How the trip ended

So, let's start at the beginning. Or do we start at the end and work our way back?

We'll start at the end. Yesterday was a really bad day. That doesn't seem like the way to start. Hm. Let's start over. Our trip to Ullengdo Island was cut short because there was a storm headed to Korea and there wouldn't be any ferries running on Wednesday (our original day to come back) or Thursday. So, we decided to come back early. On Tuesday. Tuesday started out as a fantastic day. We went on the cable cars and jumped in the ocean and it was the perfect sunny wonderful day we had yet to see on the trip. But more on that later.

Our ferry trip back wasn't as bad as the others had been. And we were pretty sick of traveling. It was raining by the time we reached the mainland. We got on our bus and headed home. It was grey and getting to be evening and it was raining. We started watching Iron Man 2 on the bus. My co-workers/friends were in the back of the bus, while I was in the middle because there hadn't been any seats close to them. Our bus suddenly hit the brakes. People in the front screamed because they knew we weren't going to be able to stop in time. It was a space of a few seconds but I can only see it moving in slow motion in my head. There is that sickening crunch of metal, shards of glass flying around me, and then almost as suddenly as it started everything stopped. Almost instantly everyone is asking each other if they are okay, looking out and around to see what happened. "There is a body outside," we hear. My heart stops.

What has happened? What have we done?

We don't know who it is. Is it someone from our bus? From the other bus? What did we hit? What happened? To this day (2 days later) no one has the same recollection. Everyone remembers a different story, a different scene replays in their head.

From what I've managed to piece together is, there was an accident in the road before we came along. The bus in front of us managed to slow down or stop but we didn't. We hit the cars and we hit the other bus. What busted out the window next to me was the side mirror of the other bus.

People from the other bus were out, calling down nurses, directing traffic, and asking for umbrellas or dry clothes or antiseptic. Everyone in our bus tore the curtains down and found umbrellas and dry clothes and passed them out through our window. They (I don't even know who; just other people in our group) managed to keep the person alive and from going into shock. I felt useless. People from my group kept asking if I was okay and telling me I was tense. I was about as okay as anyone else. What was I thinking? I wasn't thinking anything. Or there were so many things going through my head that I can't even tell you what I was thinking.

Once the police and ambulence arrived we left. Apparently our front door was smashed so we couldn't open it and we all had to climb through the busted window in the door. There were two guys from the other bus helping everyone out the window and onto a ladder to climb down to safety.

And that was how my trip ended. Except for the part where a lady at the train station tried to make me pay for her ticket or ask for money and I flipped out on her. I was so angry. Just because I'm a foreigner doesn't mean I have money. And she bought some useless ticket and then when I was crying and raising my voice, she looked slightly guilty and I forced her to take the money. I already couldn't find my subway card, was running behind everyone, couldn't remember which station we were going to; I was slightly frazzled.

We decided that only pancakes and wine could fix this, but finding wine in Korea? That was a bit of a goose chase. When we finally did find it, the guy couldn't scan it and was going to tell me that he couldn't sell it to me. "No," I explained to him in English. "I'm going to buy this wine. It's been one of those days." I don't think he understood the words so much as the desperation that seeped through. He finally let me buy it.

We went to Gia's (nickname for blog purposes) house and talked and drank okay wine and ate great pancakes. I think that everyone had to talk about what happened and that no one wanted to be alone. I went home early. As I leaned over to tie my shoes, glass fell from my person. I have no idea where it came from. It was just another reminder of our brush with... death? life? fear? something we will never forget? I don't know. In better news, the two people from the accident were doing better last we heard.

And that is how the story ends.