Jun 15th, 2001
Leaving Seoul
I’m leaving now and there is a buzzing in my head and a wavering roar in my heart that seems to run down into my stomach. My clothes have that unpleasant smoothness that comes from sweat, especially my blue jeans, which are goading my boxers into gripping my crotch somewhat uncomfortably (curse Korean-style for making me wear tight jeans).
I got to the airport at around 1:00 PM and found out that there was a weight limitation on baggage of 20 kg. My two behemoth suitcases totaled 45 kg. At 10,000 won/extra kg, multiplied by a factor of three (one for every stop along the way), I was looking at paying about 750,000 extra won for the luggage.
After panicking for a few moments and feeling waves of adrenaline gush through my torso, I asked where the mailroom might be. The airline desk attendant instructed me to head “downstairs.”
After running up and down the stairs between the basement and the first and second floors, I finally arrived at the post office where Dong-Mi and I frantically packaged 25 kg worth of clothes into three boxes. It was not the romantic farewell I had imagined. Instead of sitting with Dong-Mi, exchanging promises while crying, we were running around frantically in the post office. Imagine me taking off my shirt because I was starting to sweat while Dong-Mi was using her teeth to rip apart the packaging tape and you will have a good image of my last moments in Korea.
Finally, we managed to get rid of the excess baggage and we had lunch in Sbarro. We sat down and chatted for a while. It was a bit depressing, but sweet. Soon, I realized that time was getting short, so I headed for the departure gate.
I looked into Dong-Mi’s eyes and promised that one day, I would see her again. We hugged and softly kissed, and then I began to walk through the gate. Suddenly, a stewardess jumped out and told me that I needed to pay a 15,000 won airport tax before I passed through the gate. I had already changed all my won to baht so I had to trudge over to the airport money exchange to get some won.
Once again, I looked into Dong-Mi’s eyes and told her that I would return one day. I began to walk in once again, handing the money to the stewardess, only to be informed that she couldn’t take the money and that I needed to exchange the money for a ticket that I would then hand to her.
Once again, I trudged to the money exchange to buy a ticket. This time, Dong-Mi just laughed as I walked through the gate. We hugged and then said our goodbyes.
