Not much to see.
At first I thought I had arrived earlier than expected and that was the reason no one was there yet, but as the minutes ticked on I began to suspect something else was the case. I remembered someone in the SDA Academic Office had mentioned that if you ask a Korean to call a phone number for you on their cellphone they will do it, so I searched around for a likely target whom I could ask. I spotted this friendly-looking ajumma (Korean word for a married, middle-aged or older woman) and made my walked over to her. With my limited language skills I could only say "handepone?" and hope she got my drift. To help my case I showed her the sheet of paper with the pastor's phone number. She smiled widely and nodded her head vigorously, then proceeded to pull me to a nearby kiosk all the while chattering away in Korean (A moment of reflection: do Americans do the same thing to foreigners who don't speak English? Babble away as though the poor souls understand a word we say?) She spoke to the man behind the counter, and he gave me a suspicious look. Nonetheless, he pulled out his very impressive smartphone and dialed the number. I don't know what was said, but I imagine it was something like "hey, I've got this foreign girl here looking really lost, are you going to come get her or what?" After he talked for a moment or two, he handed me the phone.
Me: Hello, Pastor?
Pastor: Ohhhh! Lauohra!
Me: Um, yes, hi...I'm at the bus station.
Pastor: Ohhhh! Eh, mmmm...we thought you are coming tomorrow!
Me: Oh, ha, yeah...surprise!
Pastor: Okay, okay, wait wait wait wait, okay?
Me: Okay.
By this point, the man whose phone I was borrowing was impatiently holding out his hand for it to be returned to him. I bowed and thanked him for his help, then went to wait by my luggage. The ajumma must have decided I looked like I needed a friend (I did), and proceeded to adopt me for the rest of my time there. It's funny how, even without any words, one can communicate with others rather effectively. Even though I could barely pick out more than a word here or there, I understood that she thought I looked tired and should rest. She pointed out a nice ledge just off the sidewalk upon which I could sit, and then scurried off. She was soon back, however, with a newspaper which she spread out on the ledge so that I wouldn't get dirty!
As good as a LazyBoy any day, and more creative, too.
The adjumma continued to check on me periodically as I people watched, and eventually my ride pulled up to the curb. The ajumma ran out to the driver (which turned out to be one of the church elders), and apparently scolded him for making me wait so long (or at least the exchange seemed a little heated). Happy to finally be going somewhere, yet sad to say goodbye to my friend who had become very special to me in a very brief period of time, I smiled, bowed, and thanked her, then got into the car.
It was perhaps a strange way to begin my time in Daejeon, yet it somehow boded well for what will be my experience here in the future.
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