serendipitous weekend part four

Sunday morning August 12th:

We knew the storm was going to be bad when the wind began knocking over full pitchers of beer, but we told ourselves it would blow over by morning, as the last one had, because we were now on an island that required a boat to leave it and we didn't want to face the increasing possibility that we would not be making it back to work on Monday and would have to face a chorus of I told you sos and the like. April comes to our room to tell us that our cab driver (I forgot to mention that our cab driver gifted us with a watermelon the previus night, a fruit which I've since learned costs $16 here) because he was so pleased to have us there) had called her early in the morning to tell her that the ferries had been cancelled for the day and the next one as well. We were about to panic, but he'd called her back to say there was an alternative: we could hire a private boat to get us off the island. It would cost about $400.

We decided that we'd gotten ourselves into this and so far we'd spent very little money, as people kept being overwhelmingly kind and generous, so we sucked it up and prepared to pay $80 a person to get off the island. Of course, no sooner that we decide this, April comes back to tell us that our cab driver had called back to let us know that he'd arranged for us to get on a boat with about 20 Koreans that were also trying to get off the island and that we'd be squeezed in a tight space, but would only need to pay $20 a piece. Again, amazing luck. So, he and Crankypants loaded us up and drove us to the ferry terminal where we crammed into a boat better built to seat ten and made as though we were being smuggled across the border. Actually, it was a pretty sweet ride, if a little choppy (the storm, er, edge of the typhoon, was rolling in after all) and chartering a private boat made for a pretty good story. "Yeah, we don't have a plan. We're doing this the American way; we'll figure it out when we get there and do whatever happens to come along." We'd have been so fucked if we hadn't been so fortunate.

An hour later, less than half the time of the regular ferry, we arrived back in Mokpo and, again via April, bought our bus tickets back to Haenam. We bought Nick and April lunch, stopped at the Paris Baguette for dessert and bread-- and the only sparkling water I've seen in Korea-- and managed to get on the right bus at the right time. We went back to Wims homestay family's house, who then called my homestay family to have them pick me and Brianne up. We went back to my homestay family's house in the country, to shower (Brianne's first hot shower of the homestay stretch of the trip) and eat dinner. It was lovely-- and they liked Brianne so much they invited us both back for dinner on the 23rd. It was very sweet. Brianne and I spent the rest of the evening applying these strange Korean masks (think paper sheets that make you look like the horror film character Jason) and generally feeling lucky. Sinae made me a cross-stitch gift, which included R in the cross-stitching, which was cute and odd, since I'd only ever mentioned him once. It was a nice end to a long and interesting weekend. I know I've forgotten a million things (the fish ice cream that violated no less than two people, the swampy mudroom that made out shoes smell like a homeless person's ass, Fallon falling on her butt straight into a huge puddle and managing not to break her computer, or get it wet, despite it having been in her backpack jsut above her butt at the time, etc.) but this was the gist of it.

In the end, I think my favorite way to travel is to have a general plan, but truly to proceed as the way opens. Had we not taken the advice of kind strangers, had we not chanced our luck, had we not been willing to fork out the money for a private boat, we would have missed out on so much. It was wonderful and I feel very fortunate just thinking about it now. Next up: the Buddhist temple-stay and 108 (make that 115, oops) bows ceremony.