Damian and Dy's Trip

May was quite a bit more eventful than April was for me. It was insanely busy for a number of reasons, but it really started off with a bang when Damian and Dy came to see me.

Honestly, I was little nervous about the trip. The last time that Damian and Dy came to Korea, things didn't turn out so well. We saw a woman getting beaten in the street, and Dy was mistaken for a prostitute when going out to get something to eat late at night. This trip was much better than the last.

My apartment building is only apartments on the top three floors. The lower floor are hotel rooms and large rooms for events. I live on the top floor, which also has some empty rooms that are used as suites. Damian and Dy stayed in one of those for their trip.

The first day they were here reminded me of the true Damian--that is to say, I had to wait for him to get ready. We were supposed to get going about noon, but we didn't actually leave until two. Still, we made it out and about while the day was in full swing, so I was fine with it (plus, I can see this stuff any time, so it's not a big deal for me).

Oddly, their first full day here happened to be Buddha's birthday, which is one of the biggest holidays of the Korean year. When we got to the subway station, Damian found that he needed to make change. The change machine was right next to the lottery ticket machine (which is odd to me) and Damian chose the wrong one. As luck would have it, Damian actually won on his accidently acquired ticket--500 won, in fact. Unfortunately, this is roughly only 50 cents, half the price of the ticket itself.

After he finally got his change and got his tickets, the three of us headed to a large temple fairly near my house. I had only been there once before. I remembered the walk from the subway station to the temple not being that far, and thinking it was going to be crowded with traffic, I suggested we walk and not take a bus or taxi. It was, however, much further than I remembered, and the traffic wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined, but Damian and Dy stuck with me. We made it to the temple tired and sweaty.

After meeting up with one of my friends (who was already there with her mother), we got some free temple food, checked the place out, and then just sat by a stream and joked and caught up. This is where I first taught Damian really useful Korean:

"Awng-dawng-ee an-eh bahllee naw-aw joo-say-yo"

Or in English:

"Quickly put that in my butt."

Damian intended to use his phrase the next day when we went shopping, but he never got around to it.

Later that night, we met up with a couple more of my friends and had some Turkish food. He didn't tell me until later, but one of my Korean friends said that Damian is one of the most handsome foreign men he's ever met. I think it was this day that Damian and Dy bought their first batch of Korean oranges, called "Ha-la-bohng." They look vaguely like oranges, but the taste is totally different. Damian and Dy ended up eating one whole box of them in the week they were here. A box usually lasts me more than a month.

The next day, I was sick. VERY sick. Not being able to get out of bed sick. But when I finally got the strength to go across the hall and tell Damian and Dy I was sick, I found out Dy was down with the same thing I had. This made day two of the trip a complete waste. The only thing we did all day was rest, go get some medicine, and then half-assed watch a movie.

By the next day, I was feeling better, so I thought we could continue with the festivities. We decided to head down to the big marketplace and look for some tshirts with bad English on them. Damian and Dy found many, but I soon realized I was still much sicker than I previously thought. We had to cut the shopping trip short and head to Starbucks to rest before I passed out (that may sound like I'm exaggerating, but I really was about to pass out).

Luckily, after a short time just sitting down, I was feeling better. Not great, but better. Good enough for us to go and get our hair cut.

Damian really wanted to get his hair cut while he was in Korea for two reasons: 1) It's cheap. Very cheap. 2) The throw in fun extras, such as shampooing, scalp massage, and styling that make the whole process a steal at just $10.

Dy got hers done the last time they were in Korea, but Damian missed out, and he wasn't about to miss out again.

From the moment we walked in, we were the center of attention. I'd been to that place before, but having just one foreigner in your place was apparently not nearly as exciting as having three. Damian decided to get his hair dyed while he was there too, and while they started that, they cut Dy's hair and my hair. After we were finished, I started translating for the beauticians, which made for a lot of fun. The girls were all over Damian, and kept calling him "Goat-me-nam," which translates literally as "Flower Beautiful Man." It's not nearly as gay as it sounds in English. Really, it means a man that takes good care of himself, so he's beautiful. It's a compliment. The one male that worked there kept calling him "Matrix," not Keanu Reeves, mind you, "Matrix."

The translating uped the excitement for them more and more, until finally they went and got their cameras. They went through a full photo session with the three of us, but they especially focused a lot of their picture taking on Damian, the "flower beautiful man."

The next day was pretty much just checking out the aquarium and the beach in Haeundae. There's not a lot to tell, other than there were a surprisingly large number of dead animals on the beach that day.

And that was pretty much their whole trip. I saw them off the next day at the ferry terminal. Damian and Dy's trip continued on to Japan, and I went on back home, still on my Korean vacation.

Ryan