The Buscapade and Other Adventures

One of the best parts about being in Korea has to be that as I look back on each month they seem to better than the previous one. It's certainly no exaggeration about February, which was one of the best months I've had, ever. 

The last week was a bit like a roller-coaster--twists, turns, ups, downs--but a good week nevertheless. I guess I'll start with the bizarre bus story first. Ji Hye planned to move to Pohang on Sunday evening to begin her teaching job the following day, and she was to take the bus from this area of town that has a few bus terminals that offer bus transportation to different parts of the country. I had wanted to give her a going-away gift, but I was busy much of Sunday and so was she with packing. Well, around 5p I was drinking a black tea latte with a friend at a coffee shop when I suddenly spied Evian water for sale. Evian water isn't really anything super special, but it's not easy to come by and it's Ji Hye's second-favorite kind of water and one that she had asked me to get her sometime. So I hatched a plot. I would buy the water, find out when she was getting to the bus terminal, and surprise her with the small gift while she waited for the bus to take off. It seemed like a good idea at the time...

After subtly getting a rough idea of when she was taking the bus, I went back to the coffee shop and got the bottle of water. I also wrote her a little note with some teaching tips that I had learned the hard way in my few years in the classroom, and that seemed appropriate seeing as how Monday was the first day of school. I took the subway towards the side of town with the buses and then went to the express bus terminal to wait for her. Then I realized the problem--the bus terminal I was at didn't have any buses going to Pohang. I didn't panic because I knew there was another terminal nearby. So I walked over there, but to my amazement, that terminal also had no service to Pohang. Luckily (so I thought) I saw a third bus terminal with passengers queueing, and I hiked it over there. To my double surprise, this terminal also had no service to Pohang. I decided that prayer was better than panic, and after that I felt like I would find her regardless of the quickly vanishing window of time. I had the bright idea to call a Korean friend to ask about buses, but he was clueless. I was basically on my own. Finally, I found a fourth bus terminal, but again, no luck. However, instead of walking out dejectedly, I thought to ask the employee where I could get a bus to Pohang. She politely wrote out directions that I should give to a taxi driver--apparently I was in the right area, but there was a separate, remote bus terminal some blocks away that I would otherwise not be able to find. I happened to be out of cash save for an emergency $10 that I keep in my wallet, so I pulled that out and told the taxi driver where to go. He hesitated when I told him my location, knowing it wouldn't be a big fare, but he relented and took me over. Meanwhile, I wanted to keep all of this a surprise from Ji Hye, so I sent her a text wishing her a good trip, hoping to find out where she was. As the taxi driver pulled up to the right terminal, I got her response: "I'm in the bus now."

It seemed like all my effort and time was for naught. I called her, knowing that the gig was up. When I told her where I was, she was so surprised that we both laughed about the misadventure, and I asked how long she'd been on the bus. She said that they'd actually just left and that they were waiting at a stop light. Sure enough, I looked down the road a bit and I could see a big bus sitting in the middle of three lanes of traffic waiting for a light to change. I ran off in the direction and she hurried to the door of the bus, and the slightly befuddled driver obligingly opened the door to admit the passage of the Evian and letter to Ji Hye. It was an amusing moment that lasted just a second, because the light soon changed and she was off. We both found the situation extremely funny and really silly, but I was soooo happy that I could actually give her something as simple as a bottle of water for her trip. 

The rest of the week was interesting as well. I taught Ji Hye to play Texas Hold'em, and it turns out she's a natural. We played for a few hours at an all-night ramyun noodle place, and played more on subsequent evenings on Facebook. Saturday night I invited David and Hye Song over to play GoStop and poker with me and Ji Hye. David absolutely destroyed me in GoStop and I was soon out of money and had to borrow from Ji Hye just to keep playing. It would've been more shameful, but the fact that Ji Hye didn't win any rounds made me feel better. =) It was definitely David's night in that game, so we switched to poker. I'd been playing a lot recently, and early on I won enough from the other players to pay back the borrowed money to Ji Hye. However, paying her back significantly lowered the amount I had to bet with in following rounds, and I ended up busting and having to borrow the money back again.... She's really, really good at games like that and it's awesome that we can play for hours on end and enjoy ourselves a ton. 

I think I may have found a new best friend.