Round 3 - SFO / LAX / ICN

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Waking up at 7 am unassisted by an alarm clock, I stumbled out of bed into clothes and down the hallway for some breakfast. The options were limited to dry cereal, prepackaged danishes, apples, bananas and toast with milk, juice or coffee to drink. Needless to say this was not a high nutrient breakfast! But I took an apple, a banana and a bowl of fruit loops back to my room after arranging for the shuttle to pick me up at 9am, so I could be at San Francisco International Airport to drop off my luggage for day storage, meet up with Shauna during her 2-hour layover and get on with my day.

Scarfing down the fruit loops and banana, I began the ritual of packing up the clothes and getting ready for the day. Still groggy I stumbled down the hallway to check out and wait for the shuttle bus. Today's driver wasn't the same and I was somewhat sad because the driver yesterday was friendly and I wanted to tip him since I had money to do so? But sometimes things just don't happen for unknown reasons?

Arriving at SFO, I jumped off the shuttle bus, tossing my luggage around as I went (I am an ex-ramp agent, I know how to handle luggage people) dragging it along into the International terminal I went in search of the Travel Agency Day Luggage Storage place. I stopped and spoke to a little 87-year old information guide about the location of the luggage storage, around the corner just past United Airlines check-in was the reply. I found another information booth and asked him too. It was 100-yards further on down. Eventually, reaching the luggage place and letting him know I had two bags for day storage. He explained the rules and said where you heading? I said Paju City South Korea. His eyes lit up and he asked if I was a teacher? Indeed. He said you should enjoy yourself there. I said yep, especially since my wife will be coming with me! He smiled, took my $40, handed me my change and receipt ticket and off I went in search of said wife.

Shauna came to meet up with me in the International terminal since I was already there. I decided to ask the 2nd information booth guy a question and while he was responding Shauna showed up with her back pack, pillow and purse! We hugged. Talked with the info guy and eventually wandered off after answering his 100-questions about teaching in South Korea and why we were traveling on separate airlines?

We did absolutely nothing but talk, kiss and talk some more for two hours. Until Shauna decided she wanted to go into Sephoria to look for some perfume she really really wanted to have, if they were selling it. We went into the shop. She found the bottle she wanted. She bought it for $15.00 and they both giggled because the perfume jar is this little blonde thing. I cannot explain it.. please see picture. Once we were back out of the perfume shop, we talked again about seeing each other in South Korea at the English School. And made a promise that we would be "grown ups" the next time we flew over the Pacific. Meaning we would fly together the entire way, from point A to point B.

As I sat on the BART subway reading my novel by Peter James, all I could think about was how Shauna would be taking off shortly from SFO and I would be still standing in America? Damn, life sure is strange sometimes but well worth it when it all goes your way. Even though the consulate officer yesterday asked me to come back around 3:00 pm, I decided to arrive early to be certain there wasn't going to be any issues or problems with obtaining my visa and this way I could text or call Shauna before she took off to let her know everything was going ahead as planned?

In due course BART pulled into Powell station which yesterday lead me to walking down Turk Street but since I had already traversed this undesirable of streets I sat still today awaiting Montgomery station. Five minutes later I exited the subway onto Montgomery Street walking north a few blocks to catch the #1 Bus route which would take me another thirty-five minutes to reach the side of town the Korean Consulate was at. As I strolled down the street I spotted the San Francisco Soup Company pausing long enough to read the menu and continue forward down the street only to stop after walking another fifty feet spinning around on my heels and heading back because I could use some fuel for the day especially after yesterday's incident with "lack of food in the system."

I ordered the Rainbow Wrap consisting of Organic Romaine, Shredded Cabbage, Roasted Corn, Roasted Beets, Candied Walnuts, Shredded Carrots, Cumbled Bleu Cheese with a Champagne Vinaigrette all tossed together and then placed inside a Whole Wheat Tortilla. The best thing about this wrap was that all the vegetables that didn't make it into the wrap were scooped up and set on the side as a secondary dish! All this great food for $8.95 plus taxes! When I received this meal in its plastic container, I thought "how am I going to eat all this? I am not that hungry?" As soon as I took that first bite into the beautiful delicious tasting vegetables, I knew this was one meal I was going to enjoy eating and finishing before proceeding onward with my day.

