Heart and Seoul

The Escort

I woke up to the sound of voices and the pilot saying we have reached our destination, I yawned while I stretched and took my glasses off to rub crust out my eyes. Then I looked over to Crystal who was still sleep, I shook her shoulder and told her to wake up.

                “mmmp,” I groaned.

                “Wake up;” I told her, “We’re here!”

                She slowly opened her eyes and yawned, “huuuuuh?” she looked around tiredly.

                Taking some time to finally wake up and get up to walk, we boarded off the plane with our luggage in hand.

                “Man… how long was that flight?” Crystal asked.

                “I have no idea; I think I slept as much as you did,”

                We walked into the main area of the entrance of Seoul airport; I looked around in awe at the swarm of people running around to catch their flight.

                “We made it girl,” Crystal smiled, “Seoul Korea,”

                “I know, it’s so pretty, and this is just the airport!”

                Crystal looked around, “ok so…” she said becoming more serious, “Where do we go? Because I did NOT see that part in the letter,”

                Of course, Crystal never reads fine print. Bless that child…

                I pulled out my notepad, luckily I wrote down key information, “We are supposed to meet with the school’s escort…and his name is…Lee Donghae,”

                Crystal nodded, “mmkay, now not to sound uneducated but, is Lee is first name or last name? So I’d know what to properly call him,”

                I gave a small laugh, “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind being addressed as Donghae,” I told her.

                “Ok, and another thing….Where would we find him?!”

                                          

                She had a point; there were so many people it almost looked like they all blended together. We walked around a bit looking for a guy holding a sign maybe, I knew very little Korean so I couldn’t just ask anyone. About a few minutes later we ran into a very well dressed uniform leaning on a white limo holding a sign that that “Camille Tates and Crystal Patterson: SCAD” We both felt a relief when we found our escort.

                Donghae stood bowed, “Annyeong (Hello) ladies, I’m Donghae and I’m here to escort you two to Seoul College of art and Design,”

                We both bowed and greeted ourselves, the limo driver took our bags to put in the trunk then he opened the limo door for us. Both Crystal and I looked around the lavish limo in awe. It screamed ‘Rich Class’. Donghae then slid in and sat across from us. Then the limo driver started to drive off.

                “Welcome to Seoul,” he said smiling.

                “Wow, this is so…” I couldn’t even finish my sentence.

                “Fancy…” Crystal said finishing my sentence.

                Donghae grinned and brushed it off as if it was nothing, “Well this is the usual transportation for foreign exchange students,”

                The USUAL? So every exchange student gets the celebrity treatment? Wow, this school IS fancy.

                He laughed at our facial expressions, “I take it American schools aren’t like this huh?”

                “Psh, NO” Crystal snorted.

                “Well, MOST of them are not, I mean we have private schools but that’s about it,” I explained.

                “Well, I hope you two will like studying here, it must have been a big decision I bet. Especially leaving behind family,”

                We both sighed, “Yeahh,”

                “But we are really happy to have this experience,” I told him.

                “Wonderful, now if you don’t mind me asking, why did you two choose out of the country to study?”

                “Meet people different from me,” Crystal said.

                Donghae nodded then looked at me, “and you?”

                “Umm, to learn and live around a new culture and to also do something my other family couldn’t do. And it was to study abroad,”

                “Well those are very wonderful reasons.” He said, “And with that, I welcome you both,” he smiled.