Touchdown

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So we finally made it. After two full days of travel we landed safely in Seoul, South Korea. Apparently the plane engine that they replaced held up and got us here after all. Walking off the plane we had our camera's ready in anticipation, expecting to be totally blown away by an "alien" culture. This wasn't really the case. I guess you could say that I was a little disappointed and had imagined a totally different world. Don't get me wrong, Korea is quite different from back home, but there is still a large presence of English, for example on many signs (something that we weren't expecting).

Passing through customs was a little intimidating because here are these customs officers just starring at you as you walk up to their booth. I don't know a word of Korean and I'm trying to get into their country. I handed them my documents, they looked me up and down, stamped a few things on my passport and entry card and then said something to me. Thankfully he made a motion with his hand and I knew that I could pass.

It would be hard to imagine that flying so far with layovers in Chicago and San Fran, in addition to spending an unexpected night in San Fran would go perfectly as planned. When we went to grab our luggage from the conveyor belts this thought was quickly forgotten. All of our bags but one had made it. Kovats was pretty unhappy with this as he had to fill out a Korean form as to what his bag looked like and where we were staying. That was a good question at the time, because really we had no idea where we were staying. Our address was just a bunch of random letters and a few numbers that made absolutely no sense to us. Oh well, these random letters and numbers are now home for a year.

Something that didn't shock me in Korea was the advanced technology. Right in the airport one of the first signs of this that we saw was a public telephone with a digital touch screen and keyboard. To any Korean I guess these phones would seem normal, but not to us. Another thing that I enjoy looking at are the different types of cars here. Many cars are the same as back home, but then there are many that I've never seen before. I've seen a few Mercedes models that I've never seen back home, and then a variety of European cars. One thing that is different from back home is the colour of the cars. Almost all cars are black, white or silver. It’s rare that you see cars of different colour, but they do exist.

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Photos

Lost luggage
Here's a disgruntled Kovats afer he's realized that he is missing a bag and has to fill out a form.

Hi-Tech Phone
This picture was a little blurry, but you get the idea.

Crazy SUV
This is one of the many different vehicles that I've seen while here.