Arrived and Alive

---

In seeing a friend's blog on her trip abroad, I too decided that I will blog about my trip to Korea. And so here I am to tell you(who am I kidding, "you" is really "me." But please, just humor me and dont tell me that I'm writing to no one.)

I arrived last night at Incheon International Airport. I felt the humidity as soon as I stepped off the plane--not that it was a bad thing, it was just noticeable. The flight was nice. Plane was different from the ones I'm used to. Actually, I suppose most--if not all-- of it was different than I'm used to. I couldn't help but be reminded of the movie Wall-E, though, as I sat on the plane. **SPOILER ALERT(not that I'm really divulging anything about the plot)** Do you know what I'm talking about? Everyone just sitting in their chairs, each with his one personal television. Not having to do anything for yourself except getting up to go to the restroom, but only if you really need to. People serving you your food and drinks(I guess this wasnt in the movie, but oh well.) Anyway, the flight was pleasant. I got more than my fair share of movies. Watched Coraline(kind of creepy, but the movie was alright), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button(didn't expect much of it, but definitely loved it), and He's Not That Into You(it was cute). Learned a few Korean words on the plane, too. There was this language learning game that I played. I can now count. B] I actually didn't sleep much on the plane--maybe half hour or an hour, tops.

So I got off the plane and followed the masses. Went through customs pretty quickly. The lady was shocked to see that I didn't have a visa for Korea. I don't need one though, since I'm only staying for 6 weeks. Got my bags and headed out. As soon as I stepped out to the area where people pick up their families and loved ones this older man asks me where I'm going. I tell him "Myeong-dong." He thinks for a second and then says "Take a taxi. Bus doesnt go to Myeong-dong. I drive." or some variation of that in broken English. Didn't take him up on his offer, as persistent as he was. I found the ticket-booth for the bus and the ahjumma there helped me after I came back for the second time. She told me I needed to get of at Chungmuro station. So I got on the bus and got off at Chungmuro. I had checked out the bus routes the night before and figured that I would need to walk about a block north to get to my hotel from the bus station. I asked the bus driver where to go and he pointed me down an alley. That was extremely sketchy, but I trusted him and went into the alley. Walked by a bunch of small restaurant places.

There's definitely a smell here, likely from all the food. I want to say it smells fishy, but it's not a fishy I'm used to. Anyhow, I continued my way down the alley and there it was! Hotel PJ(Poongjun) at last. Checked in. The people were nice. The entire hotel is really nice. My room is pretty awesome. Stepped in to smell cigarrettes, though. Eew. I don't have much of a view though. Eh. So it was about 10pm when I got to the hotel, which means there was a little less than 3 hours in transit. I got an outlet adapter from the front desk for 100won. That's less than a buck! Totally forgot to buy one at the airport.

I called Jin, our roommate from a year ago. =]] We talked for a bit. He's actually heading back to the states today at noon, so I won't get a chance to see him. =[ But he decided to connect me with one of his local friends to show me around. So I called her and we made some preliminary plans to meet up. I miss Jin--good guy. I couldn't call Daniel's cousin, Jasmine, for some reason. I ended up falling asleep around 1am. woke up to see the sky was very dim. I thought I'd slept through to the next night! Turns out, it was 5am. I only slept 4 hours, but I wasn't tired. Don't know.

I have just learned why I couldn't call Jasmine before. I was dialing her phone number as would be dialed from America, I guess it's to from another country.

It is now 7:34am Korean time. Plan for today: Call and meet up with Jasmine. Rent a cell phone. EXPLORE!

Until next time,
do.t

---