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Published: March 20th 2010
Leaving was emotionally easier than I thought it would be. Bethany had to remind me, as the plane left the ground, to say goodbye to Arkansas. Saying goodbye to friends and family was easy only because we had done the same thing 2 or 3 times before. I had a hard time grasping the idea of not coming back for a year. Not sure that was because I wanted to leave or if I could not comprehend being gone for that long. I have never been away from friends and family for more than 5 months. Either way this made leaving a breeze.
Going to SeaTac to board our flight to Seoul I was filled with anxiety not because I was leaving but because Bethany and I were bending over with luggage. Between the two of us we had 4 huge bags, 4 carry on bags, and one Pinarello. My checked luggage weighed in 10 pounds under the restrictive 50-pound limit. Bethany’s bags did not make the cut. She had to transfer some things to my bags to avoid the $330 price tag for the excessive weight fee. Moving our stuff from curbside to the checkout counter was easier than expected but that did nothing to calm my nerves about the thought of moving our things while in Korea. We will have to move our things from baggage claim to curbside to bus then to bus station to another curbside to taxi cab to hotel to room. But for now it was time to get through security and get on that plane. My first sign of the world moving although I felt like mine was more of a world wind was the fact that the NCAA tournament started that morning. A quick phone call with Paul confirmed my greatest fear: the first-round was opening with an epic feel.
Boarding the plane and finding our seats, we quickly realize that Korean Air might be the nicest airline we have ever been on. The monitor on the back of the seat in front of me seemed to be a entertainment hub. I ended up watching four movies during the flight with in-between movie breaks of multiplayer Tetris games with Bethany. Movies, TV shows, music, games, news, and everything in between were available for the 10 and a half hour ride. I ended up watching Up In The Air, The Invention of Lying, Extract, and The Men Who Stair At Goats. All movies that have been labeled as “bad.” So I was glad to find that I at least enjoyed all of them as well as loving Up In The Air. The flight ended up going by extremely fast as my purchase of Bose noise-canceling headphones proved to be more than clutch.
We touched down at 5:30 pm local time (3:30 am central US). I did not sleep one wink on the plane hoping to just stay up and beat jetlag. Incheon international airport has been consistently voted as the best airport in the world by Airports Council International and I although I am not well-versed on international airports they got my vote! Having been through seven different custom areas in my life, I found that South Korea was by far the easiest and fastest. That was a welcomed surprise. Finding our bags was easy and I found my bike sitting on a cart out in the open of the baggage claim area. We exchanged some dollars into won, purchased a bus ticket and loaded the bottom of the bus with all of our stuff. The bus ride was long and my lack of sleep caught up with me. Our destination was the City Air Terminal, which is where a taxicab was waiting to take us to our hotel. Arriving at the CAT meant another transfer of our stuff to carts and eventually into another vehicle. Stressful with plenty of sleep, really stressful without. The taxicab driver served as some foreshadowing as he did not speak one word of English to us. We had a very quiet taxi ride to our hotel. We passed about a half a dozen dunkin donuts, two starbucks, a hooters and a papa john’s. Arriving to hotel around 8:00 pm (6:00 am Central US) we found ourselves moving our bags one more time. Checking in was another one word at a time conversation. Chungdahm? Jake? Bethany? Need converter? Internet? Which of course all I had to do was say yes to all of his one-word questions. My favorite one-word question he asked was while we were riding the elevator up to our floor. It was quiet and then he asked: Cold? And then abruptly burst into laughter. Not sure what was going on Bethany and I joined in on the laughter.
The room was the last time we would be moving our bags for a week and was a welcomed thought. We unpacked the luggage cart and entered the room (with our shoes on). We were quickly told “shoes off” while walking in the room. He left us in peace and sleep was quickly upon us…
Having gone to sleep at 8 pm local time (6 am US central time) meant that we were undoubtedly going to wake up sometime in the middle of the night thinking our day was about to start. That took place at 3 am local time (1 pm central time) and Tylenol pm cured both my cold symptoms and my unwarranted false energy. I then woke up for a second time at 10 am, which was more of what I had in mind. Since we had not had anything to eat since our last meal on our flight (nearly 20 hrs ago) hunger was the first thing I felt. How we were going to find food was another story. Seoul was covered in its usual smog but also an added layer of clouds from a storm that had moved in while we were sleeping. We watched from above as people chased their umbrellas down the streets. We then looked in the hotel directory for a closer food option. Sure enough the hotel offered 4 different restaurants options.
Being served by someone you can hardly communicate with is not fun. Fortunately the menu had pictures. I just wished the pictures looked good. We settled with something that resembled pot-stickers and a hotplate with some sort of a meat on it. Since all of the meat in the menu was raw I decided to go with the exception and order meat that was cooked. Korean restaurants often have grills built into all of the tables but I was not ready to test my grill skills. Another issue is the ignorance to common customs. Like not taking off our shoes we were unsure of just about everything at that point. We sat at the table for ten minutes after finishing our meal unsure if the check would be brought to us or not. Eventually we made our move and were led to the cashier at the front of the restaurant.
Exploring downtown Seoul was cold and we found ourselves trying to find American establishments. We ended up getting a so-called do-nut at dunkin’ and a frap at starbucks. Traffic and the driving mentality can only be compared with New York City. It’s a scary place out there. We are now back at the hotel studying for the tests that we will have to pass to become an English teacher. Hooters for dinner tonight and then a good nights rest.
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Thomas
non-member comment
Wow! What a day! Sounds like a perfect start to your travels. Glad to hear you are safe and sound in Seoul. That is always a stressful time, between the flight and getting to your destination. I remember lugging three giant bags, just below the weight limit, through Sydney...and they spoke english! haha. I wish you all the best of luck on your tests, hopefully the jet lag is over with now, and to have an amazing time exploring outside of your comfort zone. Emphasis on exploring outside of your comfort zone. :)