Less than ten minutes later I was on Bus #1 heading west down Sacramento Street for the thirty-five minute ride towards the Korean Consulate. Today, without rushing around, I sat at the back of the bus facing the rear window. I pulled out my camera and started clicking off everything I found interesting between the city and the west-end. I found plenty of great architectural changes between the two sides of the city. The buildings increased in size, color and mass the further we went west along Sacramento. I also noticed how every six to ten blocks the amount of garbage on the street seemed to disappear and reappear as if the trash knew where to land, rest or be tossed out of passing by vehicles? It was an oddity that I began to like about this city.

At precisely ten minutes to two o'clock, I sauntered into the Korean Consulate with a glorious smile on my face. I asked the visa officer if my passport with E2 Visa was ready? Thinking it's always worth the efforts to ask, just in case it was ready. She retorted without a smile, "It will be ready at 3:00 pm." I smiled once again and replied with, "I just want to be sure so I can call my wife before she takes off for Seoul that I will be meeting her in the early morning in Seoul." She nodded her head with complete pride stating it would be ready at 3:00 pm. So, in the meantime, I decided to head back down to California Street, to skip past Peet's "nasty" Coffee Shop and find a better place to plug into the internet and indulge on another Americano!

Instead I found myself sitting on the Patio at a place called Rigolo. Bienvenue à Rigolo! The word “rigolo” means “a little funny” in French, but there’s nothing humorous about their delicious café fare. Well, at least it lOOked great to me! However, I was full from my SF Soup Company meal and went ahead with an Ice Tea, since I was in need of a thirst quencher.

After my forty-five minutes of surfing the net, drinking Ice Tea on the patio and thinking about nothing at all, I set my empty glass onto the patio table, packed up my computer and started skipping down the street as giddy as a small school child knowing today was the first day of summer vacation! As I approached the consulate again for the third time in two days, I started snapping off a few pictures to recall the immediate moment after I left the consulate with passport in hand. I rocked up to the door before pressing the buzzer the door made a screeching sound and it opened up with two ladies coming out, we exchanged pleasantries as they left and I entered. Walking the fifty steps to the right, I smiled at the girl this time she stated, "What is your name, please?" "Aaron Crabb," I stated without smiling this time. She picked up a stack of I'd say at least thirty passports, found mine and handed it to me without blinking, or saying anything further. I thanked her for her compassion in processing my visa within the last twenty-four hours! I skipped down the hallway back to the front door, out onto the patio and took three quick snap shots of my "HAPPY FACE" with passport and the consulate in the background.

Immediately I ran back down the street, jumped on the #1 and started snapping off more photographs for the next thirty-five minutes, until we reached Chinatown. I jumped off here running around the streets taking photographs until it clicked in my head that I needed to be at the Airport getting my luggage from the travel agency and checking into the domestic portion of my flight. I ran into three stores looking for little miniature Buddha statues to bring with me for "good fortune," "laughter," and "life" but then it struck me full-frontal again; I AM MOVING TO SOUTH KOREA!!!

I ran from the stores, down the street, finding Montgomery Street and then Montgomery Station. Swiping my card, singing and dancing into the next train headed towards the Airport except my smiling show-billy shuffling butt went into the wrong subway car heading in the wrong direction! I realized my mistake promptly and changed courses at the next station before this got out of control... Shortly, I was on the correct subway, speeding down the tracks towards the airport. Reaching San Francisco International terminal in just under forty-minutes! I jumped off the subway as soon as the doors opened up running, dancing and singing until I reached the travel agency. I handed over my claim ticket and awaited my two rather large and heavy bags. The attendee from early in the day recognized me and asked if I received my visa? I stated with a gigantic grin that I had and I was on my way to Seoul... tonight! He congratulated me on receiving my passport back and stated "have a grand time teaching in South Korea!"

Smiling, dancing and singing I went with my bags on my back down the hallway dragging the other behind me until I reached United Airlines first class, business class, gold class, platinum class, blue class, red class, purple in the face class, premier club, premier economy, economy plus and finally at the back of the line just before the trash cans and the janitorial room, I finally found myself at the economy line! WOWZERS! I couldn't believe it! I had pre-checked in and this was still going to take me thirty-five minutes or more to get my two bags onto the baggage conveyor belt? What a rip off? Domestic flight, bullshit... since I was connecting to an international flight in LAX, I was suppose to check in, show my passport, have the triple stamp, triple x-ray of all bags heading through the airport! Geeez... America is still overly paranoid when it comes to air travel. It took me twelve minutes to check in with WestJet in Edmonton International Airport the day before, because they were more than happy that I checked in online, had printed out my own boarding pass and that all they needed was to put bag tags on my luggage! Perhaps the Americans can learn from the Canadians something...? Maybe, someday?

