I sat near the door and read the stops on the map as we approached, listening to the announcement’s pronunciation versus the Romanized spelling. Zena made sure when she dropped me off that I remembered it would be 11 stops, and it was very easy to follow.
I arrived at Banwoldang station easily. I really wanted to take a few pictures of people on the train, but couldn’t figure out how to do so inconspicuously. (Nothing I do is ever inconspicuous, as everyone is always looking at me.) There was a poster that I need to find again to capture on film. A 20-something guy in a shiny pink suit and pink bowtie, obviously dancing, and up his hand were climbing festive rainbow colors. In America, there’d be no question, he is gay. Gay, gay, gay. In the words of Lewis Black, he’s rooty-tooty-fresh-and-fruity. But by the time I noticed the poster, a man was sitting in front of it. It would’ve been too hard to try to explain to him that I was not taking the picture of him but the poster. Either way, he would have thought I was odd. So no picture.
(I got it later. Here it is! Fantastic, isn't it?)
Then a man got on in a shiny grey suit and red shirt with sparkly red sequins in a design on the front. It was fabulous. I tried to mute the sound on my phone so I could snap a picture, but I kept making noise with the phone instead, and I lost my opportunity as he moved to stand too close to my seat to get a good shot.
I got off at the stop and followed the crowd, but most were changing trains, so I only saw two leave. They had transportation cards, and scanned them on the turnstile to get out. The system seems so complicated to me. You buy a token (“ticket”) and pay the correct amount for the length of your trip. When you get to your destination, you swipe the card (if you have a prepaid multi-use one) or deposit the single-use token into the machine. If you’ve gone further than you paid for, you owe more money. No one explained this part to me, so I didn’t know what to do to get out. I tried a couple of things, but no one was around to ask, so I called Zena who explained what to do. I deposited my token, and the turnstile let me out. I was on my way.
The station was like a mall. I exited the train on the 4th level down, and came up to exit on level 3. Level 3 and 2 are shopping malls, and level 1 ("sky level") is above ground (ground level).
"Booby" is a cartoon character in Korea. Just funny to me.
There's an east wing and west wing and maybe 50+ stores in each, on each level. There are also like 18 exit gates. Nic and I had never been there, so we didn't know to specify where to meet. We said at Dong-A (dept store) and thought that was good. We didn't know until we arrived that there were so many exits, and that Dong-A has entrances on many streets.
It was quite an experience. She doesn't have a cell phone so we couldn't just call each other and figure out how to find each other. I searched for a bit, then called Joe to see if he told her a gate to go to, but he didn't. Finally, after much searching, I call a call. Nic found a pay phone (which are fairly rare) and I found her. Whew!
We decided to take a taxi to where we were going--I don't really know where that was. It was a very busy area downtown. There was a huge movie theater and many shops and restaurants. I found a 24 hour McDonald's, 24/7 Burger King, and a Pizza Hut. (In the States I don't like any of these, but let me tell you--I was thrilled to see them.)
Hello Kitty storefront, lighted and animated.
We saw a 2-story crazy animated Hello Kitty store, and found Papa John's. We planned to eat there (it's an actual restaurant, not just a delivery/pickup storefront like at home), but they were closing in half an hour and he wouldn't let us. (That would never happen in the States! Restaurants must stay open until the last minute advertised, and must seat people until that time. And then, of course, stay open until everyone has finished eating. I must say, I was a little jealous of the Korean way.)
We sat down and looked over the menu (yay for pictures!) and worked out a combo ("set") that sounded good. We might have taken more time to figure it out, but the guy stood there at the table waiting for a decision. We settled on a shrimp alfredo pizza, and 1.5 liter Coke, and cheese sticks set for 35,000 won. (Yikes.)
And then I figured out why he wouldn't let us eat there. It took nearly the whole half hour to make our pizza. It came out wrapped very prettily with bow and all, and a bag of sauces, napkins, and sweet pickles (they're pretty much eaten with everything here). We left and set about finding somewhere outside to sit and eat. We found an out of use fountain and made a picnic. Not as many strange looks as expected. By the time we left Papa John's almost all the shops were closed. It was eerie (sp?) how fast everything shut down. Things don't close that fast, or people flee the area that fast, even when there's a hurricane in the US! It was impressive.
