Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, Pt. 1

This may sound odd coming from someone who is literally in the middle of traveling around the world, but I hate traveling. Moving, packing, cleaning. Sleepless nights praying one of your three alarms will go off correctly. Lugging a heavy suitcase on the train. Running through the airport. Standing in security lines. Having a man who is drunk on a 10 AM flight spill white wine on you - yes that happened today. Doing it all over again in reverse when you arrive. Needless to say, I was hoping the departure from the 38th Parallel would go smoothly.

But Korea fought her hardest to keep me on the Han River.

It started well enough on Tuesday as I sold off my things, cleaned up my room, shipped my remaining belongings to the USA, disconnected my cell phone, and lugged my inordinately heavy suitcase onto the KTX to meet some friends in Seoul. I disembarked and headed for a Love Motel. The Ritz it ain't - in fact, Josh informed me that the area I stayed in "sucked" - but for 30,000 a night it's not half bad. After checking in and dropping off the 30 KG monster suitcase, I headed back to the Seoul Metro to meet Josh. I didn't have my cellphone, so I hunted down a bank of payphones. I also didn't have any change, so I attempted to use my American bank card to make the call.

Big mistake.

You see, the phone I had chosen was only designed to accept phone cards, and promptly ate my Mastercard. This was deeply problematic. I hadn't yet transferred my money from my Korean account, so I wasn't totally SOL. However, that Korean bank card would soon become useless as it's not Visa or Mastercard - or even Discover - and therefore doesn't work outside of Korea itself. I didn't panic, and was able to get in touch with Josh after bugging the poor young woman at the muffin stand for about twenty 100 won coins. Josh in turn called the phone company and passed on their advice: cancel your card, you're screwed (my words, not the phone company's). At least they also said that this is a fairly common occurrence so I didn't feel like a total dolt. Or maybe Josh just said that to make me feel better.

Putting that out of my mind, I still had a nice meal with Josh at Bennigan's. Not very Korean, I know, but we don't have them in Seattle so it seemed fitting anyway. After some grease-bomb food and a few beers, I went home and went to bed, planning to get up in the morning and transfer my money Wednesday, the day before my flight.

P.S., Wednesday was a bank holiday.

More on that in Part 2 . . .