Korea: Part Deux, Day il

Not quite so much drinking on the way over to Korea this time, probably because I was not in the company of any Koreans I know. Had a beer at home when the packing was over, the birthday presents for POSSLQ hidden in various areas she'd never check (In the dishwasher, in the dryer, where the cleaning fluids are in the cupboard -- I think you see the point of those places?). Then I had two beers at the airport but couldn't drink more because I was being watched by the scary "happy, flying taco guy" who might has well have come from Korea himself with his forced happy dementia and strategically covered crotch. In any case, I had two more glasses of wine on the plane. Well, thimble-fulls really, as Asiana has moved to cups which contain less than an average sized swallow. Then I tried, pretty unsucessfully, to sleep. No screaming kids, and the seat between me and the Korean woman next to me was empty, I just didn't sleep well. But I wasn't hungover on arrival, which has to count for something.

Like not having drunk enough.

On the plane I worked on the long-fiction piece for my fiction class. Funny, you can pretty much date the death of this blog to the day I started my first class in the Master's program. It just sucked all the fun out of writing anything but a check.

Anyway, flight was uneventful and I arrived in Incheon at about 5 am. Eddie (the prince of lies!) had emailed me with a plan change.. he wanted me to come to Gimpo airport and then give him a call as he would be in town on social calls. So, at Incheon I cleared customs, exchanged money, rented a cell phone, and caught a bus to Gimpo. On the flight I had already moved over to Korean food (Asiana offers meals in Korean *or* English, so to speak) in an effort to have less bowel-extrusion on this flight. So when it was time for breakfast at Gimpo I went with some glutinous rice concoction covered with unidentifiable (and likely a good thing)meat. It was about 7:30 at this point and I had decided not to call Ed until 8 or so. I went into the men's room to change shirt and put on my belt. I packed my belt so I wouldn't be hassled at security --- it was bad enough I was stupidly wearing my "Bad Boy Bail Bonds" T-shirt, which the TSA people thought was hysterical as they repeatedly cavity-searched me. Once on the plane I immediately got my traditional effort to lose my tickets and money underway. Thankfully the woman who was sitting next to me noticed, as we deplaned, that I had left my portfolio containing tickets and all contact info on the seat.

I'm a maroon. But I got to Gimpo.

And, as I was tired of having my pants fall down and my T-shirt was coated in Korean red bean paste I went in to the bathroom, changed, and came out looking for a outlet to hook up the computer when.... Kaboom! Ed's mom caught me from behind. Eddie had been at his dad's house in Gimpo and up since 5 as dad is ex-military. Now, see.. if Eddie would just share little things like that with me? We'd have met up an hour earlier, no one would have been confused, and Ed's dad would have paid for my breakfast. But it's never that simple with Ed, who must always take into account the demands of his Dark Lord and Master when he makes simple plans. It makes me sigh...

Eddie and Jay were dressed in identical shirts purchased from the "Extremely Gay" collection. Bright pastel shirts, plaid internal collars, and some unidentifiable animal over the breast. I must get a picture of them in these. As I hope I will get to later, these shirts were just one part of a wild onslaught of clothes that Ed and Jay have been given by relatives. Anyway, Ed's parents went off to do whatever they do and the three of us were alone.

We had a brief moment of Zen at the airport Starbucks (Ed and Jay were happy to get a second away from the family) and then caught the 5 line into Seoul to find our extremely inexpensive (30 bux a night) rooms in the semi-hostel Beewon Guest house. Not a place I'd take my mom, but perfectly adequate. Has cable and a wireless network, so I really can't bitch. We got my room first, then Ed's. I checked his out and headed back to mine. Ed said he'd be "down in 5 minutes." I'm not sure what wer were going to do, but there it was. In three minutes Eddie called me from upstairs and said he would "be down in a half an hour." I knew this would be more like 45 and so I checked out the TV (Yes, I have totally lame Korean Porn, which you will see soon) and pulled out the computer. Oops, forgot to bring the power adaptor. Eddie and Jay were still completing the mysterious tasks that they could only do alone after finally getting out of their parent's house and...oh... I guess it isn't that mysterious.

Anyway, I had my first foray out into Seoul and found and purchased an adapter after a torturous communication process featuring gestures and hand position that must have included something insulting in most any culture. Then it was home to watch more TV and wait. I came across a porno so completely Korean that I filmed it from the TV screen with my video camera. It is available here in QT and here in WMV (WORK WARNING -- no real naughty bits, but some breasts and simulations of things you might or might not recognize).

Anyway.. that was the morning.... I was deadly tired, but wanted to make it through the day to start on the resetting of my internal clock.

NEXT -- Cheating on the POSSLQ - Bookstores in Korea.