okay, so remember 미선(misun), the pretty girl i met on december 30th? well, the day after we met, i sent her an email but by the next day i hadn't heard from her so i called her, that was around 1:00p on new year's day.

as soon as she picked up and started to talk, i could tell that i'd woken her up. she was kinda groggy and getting woken up and immediately switching your brain on to talk on the phone isn't easy. not to mention the fact that she had to do it all in english, which is, of course, her second language. she hadn't gotten my mail so i thanked her for showing me and my friends such a good time at the noraebang. i also asked if she could email me some of the pictures she took since i only had a few and she had taken a bunch. i was planning on leaving new york the next day, but i really wanted to see her again so i also asked if she wanted to get together either that day or the next. there was kind of a pause and she said that the next day would be okay. i thought maybe she was hesitant so i told her if she felt uncomfortable it was okay if we didn't meet. but she said, no, i have time, and we made plans to meet in manhattan the next day. after we hung up i was really glad that i'd called her, but i wasn't really sure how it had gone. it was hard to tell if she'd just been tired, or if she wasn't really into meeting me. but the only way to find out was to be in front of macy's on saturday, january 2nd at 1:00p and see if she would show up.

so that's why i had to meet my old friend meghan in the morning and we didn't get to spend much time together, so i could meet a girl i'd met just two days before for lunch. nonetheless i had to give it a shot, so i left meghan's around 12:30p and took the subway downtown to the area near penn station and madison square guarden and walked up to macy's from there.

misun was there and looked pleased to meet me, so i felt much better that she had just been tired on the phone. it turned out she had gone to times square for new year's, which explained why she was still sleeping the next afternoon. we wanted to go for lunch, and she knew of a vietnamese restaurant uptown somewhere that she wanted to try. so we hopped on the subway and had a nice chat along the way. the restaurant was just okay, but we had a good time chatting and getting to know one another better. she worked as a screenwriter for a television network in korea, and came to new york in september to study film for about nine months. at lunch she also gave me a nice envelope with a burned cd of all her pictures from the noraebang a few nights earlier.

after lunch we started to take a walk, and after a few blocks she spotted a gap clothing store we were walking by and asked if we could pop in there. i thought maybe she wanted to do a little shopping, i didn't mind. i was just happy to be along for the ride. but then she found the scarf section and told me she thought i looked a little cold so she was buying me a scarf! which to my amazement, she did. she bought me a scarf, right then and there. and so once again we set out for a walk along the streets of the upper west side: misun, me, and my new scarf.

we stopped for a coffee but there weren't any tables to sit so we got it to go and drank it as we walked. at some point i kinda got my bearings and suggested we head in a direction that would lead us to central park, which we did. along the way misun commented on how tough english was for her, and we joked that all she needed was a little 소주(soju, korean alcohol). it's so true that for some reason a few drinks does wonders for speaking a second language fluently. i guess it's all up there, you just have to let the subconscious mind take over a little.

we made our way to the park after a few blocks and entered where the strawberry fields memorial is located. it was a gorgeous day, and by now it was the time of day where the sun was hanging low over the buildings but still cutting into the grassy fields of the park.

to all the guys out there, i want to recommend something that you do once in your lifetime: take a really pretty girl for a walk through central park. it's nice, believe me.

we slowly wound our way down through the park and ended up at columbus circle at the southwest corner of the park. we went into a big shopping center and stopped off first to use the restroom. after that we went into a bookstore and talked about how it's tough for her to find books to read that are both within her english level and not totally for kids. i recommended harry potter since i love that series and while the english is not super easy it's somewhat less challenging. plus i saw it as an opportunity to repay her for her incredible gesture of buying me the scarf. so i bought her a copy of harry potter and the sorcerer's stone.

after a little more browsing around, it was getting to be almost 6:00p and i was planning on driving back home to delaware that night, so unfortunately our very nice afternoon had to finally come to an end. i walked her to the subway line she needed to take, and along the way we talked about how nice of a time we'd had and how it was such a shame we wouldn't be able to meet again, at least for a while. before i knew it we'd hugged and said our goodbyes and she disappeared down the stairs of the subway station.

i went back to litza's place and she and ari very kindly offered me to stay yet another night and just drive back in the morning, which i did. chris came over and we spent a relaxing evening watching a very strange but interesting movie that litza had from netflix. in the morning, i drove back to delaware, but not before receiving a really nice email from misun telling what a nice time she'd had. since then we have kept in touch by email, but hopefully we'll get the chance to meet again in person sometime in the near future.

tagged: central park scarf sunshine