9. A Series of ___ Events

Jethro Whitley, a 50-something African American from Ohio, enjoys his creature comforts. There's nothing more relaxing to him than kicking back in a quite corner of an upmarket Jazz bar with a non-alcoholic cocktail and good company, or a book; whichever tickles his fancy at the time. After spending most of the morning convincing himself to get out and visit a big city and to leave his empty country apartment somewhere in South Korea, he finally got on a bus bound for Seoul. The bus was only half full, but after seeing a foreigner fast asleep in his seat, Jethro seized his opportunity and made a bee trail for the seat next to him.

It had been 5 days since he had landed in Incheon International Airport to start his new job as an English Teacher. During those five days he had explored his small country town as much as he could, mainly during his early morning jogs. The 13hour time difference had made it difficult to adjust to Korean time, so he sometimes ventured out at night. Though never into any bars or shops, or any place that looked unsavory. When asked later why he doesn’t frequent the bars in his town, his prompt reply left no room for compromise: "I prefer to sit in a bar with sophisticated people - city people like myself". That was the reason Jethro had finally set foot on that bus, that was the reason he sat next to a foreigner, and that was the reason he was headed blindly into one of the largest cities in the world.

The foreigner stirred from his sleep just before the last stop, and kindly introduced himself. With the niceties out of the way they found that they were headed in the same direction: Itaewon. So after checking the times for the last bus back into the sticks, they set off towards Itaewon. The Seoul Subway system is quite advanced, and extremely confusing. But after asking a range of other people, they set off in the general direction, knowing to get off at Sindang and then transferring to Line 6 towards Bulgwang for 5 stops. Finally they had arrived at Itaewon. Their story here becomes like most stories about people discovering new things and places. So I won’t mention it. Just know that they saw many things that reminded of Western Culture in their hometowns.

By 5pm they had walked up and down the 'main strip' of Itaewon. Itaewon is most famous for being the foreigner capital of Seoul. So Jethro felt right at home. The two had pizza for lunch and then decided to split up for a while. Jethro went to look for another bookshop where he could buy some books on how to teach English. His companion, Sharad, had already bought his novels and was looking for a quite coffee shop where he could begin. The main strip of Itaewon has three visible Starbucks, "visible" as they are the ones seen from street level. There are many alley ways that lead onto a wide range of 'themed' attractions. Sharad, being of Indian background was missing some home cooking, so he went to the Indian side of town. Never in his life had he thought that in Korea he'd hear Hindi being spoken so freely on every corner, though he did not know why; it was like music to his ears.

He interrupted one such conversation and said two words; two words he'd been dying to ask for 3 weeks: "Garam Masala?", instantly the man pointed to a foreign foods store, and was on his way. Arriving at the Foreign Foods store, Sharad thought he was in heaven! It had been so long since he smelled those sweet spices that reminded him at once of his family. In he went, taking in everything that he could, much like a child at Disneyland, surely two eyes were not enough. After finding the Garam Masala he set about to look for Cardamom. He couldn’t find it and not knowing the English name for it he asked the Indian looking shop keeper if he had any "Illychi". After the shop keeper replied something in Hindi, he set about looking for it. It was the first time Sharad had spoken Hindi in over 5 weeks, and after telling the shop keeper that he wanted it for Chai, the shop keeper sent word for some powder. Mission successful, except for one small problem.. No Cash! How could he have been so stupid in thinking that $50 will suffice for the day? So he was forced to choose one or the other.. Chai is more important to Sharad than Curry, so the Cardamom it was.. till next week.

Now, he knew he had money on his card, so he went looking for an Indian restaurant to have dinner somewhere. Taj Palace on the second level seemed to be the best out of the 4 or 5 he saw. For $16 they had a buffet which would do just fine. After looking around to see if others were eating in the 'traditional manner' (which they weren't), Sharad decided to break the trend and attack his Dhal and Bhaat the way he was taught. The owners seemed quite pleased about that, and offered him a range of other condiments too. See Sharad was vegetarian that week and so he could only select a few things from the Buffet, but for him it was more than enough! Next time, he thought, he'd try the Tandoori and Tikka and Vindaloo.. next time. After ordering some Indian Chai and 2 Naan's for the road, he left to see if 'ole Jethro had made it back at all. Luckily enough they met on the street and Jethro not having eaten yet, decided he'd get some fried vegetables from a stall on the street. It is in his nature to talk a lot, something Sharad is not particularly used to. Jethro spent a solid 5 minutes explaining how 'damn good' the food was.

By this time it was 830pm, and the last bus from the bus terminal left at 930pm. So off they went to the subway and as they were about to get on the line back, Jethro pointed out a quicker way of getting the Express Bus Terminal. It would cut 4 stops off their list and spare some for a drink before getting on the bus. They arrived at the train station and then walked across the street to the bus terminal. But when they went to their gate (gate 4), they found none of their cities listed on the boards. When asking about the bus, they were told that they arrived at the Express Bus Terminal instead of the Dongseoul Bus Terminal. "Ahh, and so the fun begins", thought Sharad. Meanwhile Jethro was in a frenzied panic. So off they rushed to Dongseoul, but of course, they were too late. Sharad asked for a refund on the tickets, and was surprised when they gave him the $9 back. Jethro needed to be at work the next day by 830am; he had only one option. Take a taxi to his country town. Taxi drivers said that it would cost him $100 to get to his doorstep, Jethro was seriously considering this, though Sharad had told him there's always another way. "Why not look for a hotel around here, split the cost, and then catch the first bus out of here?". It made sense, so off they went in search for a hotel, the taxi drivers told them that there wasn’t one around for quite a while, but as they kept walking they found Hotel Dong Seoul. It looked quite upmarket, and when Jethro, looking very tired, frustrated, and nervous asked reception for the cost; I think they took pity on him and gave the room for $60. The cost on the back of the door for the room was $121 per night.

Sharad was excited, being in a new town, no idea where. But knowing he's somewhere in the greater Seoul area. He wanted to go out, but Jethro wouldn't hear of it. He was tired and wanted to sleep. But then after some convincing they were up and went to a coffee shop called Tom N Toms Coffee! After complaining about how "ghetto" the place was, Jethro went back to the hotel room - "There's just too many buses!!". Sharad decided to walk around and ended up in a bar. After having a couple of quiet beers and exploring a bit more he went back to the hotel room. Thinking all the while how in the world he ended up sharing a room with Jethro, whom he had just met that morning. Aint life grand!?

I find that I’m most high/excited when I’m thrown into an unknown situation. I was loving every bit of not knowing where I’d sleep that night, and not knowing where I’ll end up, or for that matter, who I was with. Maybe having enough money to get out of it helped me to be happy about it. Also I'd like to say a big "Cheers bruuu" to Alice who I met on Saturday night. She came up to me and told me that I've been keeping her awake late at night! "Your the guy with the BLOG?!!", she said. I had no idea anyone else bar people at home read this, so it was a huge shock to hear someone ask me if I've seen anymore snakes since Sutasa! It was great to meet you.. and I didn't really mean all those things I said about the Sheep.. well... sort of.. yeah, ok so thats a bit of a lie. I meant it all! :D

(Finally, a Kiwi to joke around with!! YAAY!!)