Part II.

He woke up to find he had been in Korea for three months. It wasn't anything like he had expected it to be. For some reason he had convinced himself he was going to travel back in time when he left Oregon. He was going to travel to a time and place where things were simple and fresh. Korea was not simple and it was not fresh. It was old, but it had new veins running all over its landscape. They could teach the United States a thing or two about technology that was for sure. He didn't have to worry if he started to yearn for something western because Korea had decided it was a good idea to put a Dunkin Doughnuts or a Baskin Robins every 100 feet in the city. But lucky for him he did not live in the city, he had to take an hour long bus ride to get into the city. Some days it wouldn't feel lucky but a year later he would be thankful for it.

His job wasn't what he thought it would be either. It was a job just like all the others, except this time, it was in Korea. "What exactly do you want to do with your life?" He will ask himself this question for the next year and a half. He would get the know the people he had been working with very well. Some he would like to forget and some would become a part of his story. His friend pool was expanding and for the first time in his life he didn't put up dams. He started to ask himself "What would I normally do?" and he would do the opposite. It felt good to step out of himself but something never change. He could still spot an asshole a mile away. He thought it was funny that no matter what country people are from there will always be assholes. He had made three good friends in just as many months.

The first two were men and this was something new for him. He'd known nearly all of his guy friends since diapers so making new male friends was a big deal for him. These two friends would remain his friends for the entire time he stayed in Korea. He suspected they would remain his friends long after that too. The third friend was a female from South Africa. She reminded him of a girl he knew in middle school and he liked her instantly. She liked to borrow things (books, plates, shirts, etc.) from him and not return them for weeks at a time. They remained at her place until he noticed them while eating dinner at one of her many "food/people" sessions. "Hey, is that mine?" he would ask. "Yeah, I meant to give that back to you" was her standard answer. She would bring him back a cheetah print muscle shirt from South Africa a year later. She would tell him that all the black Africans (he forgot there were white africans) wear them and that he should get in touch with his roots. This statement would make him laugh every time he thought about it from then on.

He would attempt to learn Korean but would never give it his all. He was different. He had always been different but now he was different without rules. Being differnet in the United States is not like being different in Korea. Being different here meant people would point, laugh, touch and smell and on one occasion a little girl, no older than seven, would stick out her tiny tongue and lick his arm. She would think he was made of chocolate and since she liked chocolate she would try to taste him. This incident would make him famous among his new group of friends.

He had not been in Korea half a year yet but he felt change happening all around him. He felt it inside of him too. This adventure would change his person and decided to sit back and float down the river for a while. It felt so good to let the river do all the work.