.)  He was trying to call the owner of a space that was right there about renting it for an office.  He had been to New York and that was why his English was so good.  I tried asking if I was going in the right direction.  He wasn't sure of where the Lotte Young Plaza was.  A white guy and his Korean girlfriend walked by.

Okay, I'm adjusting to Korea very well because I rather ask a Korean who may not understand English well for directions instead of another foreigner who probably shops there all the time.  What is not right about this?

My friendly Korean guy pointed to them and was really excited.  He was like, "He has a Korean girlfriend!  I want a foreigner girlfriend!."  I was like, "that is my cue... bye."  He stopped some other Korean ladies and asked them for me and they gave directions.  I think he wanted to escort me there, but I wasn't willing to wait for him to finish setting up the agreement for renting that office space.  Also, I am pretty sure he was in his 40s.  Boyfriend?!  I got a bit uncertain and gracefully made my exit.

I now knew where I was and enjoyed the rest of my trip.  In the end I didn't do any shopping.  Just got supper and saw a movie.  A movie in English might I point out.  That was really important.  I am starting to say some of my phrases super basic like a Korean who is learning English.  So being in a setting where normal English (even if it was a bit old English... Sherlock Holmes) was used was nice.