The Adventure Gets Wet...Day 21 in Korea

I woke up to the sound of rain drumming on the windows. Normally, I could sleep all day to the sound of raindrops pelting glass, but it was a holiday and I had agreed to go hiking with my friends Ashley and Shawn.  I checked with both of them to see if they were still interested while I sipped on my morning stick coffee. Shawn had to cancel because he had some work that he had to get done for his school, but luckily Ashley was still down for hiking. We decided to meet at E-Mart after the rain died down. Luckily, that did not take long and I was out the door before I could say Jack Robinson, armed only with my trusty pack and some snacks.

It started raining again at about the same time that I met Ashley in front of E-Mart. We decided to go into E-Mart to get water for our trip, as well as some snacks. (You can never have enough snacks) I bought a 6 liter jug of water, remembering how much water I'd consumed on the last hike to Namhansanseong Fortress. We returned outside to find that it was raining even harder than before. In fact, it was pouring down buckets. I looked at Ashley and asked her if she was up for hiking in the rain. She was! I was happy to know that I wasn't the only crazy person in Gwangju-si.

We decided to go to Namhansanseong Fortress, and came up with a plan to take a bus to Moran Station in Seongnam, then hop on another bus that would take us to the bottom of the mountain (where that cool little park was that I'd discovered). From there, we would hike up the mountain and into the fortress. We could hike around up there and see lots of stuff and then catch a bus from the top back into Gwangju-si. It seemed like a great plan for a great day. Or so we thought...

The first problem that we ran into was trying to find a bus that went from the middle of Gwangju-si to Moran Station. I knew some buses that went to Moran from the bus stops near my house, but they stuck to the highway and didn't go down into the city. I wasn't very worried, because I knew how to read Hangeul and I was fairly confident that I could find a bus stop that went to Moran. 20 minutes of walking around in the city finally produced results and we found a bus that was on a line that went to Moran Station. At this point the rain was coming down in buckets, so we sat and waited under the bus stop, in the company of a few Koreans.

When our bus finally arrived, we hopped on board. I was excited because it was my first opportunity to try out my T-Plus card (the little card that goes "beep"). However, it wouldn't take much to throw me off. After stepping onto the bus, I reached up to try out my card but the bus driver looked at me and said "Oh dee." I had no idea what this meant, so I just nodded and said "Ne." (Yes) "Oh dee!" repeated the bus driver. "Ne!" I repeated, fishing into my pockets and depositing 1,300 won into the box (I figured he must have been naming a price). "OH...DEE!" he exclaimed. "NE" I said, scanning my card. He waived me back and wouldn't let Ashley pay (apparently I'd paid for both of us). We rode for about 2 stops before he looked back and asked "Moran?" "Ne! Moran!" I said. He stopped the bus, opened the door, and pointed at the bus stop across the street. Apparently, we were on the bus that was the right number, but heading in the wrong direction. (I later learned that "Oh dee" means "Where." He was trying to ask us where we were going, probably sensing that we didn't want to head into the countryside.)

We were able to immediately catch a bus that was heading in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, the air conditioner was blasting and we were both wet. Ashley was suffering more than I was (over the years, I have built up a thick layer of..."insulation" on my body, much like whales) and so I looked in my pack to see if I'd packed a jacket. I hadn't. We sat in the cold air conditioning for about 45 minutes before we reached Moran. It was raining harder than ever and we sprinted to the nearest cover that we could find. As we huddled under the awning of a building, Ashley looked at me and said that she thought it might be a good idea if we didn't go hiking. She pointed out that we would only be miserable in this weather. As much as I wanted to go hiking, I knew that she was absolutely right. (Also, I was glad that she was the first one to say it and not me). We saw that there were movie posters on the building that we were hiding under, and decided to go see a movie instead.

We went inside the building, which was a multi-floored department store, and inquired as to the location of the cinema. We were told that it was on the top floor. We journeyed up 8 floors by escalator until we reached the 8th and highest floor. The only movie that wasn't Korean was "The Dark Knight Rises." Ashley hadn't seen it, and I wanted to see it again to finalize my opinion of it, so we decided that we would go see it.

(Dah-kuh Na-ee-tuh Lrah-ee-juh) Dark Knight Rise?

I suggested that we dry off first, because being wet in a movie theater would probably only make us cold again. There were some restaurants and coffee shops on the 7th floor, so we went there to warm up. Ashley had to use the bathroom, so I stood by a sign outside of the bathroom and waited for her. While waiting, and older man came up to me and said "Where are you from?" I didn't understand it at first (his accent was heavy), and told him that I was waiting for my friend in the bathroom. He looked at me funny, and started to walk by, but at that moment I realized what he had asked and said suddenly "Mi-gook!" (America). "Oh, America!" he said, smiling, "nice to meet you." I told him that it was nice to meet him, too, and we bowed and then he went off to the bathroom.

