在天與地之間揮灑自如

還記得五月在龍山寺結識的加拿大人Maz嗎？他忽然在六月底寄了一封mail說他的韓國女友要來臺灣旅遊一星期。並且信中提到他不會跟他女友同行，希望我抽空跟她碰面，因為有禮物要送我，而且還說一定要請我吃一頓。

我也因此跟她女友Sunny聯絡，並答應她到臺灣的第一天會和她碰面。

七月十二日下午我和Sunny碰面。Sunny,(Lee, Seon Hee)，南韓大邱人，釜山大學畢業，主修語言教育學，之前才從東非盧安達當一個月的志工回到南韓。與他男友在慶典上認識。她在言談中特別懷念那邊的人事物，數度提起那邊的好，也告訴我她在旅遊之前和旅遊之後心胸和視野開闊不少。她也一直跟我強調open-minded這個字眼。

我們在Hostel的大廳碰面，見到她時我馬上用幾句簡單的韓文和她打招呼，她當場很驚訝的問我是不是來自韓國。我馬上笑著說不是，雖然很多日本人或韓國人會誤認我是他們國家的人，但確實不是。

       Sunny和她男友送我的見面禮

看她一副焦急的樣子，才知道她從機場到台北迷路好一陣子才搭計程車到下褟飯店。我問她這一週在台北有沒有什麼計劃?她就說她去旅行沒有什麼計劃，通常都是前一晚決定今天的行程，她也提到之前她在泰國的旅行也是很隨性地前往觀光地點，後來她提到想去逛逛夜市，我便帶她遊覽師大夜市和士林夜市。

後來，七月十八日她又聯絡我要請我吃一頓晚餐，她男友特別囑咐她要請我吃飯，我也勉強赴約了。然後，我問她這幾天去了哪些地方？她說她去了福隆沙灘、故宮博物院、歷史博物館和淡水。她也說到台北的捷運很方便，人都很nice，光是到捷運就可以到許多觀光景點。後來，她提到想去貓空走一走，我也順道當了幾小時的嚮導，帶她到貓空喝茶並且享受美麗的台北夜景。

我從她口中得知韓國和臺灣很多相似的地方，特別有印象的是除了離婚率高、女性越來越晚婚，學校的部份類似，就是韓國有和日本有所謂「釣魚台」領土問題，韓國的獨島（韓稱）或竹島（日稱）是位於日本海的2個島嶼和礁岩群。韓國主張位於東海（地理上等同於日本稱的「日本海」），屬於慶尚北道鬱陵郡，日本主張位於日本海，屬於島根縣隱岐郡隱岐之島町。韓國與日本均主張擁有該島群的主權，但自二戰結束以來，獨島實際由韓國管轄。這其中有太多的歷史糾葛，在此不加詳述。

接著，我問她是怎麼認識她男友？她就說她在某個慶典上認識了Maz，然後他們彼此喜歡，至今她們相戀四個多月(應該是吧？)。她也笑著說她以前英語不好，後來她去會話班補強，再加上遇上男友的關係，讓她英文會話一下子突飛猛進。Sunny的例子讓我再次看到交異性好友對語言進步的真實案例。

後來，Sunny一直要我有機會一定要去南韓旅遊。

最後一天，她覺得臺灣很好玩，直嚷著不想回韓國。

她還很客氣地送我兩本書(其中一本是韓國暢銷書，「請照顧我媽媽」)外加一張感謝卡片。

Sunny最後一天送我的書和卡片

卡片的內容：

To Ernie,

Thanks for your help and Kindness, My trip is ended safely. I may bother you. If I did, really sorry. Taiwan is really good and nice to travel. Everyone is kind, Everywhere is nice.

When I come back to Korea, I will tell my friends about Taiwan, and I will recommend here. And I wanna come here again, then stay more than… As I told you, one week is too short to know or travel somewhere. I cannot forget Taiwan and you. So I suggest you to come Korea. Anytime is Okay. And when you come to Korea, send e-mail. I wanna introduce or guide if you’re okay.

Because my English is not good, I cannot express my thanks. As I think you as a friend, I hope you also think like me. Am I wrong?And this Book is for you. Today I went to eslite bookstore(誠品書店) , and I found a Korean Book. I don’t know your taste of books, so it may not your taste. But In Korea it is really a good book and I like it , so I wanna introduce it.

And another one is one that I like. I jope you like it.

Really thank you for giving me good memory in Taiwan.

Form Sunny

哈哈…Sunny,我該謝謝妳的禮物才對。下次帶妳男友一起來臺灣玩吧！

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Maz在7/22早上寫了封mail給我：

Dude thank you so much for the gifts. I really like the beads and I will wear it when I go to China. Sunny told me some stories about Taiwan and she recalls you very fondly. I am very thankful that you took time to host her and both her and I will never forget it. Your kindness knows no bounds and I always wish we have more people in the world like you. Anyways I will keep going on but overall I really wanted to thank you for showing Sunny around, the gifts and if course making Taiwan very memorable for both of us.

My next question / offer of course it to extend an open invitation to come to Korea anytime you want. I will do my best to be as good a host but it would be amazing if you could come down and we can properly explore Korea.

Oh and thank you for driving Sunny to the airport and also for the post cards.

How are your entrance exams going? Did you get your results back?

Anyways, take care and stay in touch.
Hope to see you soon,
Maz