Finally, after standing in line waiting for the two people to help thirty seven passengers, I reached the front of the line. I showed my passport, weighed my bags, talked to Uslov, the Slovakian agent about where I was going? South Korea. Why I didn't have a return ticket? Because I am staying longer than
90-days. Where I would be staying in South Korea? Gyeonggi English Village in Paju City. And what I would be doing for work in South Korea? English Teacher. "Oh, your going to teach English in Korea? My wife taught English in Turkey for several years. She really loved it. She had a great time. She... blah blah blah..." Can we be done here? Please... I still have a flight to catch? It was nice to talk to you, you enjoy your job and I'll see yea later!

Running to security is not something I would suggest most people do, this is a sign that you are in a hurry and TSA wants to slooooooow your ass down! Instead, I crawled over on my hands and knees begging and pleading that I just needed to go to the bathroom but didn't want to miss out on my line-space. Evidently, this is like screaming out loud; I AM CARRYING LIQUIDS OVER 100ml (3 ounces)! ha ha ha

In due course, I made it through TSA security, striking up conversations with every person within ear shot of me. I was excited and why wouldn't I be? I was finally after two months of battle heading for Seoul, South Korea to teach english at an English Village! I was now, truly going to be a circus freak, minus the animals, although the way Asian's admire Western People, we might as well be considered "animals" no matter what kind of education we have obtained.

We were packed into UA flight # 312 just after seven o'clock with all 133 seats being filled with passengers! It was going to be a tight squeeze for everything including carry on luggage. I thankfully never travel with a small suitcase on the plane and was not worried about this limited space issue. After all if it didn't fit up top, I would shove it down below where my feet were. This is one of those magical flights were you speed down the run way, climb to forty-something-thousand-feet, level out for less than ten minutes and begin your descent into the next major city. The flight took less than forty-five minutes! Or at least it seemed to me.

Landing in LAX was a nightmare! Getting from LAX Domestic Terminal to LAX International Terminal was like trying to pick out those little bits of meat (or vegetables) stuck in your teeth after a really amazing barbeque! Or better yet it was more difficult than finding the United Airlines economy check-in desk at the Domestic Terminal in San Francisco! I've got three words for you; Are You Out Your Freaking Mind! Okay that was more like six, but you get the point, don't you?

Eventually, after weaving my way through the entire domestic airport, finding the correct shuttle bus, and the correct driver heading in the correct direction, finally we reached the Tom Bradley International Terminal after passing six other terminals all with random airplane names attached to them. At one point someone on the shuttle asked the driver about where they were to get off for some random East China Airlines and she said, "just listen for the announcement, it will tell you where to go." Oh that's wonderful, except they don't seem to be grasping anything the announcement is stating! Oh jesus!

At the end of it all was Tom Bradley International Airport clocking in an entire twenty-three minutes of travel time. I rushed off the bus up the steps into the building and found the Korean Airlines check-in counter. I smiled, handed over my passport greeted him with my very best, "Ahn-nyuhmg-hah-seh-yo" or Hello, in Korean. He smiled, politely at me and started punching keys on his keyboard. While he was determined to get me checked-in, he asked about my luggage and I produced my luggage tags for picking up in Seoul. After sixteen minutes of punching keys on his keyboard, he handed back to me my boarding pass and passport. I then asked if he had any exit row or window seats available. I got the big, "sorry big guy we have no more seats available answer." Which I knew was total BS but I didn't want to press my luck being this close to my final destination... or at least thirteen hours away from it? hmmmm...

For some unknown reason which I will never be able to comprehend or explain to another soul, LAX International Airport does not, I REPEAT, DOES NOT have any Good Restaurants after you go through
security. Why the hell not? Why do they serve people hot dogs for $3.99 with additional toppings for $.49 cents each? Or if you really want to treat yourself you can have a bratwurst or spicy sausage for $5.99 and it comes with Jalapenos and Cheese! Are you serious? I opted out of the hot-dog, sausage weeny feast instead choosing an apple and banana for $2.53 cents. Ironically, I tried using three Canadian Pennies and was denied! Denied using three Canadian pennies! Are you flucking kidding me?

