The weekend

My Saturday was supposed to be super busy.

Over Skype, I arranged to meet one of JiBin's friends that I spoke with briefly back home. We were supposed to meet at 1PM on Saturday at Gangnam station -- or so I thought. I arrived right at 1PM, like exactly as the clock struck 1. Finding someone I've never met here is impossible while it is much easier for others to find me. I just waited at the meeting point for fifteen minutes and decided I would go to a pay phone and give her a call. I hate calling people to see where they are, especially if we've never met, but that is the life without a cellphone =*(. On a tangent, I just don't know how people were able to meet up before cellphones...

I gave her phone a call.......no answer. I quickly walked back to the meeting point to wait, just in case she was there and waiting. Fifteen more minutes pass. I decided that I must have the wrong exit, so I start racing around the subway station looking to see if there she might see me at another stop. No such luck, so it's time to try with another call. It's been about 45 minutes since I arrived at the station and that has been my magic number in the past (when meeting Josie and Youna). I call again, no answer. Hmmm...maybe I just had the hours wrong and we were going to meet at two.

So I went back to the exit and waited until 2:00...when I decided it best to try calling her again. No answer. I drew a line in the sand -- I would leave at 2:10 and try to get a hold of her over Skype. As my digital clock closed on 2:10, I gathered my remaining dignity and started back for the subway. I passed the phones again and just had to try calling one more time. This time I got her to answer. When we were talking on Skype, I said I wanted to meet at 1PM on Saturday, but would need to leave to meet someone else at six -- which was lost in translation to mean to her that I wanted to schedule a different day.

I went home to check my email because I was meeting two people at six. The writer of the email wrote "Shincheon," which could have meant "Sincheon" or "Sinchon." Since he added the 'h' after the 's,' I was concerned I would be at Sincheon while he tapped his feet at Sinchon (they are literally on complete opposite sides of the subway). He hadn't written back, but he mentioned a landmark that I could find and I discovered he meant Sinchon.

On my way to Sinchon, I ran into another...bizarre situation. Normally when I get on the subway, I am either ignored (like nobody really pays attention) or they quietly whisper and point in my general direction. Rarely do strangers interact, especially on the subway. As I boarded, this man looked at me, smiled and patted the seat next to him, implying he wanted me to sit next to him. This hadn't happened to me before, so I just insticintly sat next to him. He started talking to me in broken English and we talked until the next stop (three minutes or so). The announcer of the subway said something in Korean and then this man grabbed my hand and kind of walked me off the train. He said something like "we don't want this subway." I didn't really understand, but just went with the flow. We continued chatting until the next train arrived and we boarded it. As his stop neared, he pulled out a business card and wrote down his cell phone number and English name, John. John is 59, has a 30 year old son and 29 year old daughter. He was a nice guy, but the whole situation was a little creepy...especially when I told John I was a philosopher (I used my cellphone dictionary. I wanted philosophy student, but it was hard enough for us to communicate) and he told me I wasn't.

Late Friday, Youna wrote me an email asking if I wanted to spend some time with her and her friends Saturday night. I told her I was really interested, but was busy until about eight. She said that was kosher (not the word she used) and I should just call her when I was ready. I didn't want to miss this opportunity because I would have a chance to meet other students at Ewha, which as it stood at the time, I only knew Youna.

With all these details combined, it meant that my Saturday was happily busy with things to do. I met Youna around 7:40. She was with two friends and we were going to join some Dutch exchange students at a bar. The two Dutch guys are also studying at Ewha. The guys were nice, but I have this unfortunate apprehension toward spending too much time with Westerners here. The reason is that I am concerned I will fall into the trap of familiarity and become like the group that sat behind us -- only filled with Westerners. In addition, one of the guys seemed to bring up Holland as part of his answer to each question. "The Korean language is great, it is so hard to learn Asian languages in Holland...Korean history is interesting, similar to Dutch history...this Korean beer just can't stand up to my hometown's beer." They were really nice and I am looking forward to a term with them.

That was my Saturday. Sunday was a great day too!

When I was living with Danny, he introduced me to a couple of his friends. Through the course of our discussion, it came up that I was preparing to head to Korea. His friend told me about a friend of hers from Korea and I should get in touch with him. I did, but he told me that he was outside Seoul and likely couldn't meet up with me before my classes started (his started two weeks ago, I believe). He did tell me about his cousin that goes to Yonsei and I could meet her. Sunday was our time together. Through the grapevine, finding her (Jenny) was: Friend's friend's friend's cousin, AKA friend^3's cousin.

Jenny and I arraigned to meet near Insadong and spend some time there and then possibly watch a movie. After my fiasco on Saturday, I was nervous that I would have the wrong time, day, place and so forth. We met up and all went smoothly. We watched "Jumper," because I needed a movie in English since I doubted the Korean movies would be English subtitled. It was pretty good, I just wish they had more of the cool fight scenes with everyone teleporting around.

She had to get home for dinner because there was a guest coming. It was only five or so and I was close to Itaewon, which made it too tempting not to visit. Finding a bookstore in Seoul has been uncommon; finding an English bookstore in Seoul has been near impossible thus far. I read that Itaewon had a couple English bookstores and I've been trying to find "The Will to Believe" by William James because it came so highly recommended by Steven. Here is an appropriate space to write, "good luck with that Erik."