Stranded on an Island off the Island we are Stranded On

One might be prone to ask exactly what family emergencies, a lifetime supply of jalapenos, fictitious legends, Baywatch banter, and islands have in common. All I can say is this, UDO ISLAND 2007-Alex Page's 23rd/24th birthday. I mean how many times can you say you have celebrated two birthdays simultaneously? It was clearly cause for celebration because here in Korea, due to the Lunar New Year, we are both 23/24 at the same time.

My last attempt at a surprise Birthday went awry due to snooping birthday girls perusing friends Facebook accounts without their knowledge. This time would be different.
Amidst a gchat email conversation that spanned over 60 messages in 2 days, we pulled it together-a pension on the ocean, island biking, Mexican food, board games, drinks, and chocolate cake.

Though successful birthdays usually strengthen relationships between close friends, my excessive and "superfluous lies" as Kate Barney called them, might have my friends wondering if I lie more frequently than this isolated situation. Like I said, at the boat terminal "I only lie when I have to. Which is very Infrequent." I had to get Alex to spend time with me despite his prior engagements with friends and families. The situation led me to make up complex lies about a family crisis. Though seemingly unnecessary, it was the only thing that really warranted him canceling other commitments.

And so we started the binge of lies. Just what would I say regarding the 20 kilo bag filled with Mexican food ingredients and computers for our movie viewing pleasure? I claimed it was for a lesson Kate was teaching on sensory response and language. I needed to cover my bases-why on earth would I be carrying such a large bag under any circumstance? EXACTLY I WOULDN'T. Alex refused to wear a blindfold claiming "I already look like a goon I won't be seen walking around blindfolded in Seogwipo." "Fair enough" I thought to myself, he is the tallest man in Korea, what if the tallest man in Korea was also wearing a blindfold? Though I delight in this type of tomfoolery I gave into his request.

Following a never ending bus ride, I made a feeble attempt at a trust walk. I have done countless leadership training seminars and led outdoor trips, one would expect a level of competency with regards to this sort of task. But considering the moment I put the blindfold on, I abandoned Alex with attempts at hailing a taxi, making a boat that departed in 7 minutes and texting friends to see as to their whereabouts-he was less than thrilled to trust me. To my defense, I have always been open about my ADHD-these situations are complicated to undertake all at once. A few stumbles and bumped heads later, we were successfully on the boat. Unfortunately-our friends.....weren't. This had me pacing aimlessly back and forth trying to come up with another elaborate lie as to what we were doing on Udo. Then unexpectedly, my saving grace came in the form of a weathered old woman wailing away.
Blindfolded, Alex asked?
"What the hell is that noise?!? Is that a person?"
jumping at the idea of elaborating on a potentially ridiculous story, I quickly responded "Yes."
Alex furthered his questioning with "Is that what we came to see?"
"Maybe." This was too easy, he was serving me this absurd lie on a platter.
"Is that seriously what we came to see?"
"Yeah, that's the whimpering woman of Udo."
"What?"
"You haven't heard about this?"
"Why would I have heard about this?" He exclaimed with a serious tone.
Holding back laughter I attempted to describe the legend of the whimpering woman.
"Oh my god, this woman is incredible. She walks around the island singing and moaning like she is now, and is supposedly a good luck charm that Jeju people search out when they visit Udo. She just whimpers/sings like that, and if you ask her the history of Jeju she'll tell you the story of the Hallabong and ancient folklore like that."
"So you're telling me that you blindfolded me, dragged me out an hour and a half by bus to a place I knew I was going this entire time, in order for me to see an old whimpering woman?"
"Yes, well no. We are a little early, but I learned about the Udo Pride Parade that happens every Friday. They have a cow and horse parade every Friday."

The fact that Alex believed me was quite perplexing. I myself could never envision such an intelligent human to actually take a "cow pride parade" seriously. Then again, to his defense, we are in Korea. And we all know, anything is possible in this country.

Amidst the lies, our friends finally arrived at the terminal to meet us and following a rousing rendition of "happy birthday," we set out to our pension, Korean cake in a box and all.

The food was great, competitive monopoly even better and Alex's response to each lie priceless. One minor flaw existed in this grand plan. Jeju Island's infamous wind, had us stranded. That's right stranded on an island off of the island we are stranded on. No boats were to set sail on Saturday, which had us wondering what exactly is wrong with Korea and transportation. The buses and taxis are reckless all of the time, and yet some waves and wind ground planes and boats? How could this be? Stranded on a desolate island in an uninhabited pension had has fearing the worst-as images from the Shining came into our mind. Yet bonding over our liking for Baywatch as younger children, and my passion that resulted in "watching the show in my bathing suit" had us feeling ok about the situation. We accomplished tasks such as brainstorming all deal breakers when it comes to relationships and learning astonishing facts about redheads courtesy of Allure-that's right did you know that red heads, a mere 2% of the worlds population, require 20% more anesthesia than all other patients?

We lounged, laughed, cooked, and delighted in happiness when we saw ferries traveling once again on Sunday morning. We set off and cracked a bottle of champagne on the back of the boat prior to our arrival back on the mainland.

Though things could have gone smoother, and I do hope Alex can trust me after the disastrous trust walk, I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. I mean the nachos with real Cheddar cheese and Korean Mexican infused cuisine combined with the best company anyone could ask for-could you ask for more?