When It Rains

The rainy season in Korea began this week. It's been a dreary week, weather-wise, but it's also been an interesting one for me, personally. Up until this week, I had gone several months without a date, which I admit without embarrassment. I don't care much about social mores when it comes to these sorts of things. Mostly I've been content with my life, so it hasn't bothered me. Recently, however, things have changed--and rather suddenly.

Last weekend one of my students tried to set me up on a blind date with another Canadian expat. Tonight a friend of a friend wanted to set me up with someone else, a Korean girl. I declined because I had already made plans for tomorrow that precluded a late night tonight. Those plans involve another girl, and they go far to explain why I haven't followed up on the blind date opportunity.

For the past month I've been chatting with someone I met on Facebook. She lives outside of Seoul, 2-4 hours away, depending on your mode of transportation. We've used Facebook, Skype, and text messages to communicate, and we've been doing it a lot lately--at least once a day. She's Korean, but she teaches English to high school students; communication isn't a problem. Quite the opposite, actually: we anticipate each other's thoughts before we give them words. We're going to meet tomorrow halfway in between our two cities. Despite long and, often, personal conversation, I'm not sure what to expect. This sort of thing, like many of my experiences in Korea, is a first for me.