Thursday, June 21st

I had the morning shift then I went back to the apartment for a couple hours I think. I got dinner with Cathy, Erin, and Jenna at the Sri Lankan pavilion, meaning I got to have samosas for the first time in months. They were pretty good, although I think my standards for Indian food have lowered due to the difficulty in finding it. After dinner, I went outside of expos to get waffles with ice cream with Cathy and Audrey, which are always delicious. 


That night I got on the KTX train at the train station at 9:50 pm. I had a standing room only seat, so when I went into the car, I had no idea where I was supposed to go since it just had an aisle and rows of two seats on each side, meaning there was no space for people to stand. So I just stood in the area between the two cars where there was a restroom, stoarge rack, and 2 seats along the wall. I nabbed one of them while trying to observe or eavesdrop my way into figuring out where people with standing room only seats went. It turns out I wasn't the only person who was confused though. A bunch of Koreans had no idea where to go either. After hanging out in the middle space for about an hour, a stewardess informed me that I could sit in the car, which I assumed meant that there were just extra seats. Anyway, the cars are really nice and they have free wifi, which makes the 3 hours go by pretty quickly. I arrived in Seoul at 1 am at what I thought was 용산역 (Yongsan Station) and I started looking around the station for my friend Minsung, who had promised to meet me at the station and had been there waiting for me since 12:30. I couldn't find her though, and after 20 minutes, I went and explained to two policemen in the station I couldn't find my friend who was going to pick me up and that I had no way to contact her since I didn't have a cell phone. One of them immediately gave me his cellphone so I could call her on it, which I did. She told me to go to the third floor entrance and meet her there. I was on the second floor and had been looking around there so I figured that was the problem. When I tried to go up the staircase though, another officer told me it was closed, but I explained my friend told me to meet her up there, so he let me go up. It consisted of a shopping center that had been closed down for the night. I managed to exit it and I ended up passing a security guard, who was surprised to see someone come out that way probably because that area was supposed to be blocked off. The exit led to the parking garage, so I thought that maybe she was just waiting in there for me, but I didn't see her in there. By this time, I'd been looking for her for a half hour, so I just shouted her name to see if she was within earshot. She didn't respond, but the guard finally asked me what I was doing. I explained to him my predicament and he called her, but she didn't pick up. So he walked me back through the shopping center to look for her and he kept talking to me. Finally, he just asked me if I knew where I was. I told him I thought this was 용산역 (Yongsan Station), but he informed me I was actually in 서울역 (Seoul Station), which is why I couldn't find my friend. I had thought the KTX was getting out at a different station, which is where my friend was waiting for me. So he tried to call her again, but couldn't get hold of her. I went downstairs to the taxi area and some guy asked me where I was going. I thought he was a taxi driver, so I told him I was headed to Yongsan Station and he told me it would cost me 10,000 won. I honestly didn't care about the cost at this point. I just wanted to find my friend and go to sleep. But he then pointed at a car that was clearly not a taxi and warning bells obviously went off my head. All I said was that isn't a taxi and walked away. I found the real (marked) taxis and got in one of them and went over to Yongsan Station, which as a side note only cost 4,500 won. By the time I got there, the taxi driver let me use his cell phone. I called Minsung and then I actually saw her since she was near the taxi so finally at 2 am I met her and headed to her house. I apologized profusely to her mother for having to stay up so late waiting for me. When I got to Minsung's house I pretty much just went straight to bed. That hour had been really stressful, but it showed me a couple things. First of all, I need to refamiliarize myself with Seoul. Second, I should get a cell phone, if for nothing else, to have for emergency purposes. Third, despite how bad my Korean still is, I have learned enough that I can express myself enough to get help in unexpected situations. I was honestly really proud of myself despite the fact that I was flipping out, I could explain my problem to others in Korean and get help instead of only panicking more.