Yesterday, I consulted said trusty map for directions to Incheon Airport. I found Incheon on the map and started out! I was funneled onto a subway train so old it looked like it was salvaged from auschwitz, and so densely packed that no AC system in the world could ever hope to cut through the dense ether of heat that had formed inside. It was that hot muggy heat that you scooped up like ice cream and threw in a cooler to keep other things warm. After forever and a day, the slow but steady trickle of people started to surpass the number of people coming on and the AC proudly boasted that it was now cooler in there than the light side of the mercury. I sat back, relaxed, and dreamt of Indonesia. Forever and a week later I see we're almost to Incheon. Nothing looks right. I can't explain it, but I'm reasoning myself out of worry. Until we stop. I'm expecting Incheon to be the last stop, it always is. But this isn't Incheon Airport. Nothing looks, sounds, or feels like there's an airport for miles. What's worse, I see the words 'Chinatown' in English. Then I see the dragon arch (think LA Chinatown) and it hits me: I'm in Incheon the city!!!! The world simultaneously implodes and explodes. I have roughly an hour and a half before my flight!! For me, if I'm flying internationally, an hour and a half is late to the airport!!! I'm I don't know how far from the airport!!!!! Cursing, kicking, screaming, livid to the point of red inside, I turn around, mutter a few swears, and carry on back to the subway. I call the airline in a panick. I'm watching the clock between every subway stop. I pace the car. I'm doing what I can to remain positive hoping that the laws of attraction save me from a missed flight. When the doors open I'm off like a velociraptor is behind me and it wants Mexican for dinner. I get to the turnstyle and it blares an angry electronic "THOU SHAL NOT PAAASSSS!! at me. The attendant passes the ticket to the woman behind the glass, who tells me I owe two dollars and change. I only have one one. I lose it. I don't swear, but I yell all over the place that I'm late for a flight. She gives me a sour look that clearly translates to "They don't pay me enough to put up with shit like this" and buzzes me through. Thank you nice lady, I'm sorry I was an asshole and lost my shit. It's now 705 and I'm Usain Bolt's fat beaner half brother. I fly up stairs so fast that even I wonder if I'm levitating. Backpack, schmackpack, it's only 15 lbs. I get to the ticket counter so winded I almost puke, and hyperventilate my story to the lady checking bags.
It was seven ten. My flight was at 725. We all know how this story ends.
Fifteen minutes later I'm at the CU on the way to the subway entrance. I lay down an ice cream, then get an idea and come back again with a beer. She says to me "not inside" I ask why not. She says "just". I'm so angry, so frustrated, so downtrodden, I don't respond. I don't even look up. I hand her my card and continue to act like she's not there. A certain silence hangs. The wheels haven't started spinning yet, they're too seized with emotion. I take the ice cream, beer and go sit down.
Things slowly move towards normal, but do so slowly. After the ice cream there was water, because I needed it. Then the calling card. A new ticket was to be had. This vacation was happening. At the end of the night, I'd managed to start the refund process and un-froze my debit card. No ticket was to be bought, that would happen in the morning. The important thing was getting back to Wonju so that I could drink myself blind and numb wih my friend Dan.
An hour or so later, I arrived at the bus terminal it was around eleven, and the last bus was always midnight. I go to the ticket counter and ask for a ticket to Wonju.
No. She said.
I shouldn't have been surprised. I shouldn't have been mad. I should have recognized that this was just not going to be my day. At. All. A part of me did. It just accepted it, the way a battered wife accepts that her husband is going to demand sex, finish all too quickly, and fall asleep without even trying to cuddle. The other part of me was livid. Again. I was like the guy that walked into your place of business angry, and was just told that he couldn't be helped. I wondered if I should just start breaking things. Not to resolve anything, but just because I'd be able to do something and get it right.
Not having eaten anything since just after lunch, I sat down at the lunch counter nearby. The express terminal is littered with them. I ordered the most decadent thing I could think of. Ramen with cheese and dumplings. It wasn't on the menu, but I didn't care. The nice lady looked at me with a smirk in her eye and repeated what I said to confirm it. The guy next to me was poring himself shots of soju, and that's when I remembered the unfinished beer. I needed it *NEEDED* it right now of all times. Nothing was going right. I contemplated canceling my trip. I contemplated going home after this contract. I thought about how single I was (I an currently a little too single for comfort). I listened to see of the fates were trying to tell me something. After I finished eating I got up, contplated my next move; thought agains partying til dawn and crashed at a jimjaebang.
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