A Retired Korean Shortstop and Me

I met him on the ferry from Gyeokpo to Wido. Actually I met him right after I bought my ticket for the ferry. He came over to me and said:

"NAME! PASSPORT!! NAME!! PASSPORT!!" while violently pointing to my ticket. 

Apparently I needed to write my name and passport number on the ticket. I guess in case the boat sank they could figure out who was on it.

I climbed on the ferry and sat towards the back. He sat next to me, one backpack with two fishing poles and a tackle box. He had been chatting up a cute woman on the dock and she joined us, also. Without my knowing, we had become friends after our first encounter. He impressed me with his english, pointing to his mosquito bites and saying, "Vampire! Ahhhh!!!" He asked if I was solo, and that he was solo, also, so we should stay together. We were best friends for two days.

김덕영 Kim Deok Yeong

We found a minbak (like a hotel, with no beds, just a floor and blankets) just past Wido Beach and headed out to the water to do some fishing. 

But it had rained all day. 

"Too Rainy! No pishy pishy."

There were no fish.

So we walked to a restaurant and feasted on fish we didn't catch. With my Korean-English dictionary on my iPhone I found out that he was a retired shortstop. He played 12 years for the Doosan Bears... I think... With my limited Korean I haven't been able to find career stats yet.

Looking back to our minbak across the bay.

After our delicious meal of fish we were treated with fresh clams when we returned to the minbak. Other guests joined us and we drank soju long into the night.

Our two day friendship ended as abruptly as it started. The next morning he stayed on the bay to fish and I walked about five miles to a beach. I thought we had and understanding that when he left "C" (minback) he would pass "B" (my beach) on route to "A" (the ferry) and we were going to go back to the mainland and head south to another island. But maybe I over estimated my ability to explain the plan. He called me once, I called him twice. Someone else answered his phone and explained they were on the ferry already. 

The strangeness of the relationship is hard to put into words. It is amazing how much was shared without being able to really speak to each other. 

Also, soju is a great translator. It almost seemed like I could understand him at times...