Make sure the visiting party doesn't have sufficient information! Though also the visiting party has to forget to make sure you send them, say, your address in the local language instead of just English. Also, for once don't get a SIM card for the country you're in at the airport, lol.
After an airport mishap wherein Keri's departing flight for Incheon left 5 minutes after her flight from Cape Town landed, Keri was set to arrive at Seoul Station at 10-10:30, so getting to me around 11:30-midnight is when I expected her. Both times came & went with me thinking more & more, "she should have gotten here by now."
So at 12:30 when I got a call from a Korean phone, I knew it had to be her. The story was she got on the 51 bus as I told her, but when she got off it had become the 502. Both buses will get you to me, but one is a few bus stops away on a nearby intersection, the other stops right in front of my building. I usually send the turn-by-turn & landmarks for someone coming. I sent the landmarks, but Keri didn't see them (because I'm fairly certain she got on the wrong bus). She knew the bus ride should only be about 15 minutes, & said she thought, "Jen said there'd be an overpass & a Lotte Mart, but I don't see them." Then after 20 minutes she thought, "Jen said 15 minutes, this can't be right." After 30, she thought, this definitely can't be right. The bus comes to a stop at the bus garage (announced in English & Korean, so she definitely got on the wrong bus, b/c the 51 only has stops announced in Korean). The driver makes her get off after everyone else does.
She goes to a convenience store, where SOMEHOW NO ONE has the transit cards, & everything else is closed b/c it's almost 1 am on a Wednesday night. She has no translator because she can't use her phone if there's no wifi.
She gets across my address, which he didn't know of course. She asked about a taxi, so he took pity & called. But the taxis, being Korean & the ONLY DEAL IN TOWN AFTER MIDNIGHT BECAUSE THAT'S THE DEAL THEY STRUCK WITH THE GOVERNMENT, weren't willing to come out to the bus depot then. So, Keri got the guy to let her call me. She naturally asked me to get in a cab & come get her. I'm not entirely sure where she is, because I have the name of the bus garage, while the MiniMart owner keeps saying, "Uiwang station," over & over & over. When they say yeok for station, that's the metro. But he was saying, "station" in English this whole time. That's why I was confused b/c the bus didn't end at Uiwang station, according to the map on the internet.
Then Keri goes, "Oh, wait. He might be able to get a driver." the MiniMart owner takes the phone, says, "Uiwang station," one more time for good measure, then hangs up the phone.
So. I'm like, does she have a taxi? Or was it a false alarm? Is she on her way? I'm thinking she'd call back to let me know, but no call. So, I figure I'd better just get out there.
I get in a cab, & the guy is surprised & confused I want to go to Uiwang station, which is not only not one of the closest metro stations, but they're all closed. We get there, & of course everything is closed & dark. I'm looking around but not seeing Keri or a convenience store. I put into the translator my friend was lost, she was here, & we'd go back home from here when I find her. He indicated he'd wait, but still seems not entirely sure what to do. I figure I'm going to have to get out & look for her, & type that, that she's in a convenience store. We both start looking all around, but don't see one.
So then I think, oh! I'll call the the store owner & they can talk! Despite the usual inability of Korean men over the age of 40 to handle talking to someone on my cell phone, he talks for several minutes, & at the end is sounding resigned. I'm like why, wtf is going on? He hangs up, does the x with his arms all Koreans do with foreigners which most of us find weird & dumb af & says, "There is none." There is none WHAT? There's no address? There's no store? There's no Keri? I start typing these questions. He sits there looking at his phone, & I see he's downloading google translator. This is the mud standard of translators, but ok. He starts speaking into it, & it translates nonsense or stuff that makes no sense in the situation. Finally he says through it, "let's go to the bus station." I'm like YES, that must be where she is, I KNEW Uiwang station couldn't be right!
We're driving along when I get a message from Keri: "I'm at your apartment, where are you?" Naturally I'm like NOOOOOOO FUCKING WAY! I communicate to go back home. By this time, the taxi driver is finding this whole situation understandably funny, so he translates, you need to write your friend if she has no phone. He's laughing, I'm laughing, going back & forth how I lost her, that she got a taxi after all, that I will welcome her to Korea then yell at her.
So after an hour I got back home to see my dear Keri, who likewise is laughing with me over the whole situation, but immediately helping make the consternation of 30 minutes ago an even more distant memory by giving me some guava goodies as I requested plus wine.
Understandably, Keri isn't likely to be venturing out on the buses or very far from home today. But it's Thanksgiving Day anyway so she can get the turkey breasts I got going while recuperating from traveling.
