I finally made it...but it wasn't easy


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Asia » South Korea » Gyeonggi-do » Seongnam » Bundang
September 2nd 2009
Published: September 1st 2009
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I finally made it to the apartment! The location is amazing, one minute walk from the school; one minute walk to the subway station; places to eat and drink everywhere, but, as you guys know, it was very difficult getting here. My crazy itinerary had me going from Milwaukee to Minneapolis to Tokyo (Narita) to Seoul (Incheon) with, at max, a two hour layover between any of those cities. When I reached Minneapolis and found out that a Typhoon was rocking Tokyo and my plane was delayed three hours I knew that this was going to be a struggle.

The flight was fine. I slept a lot, watched movies, read, and ate, uneventful. When we got into Narita, however, the chaos ensued. A lot of people missed their connections, including me, and a lot of people were freaking out, not including me. They had us chugging up and down that airport: through security; to the international connection gate 25, where we waited in line for about 20 minutes and then were told they couldn’t do anything and that we had to call reservations ourselves to be rebooked; back out of security to immigration, where we waited for about an hour because there were so many people; to baggage claim, where we waited another hour because there was such a mess and that’s just how long it took for them to off load our bags; through customs; out to the curbside where there were courtesy telephones that called directly to Northwest/Delta reservations. Needless to say, the lines for these telephones were very long. Lucky for me I met a fellow ex-pat (expatriate) at baggage claim who has been teaching in Korea for a year already. She gave me a bunch of great tips and a lot of encouragement. I’m very grateful. When I finally got a hold of somebody from reservations I was rebooked onto a Korean Air flight that left the next day at 9:00am, and Vanessa, my fellow ex-pat, at 2:00pm. We decided to get a hotel room. “How did we get a room?” you might ask. We just followed the crowds out to the buses and hopped on one. We got to the Toyoko inn and wait in line some more, where I met some more ex-pats. Vanessa and I were going to split the cost of a room, but we found out that Northwest was paying, nice! I took a shower, walked to the closest money exchange machine, turned $30.00 in yen, and ran into some fellow stranded travelers wandering outside. They were heading to a convenience store about a mile from the hotel and asked if I’d like to join them. I forgot their names, but they were a lot of fun and had a great trip ahead of them. They were planning on hitting up every major Asian country and ending in Thailand. We made it to the “mini shop” convenience store, bought a bunch of beer, food, and ice cream. It was fun. By the time I got back to my hotel room, though, it was really late, and I thought that if I feel asleep I might sleep through my 6:00am wakeup call that I set up earlier in the night. I really didn’t want to miss this 9:00am flight. I did end up falling asleep at about 5:00am and the wakeup call did wake me up. Thank god! I hopped on the shuttle bus to the airport, got in line to check in and met two Asian business men who were on the same flight as me. They were super nice and told me a lot about Korea. I also met an older lady who just finished up a yearlong teaching contract in Korea; she said that she had a blast and was already missing it.

Korean Air was really cool. The flight attendants were stunning, and I’m sure they caught me staring at them more than once, and they wore vintage flight attendant uniforms; scarves and all. The food that was served wasn’t half bad, and they showed sub-titled Korean news on the monitors. It was an enjoyable flight.

I’m going to have to talk about my cab ride from the airport to the school on my next blog. It was nuts. Also, if anybody talks to Dan Dewitt can you have him enter his e-mail address on my travel blog. I was going to do it here, but I have zero access to my phone where I made a note of it.



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2nd September 2009

asahi super dry
2nd September 2009

Verrrryy Interesting!!!
Dave, all I can say is "Wow!," you will have awesome stories to tell your kids!!! This is like an episode from The Amazing Race. Not everyone is as comfortable traveling as you are. I know I am not. Looking forward to the next Chapter!
2nd September 2009

Sounds Crazy and exciting. I am a little nervous about studying abroad this spring for many of the reasons you listed above but I know it'll all be fine. I am waiting for another installment. I am upset we never got together before you left. I will blame that on me. Maybe I'll get some cash together to come visit you. What's funny is as long as you keep this somewhat consistent I will probably keep in contact with you more. Strange. Waiting patiently for another installment. School starts tomorrow for me. Weak!
2nd September 2009

Glad you made it!
Enjoyed your blog! I've been thinking (worried ) about you but have been keeping in touch withyour mom. Sounds like you know what your doing, though. Have a great time! I will be looking forward to your next blog. Love your Aunt Bonnie
2nd September 2009

Hey Too buku, Its Dan B. Im using Pauls email. When I gave you my Emal on your last night here at work. I never got the confirmation. Either in my inbox or in my spam. (Like you said it might) So sir, my email is friendlybum12@yahoo.com. If you could please do that one more time for me that would be swell. Best wishest for signature, Sir Schmell. Dan
3rd September 2009

Whoo hoo
Wow what a trip....I am so proud of you. You have lots of courage to take an adventure like this. What an experience! Love the travel blogs. I cant wait to hear about everything. Love you dave!!! Be safe and enjoy!
6th September 2009

Amazing
Hey Dave, Great to hear that all turned out well as you traveled half-way around the globe. Like someone said, your adventure is like the Amazing Race and I love adventure stories with great pictures - can't wait to hear more. Love and hugs - Aunt Carol

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