The Serial Killer Named Time

10. Meet me at the Fair

The flights were an entire haze, on both airplanes all I did was sleep and after an hour or two walk around when I could. I vomited twice en route to Beijing and passed out for hours, unsure whether it was day or night in my current time zone. Looking at my watch with the current time I realized that Pyongyang was fifteen hours and thirty minutes ahead. While leaving the airport in Pyongyang we were escorted to a hotel in the heart of the city. A recent memory came back to me, I remembered that once we landed we had to fill out forms on what items we were bringing with us and on the flight, we were given magazines and articles about North Korea.

An alarm sounded, I opened my weary eyes that wished to stay shut, reached over and snoozed the alarm. I sat up in the bed, still wearing my denim jeans and Hollister sweater that I wore on the flight. I slept in my own clothes? I thought to myself as I pushed myself out of bed and approached the curtains in the hotel room. This room wasn't as large and exquisite as the room in San Francisco but it wasn't terrible either. Yet there was no internet or cell service everything in the room was clean and in almost perfect condition, the motel rooms in America were a trillion times worse than this. I yanked open the curtains, expecting a morning sun but instead I was greeted by darkness and bright lights gleaming from people's windows in nearby hotels and apartment complexes.

When I came to North Korea I expected it to have little to no electricity and buildings falling apart and crumbling down to its foundations. I imagined unpaved streets and people fighting with each other over the last little scraps of food, yet it was entirely different. The city appeared just like any other city, with bright lights, decently dressed people, vehicles, restaurants, businesses, apartments and a lot more. Pyongyang appeared to be an average city.

Misha sat up in bed and he glanced towards me, "We are in North Korea, right?"

I nodded, "Yes, we are!"

"And we are still alive?"

I couldn't contain my smile, "Yes, we are!"

"I can't believe it, we are almost finished with our journey! See, Eva we will be returning home soon!"

Misha asked, "What Hotel are we in again?"

I rushed over to Anton's paperwork he left on the table, I searched through it and then I found a receipt, "Yanggakdo International Hotel." I peeped over to Anton who was still sound asleep in the bed, almost immediately I felt rush of adrenaline to go out and explore this city. "Wow, there is also a slowly-revolving restaurant on the 47th floor!" I glimpsed towards the alarm clock and realized it was six in the morning, well at least we didn't sleep through the day but I was pretty sure Anton was.

...

In the beginning of the noon, Anton woke up and stumbled around the hotel room like a drunken sailor, mumbling curses beneath his breath. I suddenly recalled when we were planning our trip to North Korea and he mentioned how he was coming here to run in an annual marathon. Anton entered Misha and I into the race last minute, thankfully we earned our spots. Then I began to wonder how were we accepted, didn't you need experience to enter this marathon? Misha and I never participated in a marathon in our lives, I am absolutely positive I haven't been at least.

"Anton, do we really have to participate in the marathon?" Misha sighed as he laced up his sneakers.

"No, you don't. I got you guys into the race by using a fake profile, according to the North Korean authorities you two are well-known athletes from California, so there is really no reason to force you to run when you will mostly likely will no be able to endure it." Anton glimpsed down at his watch making the same mistake as me, he soon later ripped off the watch and flung it against the wall angrily, "The watch is now useless to me." He grunted.