"Get Outa Town!": A Hap-chance Halloween(ie) Weekend... Part One

First I would like to say to the handful of people that actually stay tuned to my blog: I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I am so bad about writing consistently. I will be better. I promise.

(This post promises to be a mini-novella, so maybe this makes up for it.)

That being said.....

Thursday
I suppose it was last Thursday when I was chatting with my sis online when I felt it... A twinge of something. Some sort of restlessness was coming over me. Some clutching panic that this tiny little island was holding me down.

("Ain't no one ever gonna hooold meee dowwwwn... Oh yeah!" --
If anyone can tell me why that just popped in my head, and what the hell song that is, please let me know... Because I have no clue.)

N-E-way... Sis mentioned that any time she felt that way, she would go out of town. And then it hit me. It clicked.

I called Kyle up right away and said,

"Do you wanna just try and do stand-by?"

"Yeah, let's do it."

I don't remember if those were his exact words, but those were his sentiments exactly.

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Whoa, whoa, whoa. I am getting way ahead of myself...
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Monday
I should mention that the Monday before we had talked about going to Daegu, a big city on the mainland, for a Halloween party/EPIK Orientation 2007 reunion of sorts.

To our dismay, there were no flights available on Friday and leaving on Saturday seemed to be a waste of money to go for just one day.

Back to Thursday
After grubbin' on some Baghdad, we went home and packed for the trip that may or may not be.

Friday
All day at school I wanted to rip my skin off I was so filled with anticipation.

And when I told my main co-teacher at that school that I would be leaving early, and she asked me why, I cowered and told her that "it was personal", and left it at that.

What was I gonna do... Say , "I'm leaving early to get the eff out this place because I feel like I'm being effin' smothered to death"...?

That kind of flowery vocabulary is well beyond her understanding.

Braced with an all-or nothing, "let's take a chance!", positive attitude, I left school at 2:30 p.m. and cabbed it to Kyle's school.

[Side note that had to be included: As I waited for Kyle to slowly stroll out of his behemoth of a school, I was asked by some students if I knew Kyle... Big Mistake.

"Oh, yeah, he's my boyfriend..."

"OH! KYLE GIRLFRIEND?!?! KYLE GIRLFRIEND?!?! OHHHHH!!!

Imagine about 40-50 elementary kids swarming yelling and asking me this. Of course, it was a bit endearing since they kept telling I was beautiful over and over again. Kids are so truthful. :)]

After that spectacle, and randomly picking up our passports from our apartment (which did pay off later) we made it to the airport. We got on stand-by for a flight at 5:30... It was about 3:30.

After 2 hours of dozing off, playing Zoo Zoo Club on Kyle's phone (best game ever), we were told there were only 2 seats available... We were #12 and #13.

(We actually ran into the head of the Jeju P.O.E (Provincial Office of Education) who translated this to us.)

OH WELL... WE TRIED ALL WE COULD... NOTHING WE COULD DO... BLAH, BLAH, BLAH...

Still determined to stay positive in the face of direct defeat, I decided I could still have a good weekend in town and hopefully get away next weekend or so....

Or so I thought!!!

Literally, as we were cashing in the stand-by tickets we were made to purchase before we actually got on stand-by, the head of the Jeju P.O.E. came to us and said he heard the flight had been delayed and there might be seats available now.

We asked the counter attendant if it was possible... and HOLY CANOLI... IT WAS!!

How it worked out that since the flight was delayed 15 minutes, they were suddenly 11 more seats available continues to befuddle me to this day.

Maybe it was luck, maybe it was fate... Or maybe it was staying positive and taking a chance on something that was worthwhile...

Whatever it was... We were on our way to Daegu!