Chasing Daylight

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Our flight was exactly 11 1/2 hours like they said. We didn't sleep once which I thought was weird but it was never dark so it seemed strange going to bed. It was pretty cool how we chased the daylight while crossing the INT date line. We never saw nighttime. So I guess we missed a night of our lives! No Thursday night this week. The highlight of the flight for me was borrowing Jake's INCREDIBLE Bose headphones for about 15 minutes and listening to "We are the world" non-stop. The old one and the new one. It is a completely different flight having those things on your head. You don't even know you are in a plane. My little ipod headphones hurt my ears and I can CONSTANTLY hear the very loud rumblings of a massive motor underneath me. Anyway, the airport was very nice and mostly bare, except our flight. It was a very nice/clean airport. It has won best airport in the world for a couple of years apparently. The luggage carts were free so we found our luggage and loaded them up, then found jake's bike, and awkwardly continued on. We exchanged our dollars for won and headed toward the bus area. I usually stayed with our luggage while Jake would go looking for someone to help us or to purchase our bus tickets. We got on a bus for about an hour and a half and drove into Seoul, which is insanely huge. We drove in Seoul alone for about 45 minutes until we got to the City Bus Air Terminal. There we told someone we were with Chungdahm, used a pay phone to call our local recruiter, and then waited for a van. The van barely fit our stuff and then we drove 45 more minutes in Seoul until we reached our airport. One of the first things I noticed driving into Seoul were crosses. I saw about 7 different crosses that were lit up on top of different buildings. The first sign of home was TGIFridays and Trump Towers. I also began to notice COFFEE SHOPS EVERYWHERE!!! There will be like 3 different coffee shops all touching each other. I finally saw a starbucks, and ended up seeing 3. But I saw more Dunkin Donuts ( YAY!) and many, many other shops, like Angel-in-us coffee and Seven Mokney's Coffee. Also Saw Burger King, Hooters, 711, and Papa John's as well.

We walked around for a couple of hours today and saw maybe 4 other white people. The only English I heard was in starbucks. An American man and a Korean couple. He was of course, explaining the steps to salvation. Then I heard "Bob Jones." Ha ha....pretty classic. Other than that we have heard basically no English. The questions we have asked have been received with one word responses. Finding lunch today, our first meal since 2:30pm yesterday, proved to be a little difficult. We saw a sign in the elevator of the hotel that said "Traditional Thai" so we thought we'd check it out. Turns out the Tradition Thai Spa doesn't exactly serve lunch. We saw another sign for a Korean restaurant and then a Chinese restaurant. We went in the only restaurant we saw and unfortunately I have no idea if it was Korean or Chinese. There was very limited English on the menu so we pointed to pictures and hoped it'd be good. The restaurant was quite expensive so we ordered some of the cheapest things. Dumplings (basically large pot stickers) and meat (not sure what kind). It was the only meat we saw on the menu that was not raw. Both items were very good. They served us some cold tea in a very small cup that wasn't very tasty. We iced for water and after a minute the lady said, "Ah, ice water?" We were like "yes....please." We were eating with metal chopsticks. I think my hand muscles grew because they were very heavy and after seeing my struggling, one of the waitresses said "excuse me, you want pork?" I was very confused but I THINK she was asking if I needed a fork. I was eating a slimy pot sticker that was too big to eat in one bite and it proved to be a little challenging. I denied the fork, figuring I could use some practice. We learned that they don't ask you what you want until you close the menu which is kind of nice.

Walking around the city I noticed a couple of things. First: nobody really notices us or cares, which is nice. Second: Everyone is dressed very nice. Not over the top but definitely professional and nicer than I would care to dress. Ha ha. I did not see a single overweight person, and I saw a lot of people. Both days here in Seoul, we cannot see the sky or any sign of it. Thick white clouds hug the buildings so there is limited visibility. I'm wondering if you can ever see the sky or sun from Seoul? Obviously I haven't been here long enough to know. It is extremely windy here today. We can hear it howling from the hotel. Things are definitely not cheap in Seoul. I just converted what we paid for Jake's TALL frap at Starbucks and it was $5.11. Also, one small donut at Dunkin Donuts was $.97.

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Comments

[Shelley]

DD
I can't believe you go to Seoul, SK and you get a DD!! But, in the entire state of Arkansas, there isn't a one! :o) Ugh! I guess I will have to come visit now! Hehehe! Thank you so much for keeping this blog! I love knowing what you are all up to! Have fun exploring! The Beaudoins love you both!!!