We opened our pizza package and it was great. I had expected a pizza like at home, but no. It was thin crust—they don’t really do what we call “original crust” here. You can sometimes get thick crust, but only at specialty places.
The cheese sticks were perfect—exactly as at home—and I had a Coke, so I was happy. Nic was laughing her butt off as I picked off the mushrooms and dug out the pickles. C’mon people, if you’re gonna put weird things on your pizza, at least put them on top of the cheese! They do the same thing at home. Which means picky people=messy people. Boo.
Then a girl came over and said hi. I thought maybe Nic knew her, but no. She sat down on the bike rack and explained in very good English that she’s had too much to drink, but her friends think she’s drunk, and she’s not. (She was, very much.) Her friends kept pulling her away and apologizing, but she kept coming back and talking. It was hilarious.
She said she was a doctor and worked in the same building as Papa John’s, and just above a big English school, but they only had American men, who all wanted to “sex” her and she didn’t like them. We said we didn’t either, haha. (Sorry guys!)
Her friends finally pulled her away and literally dragged her across the street.
A few minutes later we saw them walk by again, carefully avoiding us. A few minutes after that, she was running down the sidewalk away from them. A few more minutes later, they pushed her into the back seat of a taxi, alone. We thought that was a bad plan. If that were me, already really drunk and wanting to drink more, I would slide to the other side and get out. But in Korea, the driver’s side back door is always locked. Nic said she would get out down the block if it was her. Maybe 10 minutes later, the drunk girl was back. Apparently she and Nic had the same idea. Her friends kept calling to ask if she was home, and she told them she was with the Americans. The whole situation was totally random, and absolutely hilarious. We had just decided to stay out a bit longer and get a drink somewhere, so we invited her along.
It was funny talking in nearly perfect English with a totally wasted Korean woman. But she got us to the bar with no problem. We ended up at Club That, which was a lovely little place with a great patio (complete with heaters and blankets for every chair), and two floors inside. We decided to sit inside on the first floor where there were plushy chairs and couches. Think wilderness ski lodge, with only 8 tables. They had a huge picture menu, which was great. I’m told that is a hot spot for foreigners, who mostly hang out on the 2nd floor. A group of 3 English people came in to celebrate a birthday.
Club That
We sat and talked a long time about Korea and travel and Daegu and such. It was great. At 1am I decided I really needed to go home and give Hayes-y some company and a walk before sleep. We made our way to a huge line of taxis and we left. The drunk girl and I live close to each other, so we shared a cab. Thank god we did, because I never could’ve made it on my own. She did all the interpreting for me (the cab driver didn’t speak any English), and tried to help figure out where my house was from the map I gave them. (They don’t use addresses and name streets like we do in the US. Only the post office cares about addresses.) I told him that if he could get me to the hospital nearby, I could get home from there.
We dropped the drunk girl off first, and she tossed some bills at the driver. (I don’t know exactly how much the fee actually was, because I didn’t see a meter, but he said upfront that it would be 2,000 won more because he was going to a different city. Apparently taxi drivers are part of the large group that doesn’t consider Gyeongsan part of Daegu. After the length of that ride, going into complete darkness a bit before getting to Gyeongsan, I understand why they say I’m in the country.
We arrived okay, and I asked how much and he said, “No. She—“ The drunk girl paid for the whole thing. Wow. And she paid for our drinks at the bar. Wow x2. Crazy.
We got her number, so hopefully we can see her again and pay for her drinks next time.
Lessons learned:
1. Everything happens for a reason. There are many reasons why the night should not have worked out. No cell phone, but we found each other. We found the Papa John’s, and it was still open. By sitting outside, we made an unexpected friend.
2. Plan accordingly when possible, so I can take the subway (1,000 w) instead of a taxi (20,000 w).
3. I cannot afford pizza very often. My half was 20,000 w. At OSU I could get a large cheese pizza for $6.99 USD. Amazing. I can eat Korean food for a week for the price of one large pizza here (35,000 w).
All in all, it was great.
Tonight’s motto: My hovercraft is full of eels.
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