My friend Bethany came to visit me in Busan for a few days. We both planned to go to Seoul on Friday, but I decided we should leave a day earlier because I thought she’d enjoy Seoul more. When we got there I felt the urge again to move there. There’s more everything. More to do, more to see. More people, more foreigners, more night life, more events. But also once again I came to realize that more is not better. There’s also more pollution. Like the last time I came up, I was hit with a headache that took about 2 days to go away. Transportation is more complicated and takes longer. After a few days I never wanted to set foot on a train for at least another week. And everything is more expensive. As you may know, spending money is one of my least favorite things to do.
Thursday we rode the KTX up. The train goes so fast (up to 300kph) that my ears were popping throughout the journey. I realized during the ride that we would arrive during rush hour. Wouldn’t be a big deal if it weren’t for Beth’s ginormous, heavy suitcase. We were going to meet my friend Nina, who was staying with some of her Korean family.
When we got off, there were crowds of people making their way to the metro station, and it only took me about 5 minutes to figure out which direction we were going. We made it with Bethany accidentally throwing her bag only once. We got to Nina’s apartment and met her cousin. It’s around 9 at this point and no one had had dinner. So we figure we’d better go out to get food. I didn’t want to leave. I was tired and desperately needed some down time. On the way out, we met Nina’s aunt, an older, sweet Korean lady, who invited us to come inside and eat dinner there. I would have happily accepted this offer if it hadn’t been for Nina.
“Oh, no, no…we really want to go out. We want to see Seoul. And Amber said she doesn’t want to eat here.” she said.
I was trying to communicate with my eyes that this was really not necessary.
“No! I never said that…” I smiled at her aunt apologetically.
“Plus,” Nina continued, “Amber only eats restaurant food.”
“What!” I exclaimed. “That’s not true…” Nina, I hate you right now, said my eyes. She knew it, too, but chose to ignore it.
“Ah, no, we really should be going. Come on!”
I tried not to pout as Nina’s aunt graciously gave us a lift to the subway. For the past few days I’d been playing to the whims of my visiting guest, and I couldn’t do it much longer. What can I say? I’m a selfish person. And I like to eat. My friend differs on this slightly. As a result, I’d ended up losing some pounds and the food deprivation was making me cranky.
We decide to go to Dongdaemun. It’s not too far, and there’s a night market. As we’re stepping on the train, someone steps on the back of my shoe. Instinctively I tried to scoop in up, but it popped off. I turned around, looking inside and outside the car. It was gone. It had fallen through the gap between the car and the platform.
As the doors close, I feel the sinking feeling in my stomach and have to close my eyes for a moment. Nina is theorizing about who must have stepped on the shoe, all the while trying to stifle her laughs.
“Nina, it really doesn’t matter who did it.” I said.
“It was probably me. I’m so sorry. I’ll buy you new ones…”
“No, no. Hey, it’s not funny. Really. “
“Well, it is kinda funny, if you think about it.” Beth is also trying to hold it back. People on the train are staring at me in my skirt, leggings, and one shiny flat.
“These shoes were not cheap. And I was going to wear them to the wedding tomorrow…”
“Oh…”
“…and it’s cold and I have one fucking shoe.”
The laughing resumes.
We reach our station and go out into the cold night in search of shoes. There’s frozen packs of snow on the ground that I try to avoid. Already I have circulation problems and my foot quickly goes numb. Finally we find a shoe seller underground. The man asks what happened to me. I try to explain and he kicks off his sandal for me and stands there on one foot while Nina and Beth pick up some sad looking heels and ask me, “How about this?”
The vendor is now hopping on one foot. “Hurry up! It’s cold!”
I buy a pair of plastic slippers and we head back out.
Now we’re all starving. Beth doesn’t eat anything. Nina doesn’t want Korean food. This leaves us…nothing. Nina points out a Chinese restaurant, which I figured Beth probably wouldn’t eat but I didn’t want to risk walking around another hour as it was now 10.
“What do you want, Nina?”
“I don’t know. You know about these things, not me.”
“Uh, ok. Beth. Did any of those pictures look good?”
“Not really. But just order whatever.”
“Ok…fine.” I order.
We get our food. It was too much, of course. Beth wouldn’t touch it. It was too greasy, which made both Nina and I feel a bit sick. And too expensive. I felt guilty Beth didn’t eat so I didn’t let her pay.
I’m feeling like a failure.
After walking and shopping, we head back. When we get back to the station we’d come from, we go to the office to try explaining my shoe situation. Apparently, this is not an all too uncommon occurrence. A couple men go back down with us, armed with a long tool with pinchers. When the train is gone, they open the doors and after some searching, retrieve my shoe. A bit muddy, but fine.
After, we catch a bus and Nina tries to ask the driver where we should get off to transfer. A passenger tells us it’s the next stop. We hop off and as soon as we do Nina is yelling that it’s not the right place. We don’t know where we are, exactly, so Nina runs into a nearby police station. She comes back out, giving me a strange look. An officer follows her out. He seems very excited. “Where you from?” he asks us in English.
“America and Norway.”
“We want to take bus 9.” Nina says.
“Yes. Bus-uh. Wait! Ah!” A bus is passing by and the officer stops it and talks a moment with the driver. The bus drives off. He motions for us to follow. I have no idea what’s going on. Waiting at an intersection, he drops the eager English and switches to Korean. “How old are you?” he asks to me and Beth.
“25 and 26.”
“Why don’t you take a taxi? You are 3 people, so it’s not expensive.”
He tries to figure out where Nina lives. He tells her to give him the phone so he can call her aunt. She dials it for him
“I just want to get on the bus! Oh shit! Please don’t say you’re the police! Amber, how do you say in Korean ‘Don’t say you’re…’”
“Hello! This is the police…”
I burst out laughing. This was just too ridiculous. Too much. All week and all the night the most simple things seemed to go wrong somehow. But I was beginning to realize, it wasn’t my fault. At least, mostly not my fault. This made it a little better.
Fortunately, nothing ever got worse after that. I spent a few more days in Seoul then headed back to Busan. A kind boy sitting next to me on the bus saved me from getting left behind at a rest stop. My headache disappeared. The next day was warm and sunny. A lady on the street gave me chocolates. Thank you, Busan.
진정해 ㅠㅠ
