Friends Visit - Thursday: Lydia Arrives

Of course, the biggest event this last week was receiving a visit from two friends from orientation, Lydia H. and Rebecca H., and making a new friend along the way.

Lydia was first to visit. I knew she was going to be in the hamlet on Friday so she could sit in on some of my classes, but somehow I missed out on the fact that she was going to come into town Thursday night to accomplish this. At any rate, I got a text message from Rebecca saying, “I’m coming on Saturday. Lydia will be on her way in two hours.” But, wait a minute Rebecca, on her way to Seoul or Pyeongchang? “Pyeongchang.” WHA?! says I, and in a flurry of cell phone minutes and kilobytes, I find out that I’m going to have to meet Lydia at the Bus Station around 8:45 pm, a good forty-five minutes after TKD finishes. Oh, well that’s all well and good then.

Her bus arrived early, it turns out, so I hurried over there to meet her. Some of my students noticed that I was hugging a tall, beautiful Korean girl in public and immediately assumed that she was my girlfriend. (She is not, to clarify.) We then introduced her to my hostfamily. She did most of the talking as she can actually speak Korean. This was a theme throughout the weekend, and I feel she probably bonded with my family more in the roughly two days she visited than I have in the two months I’ve lived here. (Jealous much? Yes.) At any rate, after the introductions and meeting some more students in the streets, we were able to finally secure some necessities for her from the local supermarket, my host brother rambunctiously leading the way. He’s lost much of his shyness from when I first visited, though he seemed to regain it as soon as he saw Lydia. He wouldn’t even talk to her in Korean at first! At least now I know it was general shyness, not just because I’m big, mean, and scary with the appearance of a caveman… from his perspective… one would imagine…

Anyway, turns out that Lydia and Rebecca would not need a motel room as we had planned. Instead, my host family graciously offered them room and board at their house. They’d have to sleep on a yo on the floor, but it was far more cost effective than the alternative. It seems that my family has a bit of a strange policy about these things. Since neither girl is my girlfriend, they are allowed to sleep in the house. If either one was, they’d have to sleep in a hotel for the sake of the children. I feel that in America, for most families, either option would be acceptable for staying in the house, though certainly the girlfriend would be allowed to stay, though she might be cloistered somewhere far away in the equivalent of the house’s tallest tower or deepest dungeon, away from the groping claws of her boyfriend which could potentially sully her honor. Again, one would imagine…