souvenir 2.21

This event happened over five months ago but I remember it like it was yesterday. 

The winter weather was starting to clear away and I had teacher training with all of the new teachers. Meredith also had to go but for some reason Loree didn't (the lucky duck) but we decided since two of us were already close to my neighborhood that Loree should meet us there after school so we could finally try Hungry Kitchen. 

In January I had a I-need-a-real-burger-now-or-I-will-go-crazy meltdown and started to research the best burgers in Ulsan. There were two burgers that tied for first. One was near the beach an hour away and the other was in my neighborhood. 

When we got to Hungry Kitchen we had to wait a half an hour before the burger would be ready. Since Meredith and I needed cash we decided to quickly run to the ATM while Loree saved our seats. 

I should give a little forward about how awful Meredith's week had been. Nothing seemed to be going her way and even the taxi driver who brought her to training that morning couldn't read the address so he just drove around until he found it. Plus she had a cold. 

I got my cash out with no problem but Meredith's ATM wouldn't spit out her card. It was stuck. We tried calling the help line using the phone there but they hung up as soon as we spoke. 

We tried hitting a few buttons but nothing worked. That was when Meredith started to freak out (rightly so because she was leaving for Hawaii in two days and she needed that card to buy things). 

The only thing I could think of doing was calling my coteacher. So I called her and explained our situation and that we needed help. She then called the bank and told us that someone would come in five minutes to get the card out. Well we waited and waited. Many people came in and took cash out of the same ATM that ate Meredith's card. We were very confused. After about fifteen minutes someone came and saved the day. He went behind the ATMs and pulled out Meredith's card! 

We can back to the restaurant and sat down in time for our hamburgers to be set in front of us. We weren't able to laugh at the situation that night or even after Meredith got back from Hawaii but we can now. That situation could have ended in many terrible ways but it didn't. Instead we got the card and made it back in time to eat one of the best burgers I've had in Korea. 

Bless friends.