Public Transportation

Over the past few weeks, Taylor and I have become rather familiar with the various forms of public transportation. From planes to trains, subways to buses, and taxis to bumming rides from friends! We have yet to take a ferry, which I think closes out the various forms offered here in South Korea... well besides the people and horse drawn buggies, but those are not considered modern forms! :) It is amazing the freedom there is in catching the subway to just about anywhere in the big city. I had never ridden one before... okay, let's be honest... I had never ridden a large airplane, or train, or city bus, or intercity bus, or really even a taxi ever before either. Called me sheltered if you must! (I have ridden the DART train!) Anyways, Taylor and I are enjoying public transit... that is until this past Sunday.

We had only about ten minutes before our bus departed for Yeongsan from the Busan bus terminal and Taylor and Corin were both fairly hungry. With a McDonalds at the terminal, it was hard for them to resist a "Cheegee Buguh" and fries. So Taylor headed for the checkout line, while Corin and I bought the bus tickets. We met in the terminal and then headed for the bus. After we settled into our usual seats at the rear of the bus, Taylor and Corin opened up the brown paper bag and began to chow down on their burgers and fries. I had requested a "cider" or Sprite as we like to refer to them since my tummy was a little upset, but the cashier must have misunderstood... or maybe just a mix up at rush hour... either way, I got coke. Corin and I were going to be sharing, since his sippie cup had run dry. (Perhaps I should backtrack just a bit by telling you that Corin had been up half the night before, with an upset tummy and weird foamy diarrhea. Oh, and this story is not for those with weak stomachs themselves!) So as we started off towards home, the bus was a rather rigid ride with lots of bumps and bounces for the first 25 minutes or so. Corin was finished with his meal within the first 15 minutes if not sooner and began squirming around as usual. Corin was sitting in the seat between Taylor and myself as he shot at cars out the rear window, using his sippie cup for a deadly weapon. I thought perhaps he had "run out of ammunition" when his "bang bang"ing stopped, but as I looked at his face, I noticed he had a funny expression. Two seconds later, before I had a moment to process it all, he burped extremely loud and then proceeded to projectile vomit all over the back of the seat. It ran down and puddled in the dip of the seat cushion as his flow of bodily fluids kept coming. Taylor and I were both in a form of shock as we just watched him until he had finished. It only took a minute and a half to fill his little seat full up and over onto the floor through the crack in between the cushions. Corin came up crying... we both knew why as soon as we saw the halves of french fries in the midst of the puddles. (We will be working on chewing the food... not just biting!) Taylor soon had Cor's shirt and pants off and I had wiped up what I could without vomiting myself, which is a true feat! Then... Taylor and I just began to laugh out loud. We rode the rest of the way home in "fear" of the chair and tried to keep Corin from climbing into what he referred to as the "yucky chair" and "oh gross." Not knowing how to say in Korean what had just happened, and knowing we had only moments to exit the bus before the driver would simply take off in an effort to keep the bus on a timely schedule, we left a McDonalds bag full of vomit filled napkins on the floor in front of the "scene of the crime" and hoped it would all work out in the end. I had been able to wipe it down with wet wipes, but that is not exactly sanitary. We can only hope they clean their buses regularly! :) The end.
LL