***I wrote this yesterday so when I say 'last night'/'today' think a day ago! I'll go in and fix it later!***
Last night I arrived at Incheon Airport at 5:30 PM (3:30 AM
home time) gross, unshowered, but enthusiastic to start this adventure. It was
a really long day but both planes I flew on had plenty of entertainment to make
the time go faster.
Ambar & I woke up at 3:00 AM Monday morning and were
headed to Dulles with my parents by 3:45 AM. We checked my bags, (thank you,
amazing parents, for paying my baggage fees), got some breakfast, and said
goodbye to Ambar. It should have been filmed. Ambar & I were standing in
front of security crying, professing our love to each other, and reminding each
other how fast a year goes by and how exciting this is going to be.
My parents were able to get Gate Passes and come through
security with me and sit with me at my gate until it was time to board. This
was awesome of Virgin America to do because I think Gate Passes are super
exclusive and only given out to parents of young children that are flying alone
so it was awesome to get to sit with my parents for those last few moments.
Then the tears came. I feel sorry for everyone sitting around us because we had
to have made them so uncomfortable lol. I was really emotional but once I
stepped onto the gate I had the most overwhelming feeling of calmness fall over
me. It was like all of my apprehensions went away and I was excited again about
seeing Korea. For a day or so before I went to the airport I was starting to
get really sad about leaving. I wasn’t ever really second guessing my decision
but I think it finally set in that I wasn’t going to see a lot of people I love
for a whole year. The night before I left I had some of the people I love the
most come over to my house to watch the games and spend my last night with me.
It was amazing but I think that’s what set my emotions off. ANYWAY.
It was going to be a 6 hour flight to San Francisco and it
was no where near a full flight so at 7:00 AM when we took off, the flight
attendants informed everyone that we could spread out if we wanted to. I had
made sure to get an aisle seat when I checked in online but the window and
middle seat in my row were empty. SCORE! Since people stayed over at my house
until 11:00 PM the previous night, and Ambar & I stayed up another hour
after they left, we had only gotten about 3 hours of sleep so I was very
excited about stretching out on my row and sleeping some more before landing in
San Francisco.
I took out my leopard blanket I got at the airport in
Martinique junior year when I studied abroad (which I have since declared to be
my travel/carry-on blanket because its super thin and super cute) and the pink
travel pillow Holli got me (THANKS HOLLI!) and stretched out across my row. I
woke up after like 2 hours or so and turned on my TV. Every seat had a personal
TV screen on the back of the chair in front of it. Being the Obama fanatic that
I am, and living so close to the Washington DC area, I was extremely bummed
that I was traveling on inauguration day because I thought I wouldn’t be able
to watch any of it. When I turned the TV on, I was super excited to see that
all major news stations were broadcasting live so I was able to watch the whole
thing! Seriously, technology is awesome. I started watching when Obama was
leaving the white house to get into the motorcade and we landed shortly after Beyonce
sang the national anthem and everyone was leaving. Perfect timing!
When we landed in San Francisco, I noticed there was no gate
number on my second boarding pass so I got off the plane and headed to the monitors
to see if I could get any information. Nothing. Then I guess I just started
following people and signs that said “International Terminals”, assuming I
would find my way through the airport then, oops, I ended up outside lol. You
know that stereotype that men never stop to ask for directions? I am that
stereotype. I always think I know my way around places, especially places I’ve
never been before. I have no idea where this false confidence comes from but
sometimes I end up in situations like this where I’m pulling my heavy carry-on
suitcase and equally heavy tote bag a mile around the outside of the San
Francisco airport. I finally broke down and went to an information desk. The
nice little old man told me where my gate was and when I explained to him what
I had just been through and said that I think I have to go through security
again he replied “Well yes dear, if you want to get on any airplane, you must
go through security”. I deserve that. I definitely wasn’t giving any impressions
that I’m completely familiar with TSA policy.
