Left A Young’s home at 8:30 A.M. to meet Yuna Nam, a 2010 graduate of SUNY Binghamton with a degree in marketing. A Young had originally planned to help me with all of my meetings while I was staying with her but her "Academy" schedule (summer school) wouldn’t allow it. When Yuna visited Dover-Foxcroft back in May to visit with Smith family Yuna and I had an opportunity to reconnect with her and she offered to help me and in any way she could – so while I was still in China and learning of A Young’s schedule problem I contacted Yuna who graciously said she would help.A Young’s father picked up Yuna at the subway station and drove us to our first appointment. He gave Yuna enough money to take care of all of taxi needs throughout the day. The first thing I asked Yuna to do as we drove to our first appointment was to call each of each of the appointments for the day to confirm time and place. We learned that two of the consultants had different dates, so she said we would call back to reschedule. After our first meeting Yuna and I found a Tom and Tom’s coffee shop – frequented by university students and set up with free wi-fi. We spent the next 3 hours calling 13 different agencies who I had had contact with and appointments to confirm and reschedule as needed for each of the appointments. I usally do this about a week ahead of time but my schedule in China and my connecting with Yuna late made this difficult.
Yuna had a good sense of what kind of time we would need between each appointment in order to get a taxi and arrive at the next appointment. We left at 2 p.m. for another appointment with a new agency who I didn’t have in my database, but who Yuna discovered as she was making phone calls. After the meeting with the agency we took a taxi to A Young’s father’s business office and he spent time talking to us about his business and vision for his company (credit card processing software). Yuna and I also took time to revisit my schedule for the next four days and in particular our five meetings tomorrow. He then drove us back to subway line 7 at Gangnam-ku where Yuna caught the subway back to her home.
At 5:00 P.M. I met Myeonghoe Son for dinner at PRAU restaurant which is not far from A Young’s home. Myeonghoe lived with Dottie and I and was also very active in our church. We talk to Myeonghoe every few weeks throughout the year and she sometimes calls for help with a particular problem. We had a wonderful time catching up with each other and sharing photos. She wanted to see photos of Samuel, one of our grandchildren who she had particularly grown fond of. After dinner and some coffee at the nearby Starbucks I offered to walk her back to the subway station so she could get home at a reasonable offer (she had a 10 hour school day tomorrow and needed to get home to prepare for it), but she wouldn’t leave me until A Young or her father came to pick me up. Unfortunately neither were near where we were and both were busy with other commitments, so Myeonghoe put me in a coffee shop and told me to stay and wait until they arrived to pick me up, which she had arranged. We said good-bye and Myeonghoe made her way to the subway station. I was curious if I could find my way back to A Young’s home on my own so I left the coffee shop and began walking in the direction I thought her home was. I knew it was close to a Tom and Tom’s coffee shop (great Korean pastries) so I kept stopping and asking people where the Tom and Tom’s was, but no one ever heard of a Tom’s and Tom’s in the area of Seoul that I was in. I was not discouraged so I kept walking in various direction until I was totally lost.
A Young called to see if I was still in the coffee shop where Myeonghoe had put me and I had to confess I was not. She got very worried and called her dad. Through some help of various people I stopped and asked I made my way back to PRAU restaurant where I had begun my journey. A Young’s father had called his niece, Yeon Woo who I had had dinner with and gone to the movies with two nights earlier and she came physically running to the PRAU restaurant. Although only 12 years old Yeon Woo expressed real concern for me and offered to carry my briefcase and when I told her it was too heavy and that I would carry it she told me “no” that she would carry it because she was young and I was too old. We both laughed and I let her carry it – it weighed almost as much as she did. Together we walked back to A Young’s house. During our 20 minute walk she talked about how she really wanted to come to America to study. Her English was pretty good for 12 years old and we carried on a continuing conversation during our whole walk. When we arrived she said that she really enjoyed speaking in English but it was very hard work. I gave her a polo shirt to show my appreciation for her help in getting me “home” safely.
I was exhausted so I went to bed around 11 p.m.