This was a common theme in San Francisco during my two day hiatus. Americans do not accept Canadian coins at their registers, even though a quarter is a quarter and a dime is a dime. Same size, typically the same value and not a whole lot of difference other than one is American and one is Canadian. The ironic part of this is that if you are in Canada and you spend US Change there, Canadians don't freak out that you are trying to pay with American pennies, nickels, dimes or quarters. They accept it as currency. Weird.

The plane ride to Seoul was less interesting then any flight I had ever been on and turned out to be the longest "red-eye" flight in the history of red-eye flights! During my flight of 13 hours, I spent 6-hours trying to sleep awkwardly in my chair, I spent 45 minutes stretching and walking about the cabin trying to talk to anyone about more water and more peanuts! Then I spent two and a half hours playing video games consisting of Mini-Golf, Golf, Yahtzee, Black Jack, Mindsweeper and some really strange memory game. The other few hours I stared out the window past the sleeping Chinese lady and the rest of the time I watched movies. During my flight I was engrossed by a kids film about How to Train Your Dragon, I a laughed at parts of the movie: Date Night with Steve Carrell and Tina Fey but had to turn off the Disney flick Diary of a Wimpy Kid after ten minutes because the movie stunk! I vaguely recall seeing another movie full on but it must not have been enjoyable since I don't recall the title of that film?

We landed at 4:22 am, at Incheon International Airport in Seoul. There was a race between three of us to be the last people off the plane. I lost this race because my bladder button was stinging and I had to find a toilet ASAP! I ran to the front of the plane, hugging each flight attendant and kissing the captain a thank you for flying the plane and a thank you for landing us safely. Then I headed for the toilet. After relieving myself, I ran down the concourse smiling ear to ear I even managed to take a couple more snap shots before heading through Immigration and down to the luggage carousel. Collecting my bags and a cart to push them out front, I found the driver with the name "Aaron JacksonCrabb" written on it. I stopped long enough to snap a picture and go talk to the driver who spoke nineteen words of English, which I eventually learned every single word during our one hour trip to Paju City, together.

His ride was pimped out beyond imagination which would have made X-hibit and his MTV "pimp my ride" crew extremely proud from the leather roof, to the triple dvd/gps/satellite combinations and superior green neon drifting out from the base of the car. I tried to follow our direction from the airport out through the highways onto the toll-roads, to the express way, down through the valleys across a couple rivers around a couple bends until I was lost and tired of trying to follow where the heck we were going?

We arrived at the English Village just before five o'clock in the morning. I was tired by then and needing sleep but the driver and I had to wait at the rear gate until Mike stumbled out of bed to meet us at the gate and show us to where my apartment on the campus was located. Honestly, I was soooooo excited to meet Mike, that I surprised him with a hug of gratitude for all the help he had offered during our last month of craziness before arriving at this very moment! This is when he knew I was deprived of sleep and needing a bed. We arrived at the top of the hill near the main entrance to the village. Mike stated, "Shauna and you will be living in the Morocco building above E.V. Mart, along with Devin who is a Head Teacher, who lives next door to you. You three are the only three people in this building. If you have any questions you can ask Devin, once you have met him. Everyone here is really friendly and you will get to know them all eventually. But until you have had some sleep, don't even think about that. I'll be back around Noon to take you out for lunch. So, until then, rest up."

Thanks Mike... see you at noon.






















































Connection at LAX
Security
No restaurants on gate side? WTF
hunger
eat snacks instead! damn it!
plane ride.. Korean Airlines
Movies, games, digital, music etc
2-meals
lights out all night
no reading
some sleeping
landing.
finding bags, going through Immigration, etc.
finding driver.
getting into car.
Heat & Muggy
drive to Paju
GEV
Mike
Shauna
Sleep

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Photos

Red Brick
Along route # 1, I was enthralled by the buildings people lived in.

Colors
Heading west along California Street

Bumpy
Up one hill down another

Apartment Building
Overlooking the Bay Area

Out the back
of the bus...

Farther on down
the route the more magnificent the architecture became

Locust Street
and Sacramento Street

Outside
The Korean Consulate of San Francisco

Trolley Car
Along California Street... I think?

SF Downtown
California, USA, San Francisco

Waiting for BART
For the return journey to San Francisco International Airport

On Board
Flight UA 424 to LAX