I found my gate and noticed a corner with an open outlet so
I sat on the floor, brought out all of my electronics I thought I might want on
the 13 hour plane ride I had ahead of me and charged everything. I had to have
looked crazy lol. After nesting like an animal in my “pile of Kristen” as Holli
called it, I realized I was starving. Great. I weighed the options of not
eating for 2 hours so I could stay with all my stuff, or packing everything
back up and getting some food. I decided since I didn’t know when the first
meal would be on the plane, it would be smarter to get something in my stomach
now. (It was around 10:00 AM, 1:00 PM home time and I can never eat breakfast
in the morning so I literally hadn’t eaten yet that day. It was a pretty easy
decision to make.) I also took this time to change my money from dollars to
won.
I bought some food and drinks for the plane and then headed
back to my gate where I noticed little phone booth cubicle things where people
were charging electronics. I bolted to an open one and set up camp. I was able
to catch the end of Obama’s speech at the Inaugural lunch as I ate and sent out
some texts updating people that I had landed. I was in the middle of eating
when I heard my name over the sound system at the gate and quickly packed up my
stuff to see what they wanted. I’m still not sure what they wanted because when
I got there they just needed to look at my passport. I guess this was some sort
of layover check in that I didn’t do because I’ve never had to check in on a
layover before. Luckily for me, they ended up checking my 4th
suitcase there for free because it was a full flight with limited overhead
space. Now I only had to worry about my tote bag.
After more hours it was time to board the plane. I had
requested another aisle seat, as opposed to my usual beloved window seat
because I had never been on a flight this long before and thought it would be
nice to stretch out instead of feeling so claustrophobic. I would rather be the
person to let others out of the aisle instead of constantly asking others to
let me out.
I would now like to discuss my love affair with Singapore
airlines. First of all, their flight attendants are FIERCE! Google “Singapore Girl”.
They’re outfits were so cute and I am still trying to figure out how to get my
hands on one. We all had individual TVs again that were iPad sized like I had
had in the morning. I really don’t know how people managed these flights
without personal TVs to keep them entertained. There were hours of TV shows,
movies, games and language lessons (!!!!). I watched a ton of episodes of Big
Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Family Guy, The Mindy Project, Parks of
Recreation and 2 movies: Ice Age: Continental Drift and Frankenweenie (umm do
not watch this… its super morbid and weird but there’s a fat dog in it so I
couldn’t NOT watch it). I almost watched Horton Hears a Who but I accidentally
turned on the Chinese subtitles and couldn’t figure out how to turn them off
and then got mad at the movie and turned it off. I also played Tetris and
learned how to count to 10 in Korean. I was sleeping on and off in between all
of these. There were also larger TVs in the front of your cabin (Economy: me,
Business, First Class, or Suites ß
must be nice) that had alternating screens showing a GPS world map that showed
where in the world the plane was, a zoomed in view of where the plane was, and
times at the destination and origin with temperatures in each in English and
Korean. Basically, the picture I am trying to paint is that the airline did an
AMAZING job of having so much entertainment available that there’s no way you
could get through all of it in 13 hours.
Almost as soon as we took off the Singapore Girls came
around and passed out peanuts and menus for lunch and dinner (!!!!). I leafed
through the elaborate menu (that I totally should have taken with me to take a
picture of it, I could kick myself) and noticed 3 meals: Lunch, light meal, and
Dinner. There were also 2 pages of snacks and drinks that were available. As
soon as you had time to leaf through the menu, the Singapore Girls were back to
pick up your peanut trash. I asked if I could have more peanuts and water
because (maybe I was just still starving) those were the best peanuts I’d ever
had in my life. She brought me 2. I love the Singapore girls.
Each meal had 2 options: International & Indian, which I
concluded to translate to Meat & Vegetarian. Each meal had 2 main course
options, so really, you had 4 choices for each meal. Lunch main courses were
either fish (American option) or Gobi beef (Korean option) for the
international meals or I think some salad for the Indian meals. When the
Singapore Girls came by, you told them which option you wanted and they pulled
it out of their carts and gave you a drink as well. I chose the Korean lunch to
get myself in the zone. I had an alcohol pep talk with myself before I got on
the plane and decided since I had a lot of wine the night before, and didn’t have
much to eat this morning, that I should refrain from drinking because the last
thing I wanted was to feel nauseous on a plane, trapped with no where to be
sick in peace. But then the guy next to me across the aisle ordered red wine
& water, the words “I’ll have the same” came out of my mouth with little I
could do to stop them. Sometimes wine just ends up in my life and I have no
idea how it got there.
