What Traveling was Like Before Cell Phones

I had two weeks off in between training and when I started teaching and conveniently enough the holidays happened to fall within my two weeks of freedom. So for Christmas I ventured up to Suwon, a city outside of Seoul, to visit some friends from training. Now traveling in a country where few people know English is one thing, but it's a whole different story doing that AND without a cell phone. I was up for the challenge.

The people I was meeting and I had come up with a plan A: meet at Yeoungtong Home Plus at 2 p.m.; a plan B: go to a PC bang and email each other to plan my rescue; and (my own secret) plan C: turn around and go back to Daejeon... just incase both plans failed. So assuming I was meeting them at 2 p.m. I left Daejeon at 10 a.m. That's four hours of travel time when it's suppose to only take two.

So I took a cab from my apartment to the bus station. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. There are approximately five different bus stations in Daejeon and that morning I went to four out of five of them. First stop: a random station that I knew wasn't right. I had been warned to tell the cab driver "big bus station" so when he didn't understand me I motioned big (both hands out), bus (I pretended to be driving with a huge steering wheel), and I slowly said station hoping that would help him understand me. After our game of gestures, he took me to another station that I thought was the right one. I was on my way to purchase my ticket when a random bus driver motioned me to get in. I tried to explain that I needed to go to Suwon and I didn't have my ticket yet, but he insisted that I get in. So I did. There were two other girls on the bus and I asked where we were going? I needed to go to Suwon. They definitely did not understand me. I started to panic thinking oh no, where is this bus taking me? but then I realized it was a shuttle to ANOTHER bus station.

Relieved, I got off, and went inside to purchase my ticket. I got to the ticket window and guess what? they didn't have tickets to Suwon. The lady behind the counter kept motioning me to go outside so I thought maybe I needed to purchase my ticket outside. I hadn't even left Daejeon yet and I was already thinking about pursuing plan C. The girls who were on the shuttle bus with me saw me outside looking like a lost child and were extremely nice. They called one of their friends who spoke some English and told me to take a cab to another station.

I hailed the next cab and said “bus station, Suwon” and I was off. The cab driver didn’t say anything so for a second I thought he thought I wanted to take the cab all the way to Suwon. I finally arrived at the right station and bought my ticket. I got on the bus and was finally off.

About an hour and half later we stopped at a bus station. Thinking I was in Suwon I obviously got off the bus and got a cab to the Yeoungtong Home Plus. The driver dropped me off at Home Plus and my timing was perfect... it was about 2:15 p.m. which was right on schedule for plan A. I waited and waited and waited... then I asked someone if I was at the Yeoungtong Home Plus. Of course it wasn’t the right one because that would’ve make it too easy for me to meet my friends.

I took another cab to the right Home Plus, but by this time it was way past the meeting time. I waited inside for awhile just in case, but didn't see anyone so I went to the nearest PC bang (plan B). I emailed the people I was meeting and explained that I was (obviously) late and that I would go back and wait at the entrance near the food court. Little did I know that both entrances into Home Plus were near the food court, but not too long after I got back from the PC bang I saw a familiar face.

Travel Time: 5.5 hours
Number of Bus Stations: 5
Number of Buses: 1
Number of cabs: 4 cabs
Number of Home Pluses: 2

I said I was up for a challenge and that’s exactly what I got.