As the train ticket pictured on this page can indicate, it was October 19, 2009 when I ventured to Seoul on my own, not to change planes in Incheon, but to walk about, simply enjoy the trip, and return home to Yeongcheon without a glitch. A Korean guy, who had spent some time in my home state (in the USA), contacted me on Facebook and expressed an interest in meeting, hanging out, and becoming friends (well, that's what he said). So, in good faith (and perhaps naively) I accepted his invitation to visit Seoul.
As I lived through many months afterwards, I became more and more amazed at how little this person knew of Seoul. I'm not talking about history. I'm talking about what there is to see and how 
to get there. The guy didn't even know (or so it seemed) where to find a motel where I could spend the night. I later learned about "Korean motels," and began to see them everywhere. How could he not have known of any?
Something else I began to notice, and was reminded about, was how insincere people can be when it comes to friendship, at least beyond FINO (Friend in name [on the cell phone list] only). This guy, like so many others, just seemed to disappear -- no phone calls, no texts (not even in reply to my "hello, how are you" texts, no nothing for many months at a time (yet he had plenty of time to smoke cigarettes, drink, and party with college mates). Now, if any of them changed his mind and decided he didn't want to be friends with me after all, I could live with that. But, then, why would he suddenly pop back in seven, eight, or nine months later? When they did, they were high on excuses and low on any sort of commitment about anything certain. Why call them "friends?"
I was grateful that he came to Seoul Station to meet me, but from that moment on it seemed like he was as lost as I was. That seemed strange (in a blind leading the blind sort of way) to me, for although he was from Busan, he had lived in Korea (not a huge country) all his life and (as he said) had been a student in Seoul for several years. Basically, all I learned while hanging out with him was basic navigation of Seoul's subway system, and (eagerly and happily) I learned most of that by looking around, reading signs, and grabbing some maps here and there (maybe there's a lesson in there somewhere!).
We went to Itaewon. Why? I'm not sure! He never made a suggestion. He was always asking, "Where do you want to go?" and I was like, "Hey, I have no idea what's here. Why don't you show me what there is to see?" What did we do in Itaewon? We sat on a balcony of a Tom and Tom's coffee shop and watched people pass by. He smoked cigarettes and studied physics homework. He said he didn't know where anything was in Itaewon (Then, why were we there?) On a Sunday afternoon, days later, I walked all over Itaewon (in less than two hours).Before sitting at the coffee shop, we "found" (I guess he never knew of it before) a place to have dinner. I did enjoy grilling and eating some beef and other side dishes. He was there studying physics homework. I'm serious! Now, why would you invite someone to come hangout with you when you've got physics homework to do???
We managed to visit the Seoul Tower, and I did enjoy that (again, I reiterate, he didn't know how to get there). I never became sure of just why he contacted me on Facebook and invited me to "come to Seoul," but I've always been glad that I went to Seoul.
The next time I visited Seoul, I hungout alone on my own. (Lesson learned, I think!)
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