In-flight Slippers??

I arrived safely in South Korea!! I'm very fortunate that I have Internet in my apartment already so I'm able to check Facebook and email...and update my blog, of course!

My flights went very smoothly yesterday. I arrived at Tampa International Airport (at 3:30am!) to find that three of my friends, Aleah Duren, Kate Allen, and Shredder Dave, had driven all the way from Orlando to surprise me and say one more goodbye before I departed for a year! I was shocked!! After a VERY teary goodbye, I bid my family and friends farewell, and hopped on the tram.

My first two flights went very smoothly, from Tampa to North Carolina, then North Carolina to Los Angeles. Luckily my layover in LA was a solid 4 hours, or I would've missed my flight for sure! Upon arriving in LA, I was told that I was in Terminal 1 and had to go to Terminal 3 for my flight to Korea. I had two options: go outside on the curb and wait for "a blue bus with a number 3 on it" or "go outside, turn right, and walk a little ways down to get to Terminal 3." After waiting outside for 11 minutes for a bus that never showed up (and that I'm convinced never existed!), I decided to choose option B and "walk a little ways." Little did I know, I was going to be putting my exercise in for a WEEK! In the midst of all this, I call my mom, slightly frazzled, to tell her what's going on. I've already been walking for about 15 minutes at this point, so she's giving me flight information and numbers to look for as I walk. I finally get to Terminal 3, find Asiana Airlines, and walk inside. Before I get off the phone, my mom says, "were you supposed to pick up your luggage from US Airways and walk it to Terminal 3 with you?" WELP!! At that point, I got off the phone with my mom and promised to call once I got things sorted out.

Luckily for me, I found someone in Asiana Airlines who spoke a little bit of English. He told me my bags would be automatically transferred from US Airways to Asiana Airlines. Woohoo! He directed me through the terminal to Security. Once inside, I called my mom back and realized that I hadn't eaten since 3:30am...and it was now 1:40pm body time! I went to the Money Exchange place, bought gifts for the director of the school and the owner of the school (2 small boxes of Godiva chocolates!) and began the lookout for lunch, only to discover that my particular terminal only had 4 gates, and there were no restaurants on this side of Security. I settled for a bottle of water and a bag of Doritos, knowing we would be fed on the plane.

The Asiana Airlines flight was one of the most incredible flying experiences in my life!! I boarded the plane, one of those big planes with two rows-WOW!! Once we took off, the stewardess came around with hot towels, drinks, and ... SLIPPERS!! I quickly removed my cowgirl boots and slid into the slippers. I was given a menu, with four meal choices; I'd pick one now and then one later. Every seat had a tv in front with a remote. I could watch exactly where the plane was and how far we'd gone, or pick from a huge selection of movies and tv shows, or play games. The girl sitting next to me, Julianne, was my age, and she was heading off to Thailand to work in a refugee camp for 5 weeks. This flight had been a new experience for both of us, so we were enjoying ourselves :) We found out that the remotes to the tvs also called seat-to-seat, so Julianne snuck to the back of the plane to an empty seat and called me...just because we could!

We were fed every two hours. They came around with hot tea, constantly refilling our cups. They put half in half in the tea, which might've become my new favorite thing :) I seriously felt like royalty. One of the times they came around with a snack, I had fallen asleep. (And by snack I mean, grilled cheese and ham sandwich, chips, fruit, and cheesecake!) The stewardess put a sticker on my tv that read: "Did you have a good rest? If you would like something to eat or drink let us know!" So. Awesome. So I clicked the buzzer, she came right over with my food, which was really hot as all the meals/snacks had been.

I had FINALLY arrived in Seoul, Korea!! I de-boarded the plane and began my journey through the terminal to figure out where I was going. I had to just look at pictures since everything was in Korean. Julianne had a two hour layover, so she walked with me through the airport to figure out where I was supposed to go. It definitely helped having a friend!! We parted ways at "Quarantine" when she couldn't go any further with me, and hugged goodbye. I walked through Quarantine, where a thermometer was stuck in my ear-so weird. I guess my temperature was normal because she let me go. I went through Immigration with my passport and work visa with no problem at all. I got down to baggage claim, and both my bags were already rotating on the belt. Perfect. I heaved both bags off the belt (both weighed 47 lbs!) and started the trek outside. My huge duffel bag doesn't have wheels so I stacked it on top of my suitcase to try to roll it. I think everyone thought I was crazy because here I was: an American girl, cowgirl boots, checkered shirt, crazy curly hair, fighting my bags and trying not to fall over. Just when I was reaching my point of frustration, a guy, Johnny, came up behind me and offered to help. He was obviously American, and was here to teach English as well. Normally my stubbornness would've kicked in by now and I would've refused, but I was physically exhausted and didn't think I could make it.

We walked outside to a massive mess of taxis, three deep from the curb. We were supposed to look for our drivers who had our names on a paper in the windshield. It was chaos. We found his first, but he told the driver to wait for a minute until we found mine. I told Johnny thank you, and will probably never see him again, but his arrival was perfect timing for sure :) My driver didn't speak any English, so it was a pretty quiet ride to my apartment. Darren, the school director, and DK, the school owner, met us at my studio apartment. They helped me inside, and quickly whisked me off to the school to give me a tour.

The school is small, but really nice and organized. There are 8 classrooms total, 2-12 students per class, depending on level of English. I met the other American teachers, including Beth whom I've been emailing for the past two months. Darren drove me back to my apartment, helped me set-up the Korean phone I got, and then took me grocery shopping. We walked to a market that's right around the corner. I didn't know what any of the food was, but Darren did his best to help me. He paid for my food, and we walked home. It was the weirdest thing: people just stared everywhere we went. Darren told me that Americans are kind of like celebrities. People will stop you on the street and ask to get their picture taken with you, or invite you to tea. After getting home and situated, Darren told me he'd pick me up for lunch tomorrow and then we'd head over to the school. I had now been awake for 19 hours, so I was exhausted.

I'm awake right now, it's 4am. My body clock is going to take awhile to adjust, but at least I feel really well rested. I'm going to get ready and start putting things away in my house. Hopefully I'll get a lot done in the next few hours before lunch :)