Days 41-45- Back to the Land of Kimchi

I flew into Korea at 6am from my Thai air flight from Bangkok. Immediately, I was relieved to be back. Hearing the sounds of koreans talking made sense to me, and when I heard a guy behind me say, "Sheebar" (shit), I laughed and said I agree, as the family of 8 cut in front of us in the customs line.

Young Bum picked me up from the airport, late as usual, and we spent the day sleeping and resting trying to avoid the freezing weather outside. We ordered in one of my favorite korean foods Du Bu Kimchi which is tofu and fried kimchi and ate it as we took shots of the korean liquor soju.

The next day I went to my old work place Kids College and greeted the kids and my old friends. It was great to see everyone, and the kids were shocked to see me since it had been so long since we had been together. I dropped off the small gold figurines that I had bought t

hem in Cambodia, and I think they were all pleased to receive their small gift.

Since I had my camera stolen I had to head to Yongsan Techno Mart and get a new one, which I wasn't looking forward to. The techno mart is a giant mall filled with all sorts of different vendors selling cameras, phones, ipods, and other goodies. You have to bargain to get the price you want, and usually it is better to go with a korean so they don't try to rip you off.

I ended up doing ok though and found a Nikon CoolpixL100 and a nice small 8g Sony MP3 for reasonable prices.

After I had finished my shopping I decided that it was time to make the long journey down to Osan to visit one of my best friends Martin. He had a friend in from out of town named Sara and was always up for a good time, so I thought it would be best to just head down to Osan directly from Yongsan subway since it would save me time.

I had a strange experience on the subway though. It was a confusing train transfer on the subway, so I asked the girl standing next to me if I was going the right way.

"Osan, is this the way to Osan? Yogi Osan kalkoyaeyo? Osan?" I repeated to the girl, waiting for her to answer me.

But she slowly took off her headset and hesitated to answer until the doors of the train were already shutting. I felt so frustrated because she obviously understood what I was trying to ask her, but refused to answer me.

"Ney, Osan," she finally replied in low voice that made me realize her reason for being shy on the packed subway train.

The she was actually a HE! Oh my god! Transexuals are not common in korean, but I had found one! She/he was just embarrassed to speak, in fear that someone would hear her/his low voice and realize her/his secret.

For the rest of the train ride my new transexual friend spoke to me in a quick and low voice trying to communicate exactly how to get to Osan. At one point, we even had to transfer trains and she/he came with me. Finally, we reached Osan and she/he walked me to the gate and quietly said goodbye and scurried away.

Martin laughed uncontrollably when I told him the tale of the transexual. He is gay but loves to tease me about my tom boy ways, and is convinced I am a lesbian in some sort of way.

Martin, Sara and I all had a nice time in Osan, but a nice time in Osan is quite boring on a Monday. We ate samgyupsal (similar to bacon), went to a hof (a small bar) and then ended our night with a trip to a nightclub. We thought that if we went to a nightclub there would at least be a few people there to dance with and entertain us, but we were wrong! Everywhere in Osan dies out earlier, and we were left dancing to Kpop (korean pop music) by ourselves.