So here's the scene:
I've been up since 8am, out of the house since 9am and I went from doing a couple of classes in Suwon to heading to Seoul for my night course at the business school. It's 9pm and I've just finished night school but now I have a 2.5hr commute home on the subway. I could cut it down to 2hrs if I buy chance I could get lucky at the Express Bus Terminal and score an impossible-to-get Friday night ticket to Cheonan. I've been sleeping an average of 5-6hrs a night because of my 14hr out-of-house workdays and now it's Friday night. I wanted nothing more than to get home to my baby and curl up on the couch with him and our four-legged friends.
So here was my solution:
With it being 9pm when class ended and the Seoul Station being only one stop away, I blotted it out of class and high tailed it to the subway. I had texted Snickers, asking him when the next train was.
"It's at 9:15pm but there is no way you will get a ticket in time!" he explained.
Getting a ticket wasn't my problem though and, with my jacket flapping in the wind like some kind of Wonder Woman cap and my high heel boots clicking away, I ran through the train station. I was on a mission to get that next train headed to Cheonan, ticket or no ticket. Mission a success. I boarded the train, huffing and puffing, and found a seat on the floor of the train cafe -- a specific train car where all the "standing room only" ticket holders mingle and stay. I was convinced that there was no way they'd be checking tickets. It was a late Friday evening, now after 9pm. As Murphy's Law would have it though, they checked tickets. I heard the ticket man enter the train car and call out for everyone to prepare to show their tickets. When he approached me I stuck to speaking only English. "I'm with my husband, let me call him. He has our tickets.. please wait" I said as fast as I could. I then called Snickers. Snickers never picked up the phone, I knew he wouldn't either -- he was exercising. The ticket man quickly got impatient and left me sitting there on the floor, dialing Snickers.
After a couple of stops I questioned whether or not I wanted to push my luck and stay on the train. I knew I stood the possibility of him returning for me but in all honestly I was just too tired. I just wanted to get home so I decided to stay on the train.
Just before we got to Cheonan, the ticket man came back into the train car. By that time I had decided to stand up because my legs were hurting and it was hard sitting crunched up on the floor in a dress. I spotted him as soon as he entered the train car so I ducked out the other end. In between the train cars it's always packed with people sporting "standing room only" tickets so there's always students sitting on the train exit stairs and people leaning against the bathroom doors. I ended up convincing some random student that I had hurt my ankle so he stood up and let me sit on the step. I didn't know how close the ticket man was to where I was but I kept my head hunched over and stay tucked against the wall until I thought I was in the clear.
When the train arrived in Cheonan I had chopped an hour off of my travel time and had scored a free train ride home so I was super giddy and smilely. I headed out the train station, down the steps and there at the bottom stood some young Korean men advertising for a local church. "Jesus loves you!" one yelled out at me as he approached me. He handed me a free little coffee and me in my over giddiness and excitement about coming home early yelled back at him "And I love YOU! God bless Korea!" It definitely made for a hilarious ending to my evening. I ended up spilling some of my coffee on my lap in the taxi but I didn't care. I was almost home and I was early. I still had some Friday night to enjoy so I was so happy.
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