"Aimee, I don't have my umbrella. Did you bring yours?"
"Yeah, we're good."
Aimee and I were on the bus headed to Gwangju to check out a church that I had been to once before and large rain filled clouds were making their way over the mountains. What I had mistaken for fog was indeed thunderheads about to drench the town. We left Naju and the rain (or so I thought) behind. A quick hop onto the subway and I knew we were headed in the right direction towards the church, but as we climbed the steps to head back to the street I saw what I had dreaded...rain.
My first thought went to my feet. I didn't have rain boots. I had suede boots on my feet, and while I looked cute, I was not weather proof. At all. But I felt better knowing that my friend, Aimee, had brought an umbrella. Mine was in my classroom from when I had used it earlier that week. Of course. So Aimee brings out the umbrella, opens it, and we both laugh. Aimee owns the world's smallest umbrella. I grabbed my Whole Foods reusable bag (we were planning an E-Mart run) and covered my head. It was raining lightly at first, but as we walked farther and farther away from the subway the, rain picked up and then we realized we didn't really know where we were headed. We were going in the right direction and I had a vague idea of which stop we needed to get off the bus, but where do we get on the bus and even better...which bus do we get on? Now it wasn't just raining, it was pouring. Roads had turned into rivers so that when the cars and buses passed by they sent up five foot walls of water. I do love to exaggerate, but this is not one of those times. FIVE FOOT WALLS OF WATER. So there we were, one waygook with an umbrella looking to the other waygook, who was soaking wet and holding a bag over her head, to show her which way to go.
This was one of those times that can break a traveller. You're in a strange city, can't read the bus signs, can't ask anyone for help, you can't feel your feet because they are so wet and cold, and all you want to do is give up, sit down, and cry. It happened the second week I was in Korea. I had traveled to Gwangju to try and find the International Center and I walked for hours, created multiple blisters on my feet, and couldn't find a damn thing. I got back on the subway and shed a tear of frustration. But I returned the next day, extremely determined to not only find it, but maybe find a friend. I found both.
Now back to today, the rain, the lost waygooks. Aimee and I looked at each other and up and down the street. At last! A bus stop. We couldn't care less where the bus went as long as there was an overhang that we could stand under. I ran because the bag wasn't doing too much for me at this point. The rain was running down my face, my shoes were now large water filled wrappings around my feet and I almost took out a nun in my sprint to the bus stop.
It is uncommon for bus stops to be void of people, but this one was and Aimee and I collapsed on the bench and began laughing. Delirious? Maybe, but most likely not. We were having the time of our lives. We were lost, wet, looked terrible (sorry, it's true Aimee), and doubled over in laughter. We said a quick prayer that God would send the right bus, because we had now figured out which one we needed, and that the rain would stop. He sent the bus, but he took his time with the rain. We walked another 1/4 mile to the church in the rain after the right bus came by and in this last stretch we had to cross a massive puddle by clinging to the sides of a wheelchair ramp that ran along side the sidewalk, jumped out of the way of the aforementioned wall of water created by passing cars, and saw a car almost half submerged in the mud and rain in the dirt parking lot at the church. We refrained from taking pictures of that because it was just too sad.
We arrived at the church, muddy, soggy, and overjoyed. It could have been the other way. We could have succumbed to the conditions. But we didn't. Sometimes it rains and you have no umbrella. You are completely unprepared for the situation. For an expat these times are frequent and there are only two ways to deal with it: give up or realize you signed up for a year of adventure, no matter the form they arrive in, and forge ahead. Today, two expats had an experience that showed the better way to deal with unforeseen circumstances: laugh, be thankful, enjoy the company you're in, and roll with it. Other times you might have a good cry, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and struggle to carry on. It happens. It's inevitable. But not today. Today it rained...and it was a good day.
P.S. The church had a Thanksgiving service where the English service and Korean service were combined (yay for translations through headphones) and at the end of the service everyone got a free bag of rice. Aimee and I learned that perseverance in the face of adversity pays off.
The boots at the end of the day. They were still a bit sloshy.
Free bag of rice!
Here's a video that Aimee and I made after church. I think I would count this as a vlog. Before I left that morning the hair was rocking. Not so much after the downpour.
and a poem because that's how I roll.
A Rainy Day by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The day is cold, and dark, and dreary
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.
My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.
Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
