A day of extremes.

I have now experienced my first day in Korea and the travel leading up to it, and I think "roller coaster ride" is the best way to describe it.  Well then, here is the last 26ish hours of my life:

It starts out with waking up at 5:00am and being taken to the SAC airport by my awesome sister Nikki, but we were both pretty out of it after a night of visiting and delicious spicy food and wine.  Everything goes smooth, I check my bags and a fly to Seattle, and the easy part is done.  In the SEA-TAC airport my abysmal sense of direction caused me to walk around an extra 45 minutes for no reason, but with the help of the internet and a nice man working at the airport, I managed to not exit the security clearance to try to check in with Korean Air (all I had to do was sit by the gate in the first place to check in).  So yeah, that was aggravating, but then I made a new friend. :D

I was really just minding my own business, but a guy in a suit obviously needed a place to charge his laptop and I offered the one that I was sitting by.  Slowly our conversation developed, and over the next 2 hours we got to know one another and spoke a bunch about Korean culture, American culture, and all sorts of things in between.  His name is Lee and he travels all over the world working for a company that is involved with Hyundai I believe.  I was happy that he was impressed with my knowledge of Korean history and the culture, and we shared e-mail addresses and are going to meet up in Seoul when I get all of my logistics (school placement, new apartment, etc) figured out.

Unfortunately our conversation was cut short by the boarding of the plane, and so I stepped into the unknown cabin that would be launching me off to Korea.  It was actually the best service, cleanliness, and accommodations in a plane that I have ever had.  Every seat had a TV with a remote control that was also a game controller, and you could watch movies, listen to music, watch television shows, or play games during the flight.  Every seat was given a blanket, pillow, toothbrush, eye mask, and water bottle from the start!  The flight attendants were abundant and every 10 minutes I would have to say no to another offer for food or drink.  Unfortunately it was still a 12 hour non-stop flight, and I had not done one of those before.  I wasn't able to sleep more than 5 or 10 minutes, and so I played a ton of Tetris, and even got in the top 8 scores by the end of the flight, woohoo.  After what seemed like an eternity the flight finally was over, and so I found myself at the Incheon International Airport, a HUGE place that is the stuff of nightmares for directionless people like me.  Luckily I connected with Lee when the flight ended again, and he helped me make it to the emigration area before he had to go.  That is when the fun really started to ramp up :P

So I get my bags, and then I realize that altogether they weigh about 80 or 90 pounds, which ends up being not fun to carry around the huge airport looking for a bus terminal that I can't find.  After finding an information desk, I finally find the bus (or at least I think I found it?), but the driver didn't speak English and I never heard the speakers call out the stop that I was listening for.  So I get kicked out of the bus on its last stop, and I'm on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, with no cell phone (I don't have a sim card yet), and I'm still carrying 90lbs of luggage.  Needless to say it wasn't fun, but after dragging my luggage through the dirt for a while I found a little group of food stands. Unfortunately none of them spoke English, they seemed really intent on helping me.  His son called a taxi for me, and even though it took 2 hours to show up, I enjoyed making conversation with body language.  I even received some food and drink, yet they wouldn't accept a small tip for the help they gave me, so I went on my way and after a 30 minute taxi drive (it seemed like the bus never even got close to the destination), I finally made it to the guesthouse that I'm typing this from right now.

So I've been awake for like 27 hours now, and its time to crash.  Tomorrow I'll travel to Daejin University for an 8 day orientation before I am finally placed into an apartment and school somewhere in Seoul.  I haven't even been into the heart of Seoul yet, although I'm rooming right now with a cool Irish guy named Alan that is in the same teaching program I am in, but is being placed in a different city.  He explored Seoul today and said it was amazing.  I can't wait!

Thanks for reading this wall of text, and I promise there will be pictures in the near future :D