I arrived in Seoul to freezing temperatures, something that
was so foreign to me having spent over 3 weeks in the tropical conditions of
Thailand and Australia. I stepped out of the airport and I fully understood how
Sanka Coffie felt when he flew from Jamaica to Canada.
Upon arrival I was due to meet up with my good friend Josh who
has been living in Korea for the past 6 months, but unfortunately due to his
teaching schedule he was working that particular evening and I had to find my
way to his local subway station. He had given me very clear, well written
instructions to make it from the airport to Ganseok Station near Incheon, with
the final destination a pub called Cheers.
Before I started my expedition from the airport I tried to
contact my friends and family to inform them of my safe arrival in Seoul.
Unfortunately, I could not receive any phone signal nor could I find a (free)
wireless connection in the airport. So I thought I would set off regardless
based on the assumption that everyone in the know knew what time my flight was
due to land and barring any reported aircraft disasters my friends and family
would assume that I was safe.
I set off on the (initially) mind-blowing subway network.
Struggling the pronunciations of many of the stations and working out which
stations to change at to make sure I was on the correct lines. I had only been
in the country a short while, maybe an hour when I noticed that there are very
few foreigners in South Korea. On that particular journey on the subway I noticed that everyone was Korean. Rick Ross once rapped that he was
“the only fat n**** in the sauna with Jews”. In this circumstance I was the
only white person in a carriage with Koreans, it doesn’t have the same ring to
it but the message is still the same.
The journey was due to take 1 hour and 20 minutes in total
but due to my inexperience of the public transport network in Korea, and
because I was carrying very heavy luggage, the journey took a lot longer. The
strangest moment of my journey was yet to come; I was happily minding my own
business waiting on the train for my station when two men boarded the carriage
holding hands. Now, two men holding hands doesn’t bother me in the slightest
but they didn’t seem to be homosexual men. They were both dressed in quite
casual clothing, both in their 50s, far from flamboyant, and didn’t strike me a
gay. I thought that men holding hands is probably an acceptable custom in Korea
without people assuming that they are gay. So I ignored it, which made me feel
wonderful, as I thought I was fitting into Korean culture so quickly! The two
men then started talking to me as if I was a local. I said to them, in English,
that I didn’t speak Korean, but that was pretty much a waste of time as they
continued to speak Korean and I politely smiled and nodded. I can only assume
that as I smiled and nodded I inadvertently agreed to something that I wish I
hadn’t as one of the men began to hold my hand. If you had been on that
particular train, on that particular day you would have seen three men holding
hands and I was the only one that had no idea what was going on! Luckily my
stop arrived and I made a swift exit. I have since asked Koreans if that was a
normal experience and they have told me that what I experienced on that day was
truly unique. Lucky me.
I had finally arrived at Cheers. I had a couple of hours to
kill as I waiting for Josh to finish work so I sat back and relaxed. The hours
passed and finally Josh and his very good friend James walked through the
entrance to the pub! I was as happy to see them as they were to see me. James
had asked Josh what I looked like so he knew who to look for, Josh described me
as a ‘bearded white man’, which is very accurate.
It was at this stage that they questioned why I hadn’t
contacted anyone that I had arrived in Seoul safely. I explained that I had no
connectivity and that the last instructions I received were to meet them at
Cheers. Josh told me that there has been global panic of my whereabouts. No one
had seen or heard from me in 20 hours since I left Sydney the day before and
unaware of the trepidation that was happening in England, Australia, and Korea
I was happily enjoying a few pints without a care in the world. That night James,
Josh, and I went out and caught up over a few more beers.
The following morning was confirmed with a stinking
hangover. I awoke on Josh’s sofa, as I looked around I wondered “where on earth
am I?” It took a while to load the last memories of the night before, and
things became clear again. But, it was the first realisation that I was in
South Korea, a country I never thought I would ever live in but there I was,
fully clothed from the night before and with a hangover you wouldn’t wish on
your worst enemies. Living the dream.
Since I’ve been in Korea I have met some great people. The
first was Josh’s roommate, James, a very adventurous character that enjoys a
night out. As the morning unfolded the damaging effects became apparent, Josh’s
knee had given way and was troubling him dearly. So much in fact that he
claimed that he may not be able to make it out that night in Seoul. James did
very little to comfort him and gave him all the convincing he needed by coining
the phrase “what tequila will break, tequila will fix”.
Another fantastic person that I’ve met during my short stint
in Korea is Susie, James’ girlfriend. A wonderful Korean girl who lights up our
nights out with her occasional misunderstanding of English. She has an innocence
that maybe I take advantage of when I try to expand her English vocabulary. In
Josh and James’ local, Woodstock, they have a brick wall that frequenters of
the bar will write messages on.
Often it’s just names and dates, other people
will put the URL address of their blog, which is exactly what Josh did. He
wrote www.trainersnthat.com on the
wall. So I thought it would be funny, and I still do to some extent, to write
Tits n Muff on the wall.
Susie unacquainted with these two words asked what
they meant, and rather than explain the definition I decided I would help her
by drawing a picture.
She understood but seemed to be impressed with the
choice of words that I was educating her with. Josh and James were also unhappy
that I had ruined the wall of their local and confiscated the marker from me.
The wall had years’ worth of good will messages, tags, and memories on it and
on my first visit to the pub I had ruined the wall. I have also taught Susie the
word ‘pubes’ and the expression ‘shove it’. It always seems funny at the time
but I will likely draw comparisons to Kev from Derek (a Ricky Gervais TV show, watch it if you haven’t already).
My first few days in Korea had been different and exciting,
but made very easy with the welcome from Josh, James, and Susie. Unfortunately
their schedules all resulted with them returning to work on Monday morning
while I wasn’t due into work until Tuesday afternoon so it was already decided
that I would spend the next few nights in a hotel. It was at that point that I
realised I was on my own for a few days and knew nothing about the country and only
one word of the language. That word was ‘annyeong’, which means ‘hello’, and I only learned that from Arrested Development! I lived through the next few days
by pointing and using hand gestures to the best of my ability. I survived but
only just.
