I think I'm gonna like it here...

To save a couple thousand won ($2) on taxi fair, I decided to ride the city bus to church today. I don’t know all the routes yet, so I got the bus numbers from someone yesterday. Since my friend Toni and I were both going to have to transfer downtown in Geksa, we decided we meet downtown at ten o’clock and ride the last bus together.

To play it safe and give myself plenty of time, I was on the bus by 9:30. Things were going great until we pulled into what looked like a bus parking lot. Clearly not downtown. I had to get off the bus because it was the end of the line. I stood around then decided to ask a group bus drivers milling about drinking coffee if they spoke English. Negative. After I tried saying “Geksa,” one driver pointed to the bus I needed to take. It was parked, and no driver was moving to take it to Geksa anytime soon. I waited. Eventually, a bus pulls out of the parking lot, and the driver I’d talked to before motioned for me to get on.

Finally I was on my way downtown. But when we got downtown, the driver turned off the main street that goes through Geksa. He might have been going to circle around, but at this point, I wasn’t taking the chance of another parking lot, so I got off and walked the rest of the way to meet Toni. By this point, I was out of W1000 bills (the bus fare). I only had W10,000 bills. Since you just drop your money in a box, I wasn’t sure I could get change. Fortunately, Toni bailed me out and we made it the rest of the way to church without event (albeit twenty minutes late--glad I got an early start).

Waiting for the bus after church, Toni realized she only had one W1000 bill. There were no little stores around where we could get change. As we got on, I flashed my W10,000, but the bus driver didn’t take it. He just waved me back. Free ride! After eating American fastfood downtown, I waited for the bus to carry me back to my apartment. Sitting at the downtown bus stop, I realized this: I like it here.