There was a little tray of Beef, amazing rice, and equally
amazing vegetables, as well as cheese and crackers, and bread and butter. There
was also some sort of DIY turkey sandwich container but I was so full I couldn’t
eat it. The Singapore girls quickly came through and collected trash. I kept
myself thoroughly entertained with my movies and shows, occasionally getting
hungry and asking for more peanuts, water. I also tried some pineapple juice
when taking the Airbourne chewables that Aunt Kandy genius-ly suggested I bring
(BEST PINEAPPLE JUICE EVER! It was like a puree almost, not like the watery
stuff we have at home). Airbourne is a super gross chewable that you have to
take 4 of at a time that boosts your immune system with crazy amounts of
vitamins and antioxidants. It was ideal to have on a plane that I was going to
be on for 13 hours and since there were several people that did not stop
coughing throughout the whole flight, I was happy to pop them. But they really
do taste terrible so the pineapple juice came in handy.
About an hour before we landed, the Singapore girls
announced they would be coming around giving out the light meal. It was between
chicken, beef or pasta and I opted for the chicken. It came with rice,
vegetables, bread and butter and a weird, questionable salad. It looked like
uncooked bacon/maybe it was ginger and I decided I was not ready to embrace
that part of Asia yet. Lunch was better, but I made sure to eat enough and
drink some coffee since I didn’t know what was going to happen when I got off
the plane.
If you plan on visiting me at all during the year that I’m
here, I highly recommend Singapore airlines. They did an amazing job at being
attentive to every one and it was like as soon as you were done with a drink,
they were there with a snack, and then they were there to take your trash and
then they were bringing you eyemasks so you could sleep. I’m sure most airlines
these days have these amenities but from experience, I highly recommend
Singapore airlines.
We landed and I braced myself to zoom off of the plane since
I only had to grab my tote bag. I made it off the plane pretty fast (I’m a great
zoomer) and pulled a San Francisco, full of pride that I can read Korean and
can find customs by myself. My confidence was short-lived and I just started
following the mob of people that got onto a train in the airport and eventually
ended up at customs. I had already filled out my entrance paper work and
declarations on the plane and stuck them inside my passport on my visa page and
held the place of my face page with my finger. It was a pretty fast customs
process (the fastest I had ever been through) and I headed towards the
adventure that was to be baggage claim.
I had 4 suitcases. I had 4 extremely large, heavy suitcases,
the heaviest weighing 56 lbs, 62 lbs, and 96 lbs. I had no help at baggage
claim. LOL.
I grabbed a cart and saw my luggage floating around the
conveyer belt. I grabbed all 4 bags and arranged them on my cart. I called my
driver David and he informed me that he was outside of the baggage claim area.
He told me he wasn’t able to come help me so I clumsily flopped myself through
the airport and made my way out to him. I am a baggage claim warrior.
Before flopping, I went into my bag of liquids in my carry on
and spritzed myself with perfume just in case I smelled like the sweet, sweet
smell of “stale air” that Kelley warned me about so that my first impression on
Korea was not that I was a slob ball.
There were tons of people staring at me with all of those
bags as I came through the baggage claim doors lol. David was front and center
and hurried to help me with my baggage. He was very friendly and smiley and
told me he saw my picture and wanted to know if the little girl was my sister.
I had no idea what he was talking about and he showed me his iPad screen
showing one of the pictures I had sent my recruiter when she asked that I send
her pictures of me with young children. I smiled and told David it was my
cousin.
We headed outside to his car and I helped him load my stuff
into the car. I got into the car and headed off into the night with my only
Korean friend. I remember thinking how I had no idea what my life was going to
be like in the next year. Imagine not knowing the next time you’ll shower, go
to work, where exactly you’re going, if you have internet etc. I literally knew
nothing after Find David. After I asked where we were going he called a woman
from my school and she told him to bring me to the school. It was about 7:00 PM
when we got there.