After about 10 minutes, Ashley came out of the bathroom. She told me that it was really warm in the bathrooms and that she wanted to go back. I thought this was a great idea (I was really cold at this point) so we each went to our respective bathroom. Ashley was right, the bathroom was really warm. It was also very clean. I spent the next 10-15 minutes standing in the bathroom (while also forming an intimate relationship with the hand dryer).

We each emerged from our toasty, gender-based havens and headed for the coffee shop. Ashley wanted to get a Green Tea Latte, so I read the Hangeul on the sign and told her how to say it in Korean (even though the sign was also in English). She walked up to the man and said the Korean name, and he smiled, nodded, and started making her drink. I decided that I wanted the same thing, so I walked up to the counter and repeated the order. The man looked at me funny and said "You mean Green Tea Latte?" I nodded glumly, my confidence deflated. Damn Monkey Apple Carburetor...

We drank our lattes and stood around for a while, chatting about life and such. Ashley is pretty much a badass. She went to college in Arizona, where she saw Maynard from Tool a few times. (He makes wine out there) She's been to a few countries, including Japan and India. She's even met the Dalai Lama. She's done all this cool stuff and she's younger than I am. I hope I can catch up some day.

After chatting for a while, we made our way back up to the theater, where we asked about Dark Knight times. The lady told us that the next showing was in 4 hours. We didn't want to wait around that long, so we made an executive decision to head back to Gwangju-si, where we would try to watch the same movie at our local theater. We went through Moran Station to get across the street to the bus stop where I knew that the buses to Gwangju-si would be. I knew some of the buses that went back but didn't remember all of them. I saw a bus pull up that had a number that looked familiar, so I suggested we hop on it. The bus started heading back towards Gwangju-si, but then suddenly turned and started driving down a major highway that was heading west (Gwangju-si is southeast of Seongnam). I swore and told Ashley that we'd gotten on the wrong bus again. We decided to get off at the next stop.

The bus didn't stop for probably 15-20 minutes. When it finally did, the stop going in the other direction was on the other side of a 10-lane highway, with no way to apparent way to get over to it. We waited until the next stop, where we could see a little bridge for pedestrians that led to the other side of the highway. We hopped off and headed over to the other stop. It was some time before the bus that we needed to get on pulled up, and we then had to ride back to Seongnam. We had to go through Moran Station again to get across the street to the bus stop. At this point, I was feeling like a Class-A idiot.

This time, we got on the ride bus and made the 45 minute ride back to Gwangju-si. We got off at a bus stop that was past the city, but before my apartment. Having never gotten off at this stop before, I wasn't quite sure as to the nearest place where we could cross the highway. We walked towards the place that I knew, which was in the direction of my apartment (but away from the city) until the sidewalk disappeared. Not wanting to walk on the street, where we would surely be killed by traffic, we retraced our steps. This time when the sidewalk ended, it seemed to be next to a junkyard that was down some steps. Feeling frustrated, I walked down the steps and saw a place where we could cross to the other side of the highway (it went beneath the road).

We crossed under, and headed back towards E-Mart. We cut through the park, where we could see that the river running through it had risen drastically and had a strong current. We crossed the little bridge and entered the E-Mart food court through a back entrance. To try to begin making up for my idiocy, I bought us some fresh gimbap. We ordered it to go, but sat and ate it in the food court. The lady at the stand that we ordered from sent out 2 bowls of soup to our table. (She must have felt compassionate after seeing how cold and wet we looked). It was Ashley's first time trying fresh gimbap and she loved it. I was glad that I had at least been able to do that much for her, after taking us on a rather out-of-the-way journey around the area.

Shawn met up with us in the food court, and then went to check on the movie times. He returned with bad news: The Dark Knight Rises was no longer playing at our local theater. Dammit, dammit, dammit.

Shawn had not eaten, and Ashley and I were both still hungry, so we went to a little Vietnamese restaurant in the food court. I had an awesome dish that consisted of spicy pork and rice. It was pretty awesome (and filling!). While we were eating, Shawn and Ashley started to giggle. When I looked up at them, Shawn said "You have a fan." I looked over next to me, and there in her high chair sat a little Korean baby girl, ogling me. I must have been rather interesting, because she had to turn almost all the way around to see me. She stared at me periodically throughout the entire meal, probably fascinated by my white skin, big eyes, and facial hair. I wish I could have taken a picture of her, because she was one of the cutest babies that I have ever seen.

After dinner, we said goodbye to Shawn and then headed towards the rear entrance to E-Mart. We stopped by the bathroom on the way out. It was there that I took this picture (the only picture that I took that day!)

That's not how you spell "Smoking"!

Ashley and I walked as far as the park together and then parted ways. I cut through the park to head home, crossing back over the little bridge. When I finally reached my house, I was wet, tired, and happy to be home. I was annoyed at the rain, which had ruined all of the plans that I'd had for my day off. I spent the rest of the day blogging and chatting with people before I finally went to bed and hoped that my day at school on Thursday would be much better.