Chapter 2. Alone: How Did I Get Here?

An uncertain future in my pivot to the unknown land of Korea

All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

―Blaise Pascal,Pensées

I stepped off the plane in Korea. Just a week or two earlier I had collected my passport with all it’s VISA stamps and what not at the Korean Embassy in San Francisco. I passed easily through immigration, collected my bags and of course went through the additional screening of my bags before being released into the arrivals terminal. 

There was a man with a white board sign with my name on it. Mr. Richard Thurman III. This was so formal. I had often wondered who were these people who were being picked up at airports with their names on signs. Now here I was, one of those people. He helped me with my bags and escorted me to his van. 

We got in the van and he didn’t say anything to me. I ask him a question, but he just looked at me blankly and smiled. I asked him where we are going and he just stared at me and said something in Korean. I shake my head and say I don’t understand, to which he responds “no English” which I took to mean he doesn’t speak English. 

Great! I thought. Here I am driving somewhere with a guy I’ve never met, looking at road signs I cannot read and the guy I’m riding with does not speak English.

What have you gotten yourself into Rich?

Your family doesn’t even know if you’ve arrived.

No one knows exactly where you are.

What the fuck are you doing bruh?