ER + ER4 in Korea part II

After a week divided into 36 hours in the classroom learning Korean, at least 10 hours of studying, and 6 hours in the gym, by Saturday afternoon, I was feeling pretty used up. BUT I was soooo excited to head to Cheongju to meet up with Eddie for the first time since he moved to Korea! He's currently at TaLK Orientation in a town called Jochiwon, where he'll be until he moves to his placement in a few weeks. We decided to meet at the Cheongju Station at six. I arrived about ten minutes early. I waited. 6:00 rolled by. 6:30. 6:45. By 7:45 I was worried sick. What if Ed had gotten off at the wrong stop or taken the wrong bus? What if something had happened to him and he was lost in Korea with no Korean language ability and no phone? I paced, I drank some hot chocolate, I walked laps around the bus station in case he slipped in and I missed him. Finally at 9:15, I had resigned myself to renting a motel room to get out of the cold. I was in a lobby walking to a check-in counter when my phone rang:

"Hello?"
"Eileen where were you?"
"Where are you?"
"I'm back in my dorm in Jochiwon. I waited three hours for you!"
(at this point, after waiting a month and a half to see him and realizing it may not happen, I start crying)
"Where did you wait?! I've been here for three hours!"
"I waited at the station in Cheongju..."
"Are you sure it was Cheongju? c-h-e-o-n-g-j-u?"
"Yes, Cheongju train station, but you said it was a big city, and this Cheongju didn't look very..."
"Did you say TRAIN station?"
"Yea..."
"I've been at the bus station."

Still calming down and wiping my eyes, and still on the phone, I hailed a taxi for the 25 minute drive to Jochiwon and finally met Eddie outside the men's dorm of Korea University. After experiencing numb toes, frustration and worry already that night, we hugged and laughed and walked towards downtown Jochiwon for dinner. We marveled that we were a 5 minute drive away from each other, isolated, and feeling the exact same way. The next day, after crashing in Jochiwon for the night, we returned to the scenes of the mix-up. This is were Eddie and I, respectively, waited for each other:

In Jochiwon, after dinner, I introduced Eddie to the wonderful world of the noraebang. Notice the random Belgian/German-looking towers in the music video for "Bohemian Rhapsody."

Duet.

The next day we took the train back to Cheongju. The train station, which I was previously unaware of, is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by freight containers. No wonder Ed was confused. We made our way to a shopping center where I helped him buy some jeans and a jacket. I used my (so very) basic Korean to tell the saleswomen "많이 봅니다, 아마 다시 옵니다," or "Many looking, maybe again come," and "조금 큽니다/작습니다," or "a little big/small," and "이고 얼마예요?" or "how much is this?"

We went ice skating and at the rink caused a bit of a stir. I guess it was exciting to have a foreign couple there. Three little girls insisted upon racing us several times, and one of them proudly proclaimed, "I am the winner and you are the loser!" in what I told her was very good English. Another called me "ajumma," which is the Korean for "adult woman / married woman," but is most often used to indicate the old ladies with purple-tinted perms. This took me aback, but I guess I'm too young to get offended by being called old, because I really just thought it was funny. Three high school boys asked to have their pictures taken with us too, informing us that we were a "good couple" and that Ed was "handsome man." So strange how foreigners get this celebrity treatment in Korea sometimes. Once a man on a subway in Seoul asked me if I was British. I told him no, and he said, "Oh, I thought you were Kate Beckinsale," which was kind of awesome.

Ed showing off his new Korean pants and jacket in the skating rink.

My new sweatshirt, featuring cat ears, plaid, quilting, a crazed-looking pink-haired girl, and the words "Cheer up! Sweet! Hey, that's not a big deal! Fighting!" Awesome, thanks Korea! This was taken at an Indian restaurant; nothing wraps up a day of shopping and skating like aloo gobi, naan, and 1000cc's of Cass beer!

 

On the bus in Cheongju shortly before we parted ways... until next weekend! I'm so excited that we now live in the same hemisphere and timezone! Hooray for short-distance relationships!!!!