There were 2 men and a woman there to meet me and when they
saw all of my luggage they got all wide eyed and started talking to each other
in Korean. I’m positive I’ve given them the impression that I’m a princess. If
you know my packing strategies at all, you know that unlike what most people
would assume by looking at me, I am an underpacker. I hate packing. I hate it.
When I go somewhere, I throw a bunch of stuff in a bag and say “I’ll figure it
out when I get there” so that I don’t have to really sit there and pack. This
causes me to always forget things and have to buy what I didn’t bring. I have
never had to pack for a year before and so I was battling with the 2 Kristens
on my shoulders that were telling me “you don’t need that” vs “you can’t
underpack”. The struggle.
The lights were off in the school and Sunny, the woman, who
had also been the one to interview me, gave me a tour of the school. I was
surprised to see so many classes still going on. We walked through all of the
floors and I was introduced to several people that I hope won’t be offended
when I ask for their names again. I like what I’ve seen so far. At the end of
the tour she explained to me that I was going to go to someone else’s apartment
tonight because they are traveling and I would move into my place Thursday. Then
Domonic, one of the men that greeted me, took me to where I was staying.
In Korean schools, there are 2 types of teachers:
Co-teachers, which are the Korean teachers, and Native English Speakers (NES),
like myself. NES come from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom,
Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. All of the Native English
Speakers live in the same apartment buildings. I think this will be nice
because I’ll get to be close to people that I’ll get to know from school. The
buildings are on the same road as the school and it looks like its about a 5-10
minute walk to work everyday.
Domonic & I got all of my luggage up the stairs and when
he left I remember just staring at it for a few minutes because I have no idea
what is in what bag and where to begin with opening them. I decided to live out
of my suitcases until I am officially in my own place on Thursday because I
don’t want to have to repack. I pulled out an outfit that I would wear the next
day when I go to work at 1 and laid it on my couch so it would be ready to throw on in
the morning. I also pulled out a towel that I knew I should bring so I could
shower as soon as I got some place, and some toiletries so I could freshen up.
Google Korean showers. Join me as we laugh at the mental image of me trying to
figure out what to do with that. Lol.
After getting water all over my floor, I finally figured out
how to position myself so I don’t get water into the next room from under the
crack of the door. After I showered, I opened the suitcase I have that was full
of liquids to check and see if anything had exploded. Only one explosion and
thanks to my great plan of individually wrapping everything, the explosion was
isolated and contained. It was my bag of hair masks (OK maybe I’m a little princessy)
that had leaked but I still don’t know which one. Not a lot seems to have
escaped the container so I cleaned them up and laid them out to dry. I changed
into my PJs and pulled out my travel blanket so that I could settle into bed.
I have no internet in the temporary apartment so I’ve just
been watching some TV shows I have on my iTunes on my computer. I HAVE to sleep
with TV but since there isn’t one, I’ve been watching the same episode of How
the States Got Their Shapes for like 12 hours lol. I think Princess Kristen has
mentally checked out of my mind because I feel unburdened by my no TV, no wifi,
close quarters but I am sure she will come back with raging fury when I’m in my
own place and its time to decorate. I can’t wait!
I took a sleeping pill and fell right to sleep at 9:00 PM
(7:00 AM home time). I think I’ll adjust to the time change pretty easily
because I was so exhausted last night it was easy to pass out. I woke up at
around 6:00 AM this morning (4:00 PM home time) and decided I was too wide
awake to sleep anymore so I read a little on my Kindle and decided to write
this little update on a Word doc so I can remember everything when I get my
blog set up. (That means you’re reading this on my blog. I hope it looks good!)
Its 10:20 AM now and I don’t really have anything to do for a few more hours so
I think I’m going to get ready around noon and find some lunch (breakfast was
my leftover airplane food and the trail mix Holli got me) on my way to work.
Hope everyone at home has a good time following my blog and
keeping up with my adventures! I’m excited about it because I’ll be able to
look back through my entries and remember some things I’ll forget about later.
Love you all! I’ll write another post about my first day when I get home
tonight. I really have nothing else to do yet lol.
