12 September 2010

Today was an adventure. I used the train for the first time and I made it into Seoul for the first time. Unfortunately, it was pretty rainy and I didn't get a chance to see much. I went to Seoul to see my friend Jay and her two friends (a woman from Malaysia and a man from Turkey). It made for interesting conversations. We went to restaurant then to a tea shop. It was a great time, but things got strange on the train ride back.

Two sixty-year-old men sat next to me and spoke 10% broken English and 90% drunken Korean to me. The one was getting off at my stop and spent about forty minutes trying to explain to me that he wanted to drink beer with me when we got off. I couldn't understand most of it, but I did understand mekju "beer", mashida "drink" and "ok, I drink your place". I told him in my broken Korean "mekju eoppseoyo" (I don't have beer), "toni eoppseoyo" (I don't have money)...though, i think he offered to pay..."chada shippeoyo" (I want to sleep) and "nae-il (tomorrow), I go kyo-hoe (church)". Since he couldn't completely express himself, he proceeded to ask everyone who got on the train if they could speak English. Most of them said 'no' or said they didn't know how to translate. It was all good-natured, he looked like a respectable individual when sober and I enjoyed myself. Many of the people in the train car were laughing or at least sympathizing with me...except for the younger gentleman who shushed my new companion. After we left the train station together, we parted ways. I said 'sorry' and 'go in peace'.