Before I knew how to say much other than HERE. NOW. in Korean... I was out for a wild night on the town in Seoul.
Seoul was about 2 hours away from my apartment, but it could have been light years when I woke up on a street curve, next to a club, with a slight drizzle coming down .... like God himself was waking me up with his first morning piss! Love you God, but that was wrong!
So I lost my friend, Andy. Andy was my co-teacher. He had lived in Korea a year or two so far and spoke some Korean. But I had only lived in Korea for a week or two and spoke two words of Korean. I didn't even have Korean money in my wallet, nor a Korean bank account or phone.
When I awoke and remembered that I had passed out after getting lost, I started laughing... then I felt hunger and thirst. I stopped laughing. Got up, which was a task in itself. Started wandering down the street. I remember seeing, on both sides of this street, Korean women, women standing in doorways smiling at me and saying something. Could have been:
"Hi American Boy! I can help you. I can give you warm food and a dry place to recover."
OR it could have been:
"Hi, American boy! I want to give you sex and you give me Korean won ( money ) for good time! "
I decided it was the later... and kept my drunken swagger going down the papered city street and around the corner. I ended up at an ATM. I put my Bank of America card in it. It was all written in Korean, of course. So I tried to do it, but couldn't. After a few tries and failures, all of them just making me more and more depressed... I walked further around the corner, trying to remember where I might have lost Andy and myself. I didn't even know what city I was in. Nor did I know where I lived. I knew the name of the city, that was it. "Sin-gal"
I saw a catholic church on my right. I walked over. Didn't see anyone, found an open door into a room with a table, some chairs, and a water tank. So I sneaked in. I took that paper cup and drank! Drank me some water like I was the drinking from the fountain of Life! Then I crawled up on the table and went to sleep. I awoke to the faces of some Korean women, not like the Korean women I mentioned earlier, in the doorways on that street... but these women were saying some more Korean gibberish. I think I winked at one of the nuns and swaggered out the door and went to the nearest store.
Got a triangle sandwich thing with some Korean gibberish written on it. Then I got a bag of chips. Used my Bank of America card, and it WORKED!
I sat out there on the street! It stopped raining. I started eating my prized possessions on the steps of a bank. Then I decided to return to that street with those Korean women and that club I slept in front of. I'd try and find Andy once more, I thought. But no luck!
So I passed out for another while on a concrete thing between two telephone poles. Again, God must have had to piss, because that same drizzle woke me up. So I did a repeat of the get up and walk procedure. This time, I really thought about going over to one of those doorways... but no! I couldn't. They did look sexy as hell, but I chose to try to get into something else.
"(uh) ATM... we meet again!"
ATM and I had some moments! I yelled and punched her, she spat out some gook money and I went to the nearest cab. I said. Here! Now! and the name of the city I lived in. ( in Korean-ish Texan )
After a ride, we found ourselves in the city. I just pointed in directions, he laughed and we went that way until I saw something I recognized. It took about an hour to find the building I lived in. I got out, gave the gook his gook money and went up to my apartment, it was not raining anymore. It was like 2:30 PM. I rode the elevator to the fifth floor and entered my room.
I was dry and in the shower, singing and smiling... I woke up in the shower a few hours later, Hungry and Thirsty with no gook money. "Damn, I really need more of that gook money!" I thought to myself... luckily Andy knocked on the door and he made me some American food. God bless Americans.
