So I haven't been updating and I've been meaning to write in here.
Right now I'm in South Korea! I came to visit Andrew who has been teaching English here since February. I made it here in two flights. My first flight was to Seattle and a little over 2 hours long. It wasn't too bad, I mostly slept. There wasn't much to do. The landing was the smoothest landing I have ever had in my life. It didn't bump at all, mostly just shake side to side when he was braking. On the flight I did hear that the girl behind me was also headed to Seoul and possibly on the same flight as me. So when I got off the plane I went up to her and asked. We ended up hanging out and I bought her lunch. She didn't have any money or a card and hadn't eaten breakfast. How could I not? If that was me I'd feel terrible and be starving. She was really nice, her name is Ivy. Turns out she lives pretty close to me. Maybe like 5 minutes away? Small world!
My second flight was over 11 hours long. I slept A LOT. I was on Asiana and their service was terrific. They spoke English to me of course, but spoke Korean to those who looked Korean. It was kind of amusing. I had my own personal tv screen and could watch a variety of movies. They had some recent releases: Leap Year, Valentine's Day, Dear John... and some other ones. They also had some older movies, Korean movies, and news. I mostly napped, watched Dear John, ate, napped more. I was really surprised that I didn't feel sick at all. I also wasn't grossed out/felt nauseous at the sight of airplane food. My first meal was Western style beef steak, although I could have chosen Korean Kimbap. My meal included macaroni (which was bland), salad (which was okay with the dressing), apple pie slice (it wasn't an actually pie slice, but more of a brownie cut), and a roll covered in sesame seeds (I didn't eat this as it was super hard and looked unappealing). The beef steak was okay, a bit tough to eat. It had carrots (which were eh), broccoli crowns (which were okay) and potatoes (which were DELICIOUS). I missed the second meal as I had fallen asleep and woke up after they had already served everyone. I probably could have asked for a meal, but I didn't feel like asking. I just knew they had served meals as the girl next to me had a hamburger. So my third meal (which I woke up for just in time!) was beef again, the other option was a cod fillet. This beef was waaay better than the last one, it was delicious and fell apart pretty easily. It came with pieces of fruit and something else I can't remember at the moment. I think that's in part to me not eating it. The beef came with carrots and broccoli again and unfortunately not potatoes. Instead I had noodles, plain noodles. I had bread again and while this piece came wrapped and looked a bit better it was still hard. Anyways I spent most of my flight sleeping and rewatched parts of Leap Year. I almost finished watched all of Valentine's Day again.
I should note that thankfully there wasn't a person sitting directly next to me (I had a window seat with limited underseat storage). Therefore the girl with the aisle seat and I had more space, and I took up most of the underseat storage. :D This girl was very nice, she spoke some English so she helped me fill out my customs forms. I didn't really speak to her much as I was tired and she looked pretty engrossed in her films. The landing was fine, not as smooth, but not too bad. It was weird coming into Incheon airport. I was the foreigner there, the one unable to read all the signs. I felt a bit out of place, I had to figure out a lot of things on my own. I noticed I hadn't received a health inspection form so I proceeded to fill one out before I could pass to go through customs. My cheeks started to feel flushed, I'm not sure if this is because I was nervous and somewhat confused. Anyway, when I proceeded through the woman took my health inspection form and asked if I was transferring. I said no and she took my temperature. Yep, I had my temperature checked just as I had heard. She checked in both ears and I was a little grossed out because I'm pretty sure she didn't clean it before or after sticking it in my ears.
Hm, I was a little confused trying to find the line to get my passport checked. I stood in line and the guy who was in charge of my line was taking forever. I ended up getting directed through to the Korean passport line since they had cleared all Korean passports. I went through and headed down to baggage claim (which I found by following people downstairs). Oh man, I was reading the signs for which baggage claim number to head to and it was all in Korean. I thankfully remembered my flight number after having to write it down a bunch of times on my forms. I picked up my bag and headed through customs. The man looked at my form and sent me down to the nothing to declare line. I then exchanged money at a crappy rate, 1155, when it was really at about 1200. Oh well. once I was out, oh man that's when I really got lost. I had to find a phone or someone who spoke English to borrow their phone. I also needed to find where to buy my bus ticket and where to wait for that bus. A man came up to me and asked if I needed a taxi and I said I no bus. I told him I was going to Wonju and he told me I needed to go further down. Then I saw a woman who was standing there with Travel Information pertaining to buses, etc and she told me where to go.
Afterward, I noticed some pay phones. This was really challenging as it did not say how much money to put in, only that it took 10, 50, and 100 won coins. At this point Ivy saw me and went and asked how much to put in, it's 200 won btw. She also needed some money to call her dad and sister to find out where they were. I made my call, talked to Andrew, and then went to get my bus ticket. After I got my bus ticket I called Andrew again to let him know what time my bus was. We talked until I ran out of coins. I waited for my bus, which was early and it also left right on time. Not that many people on my bus and I'm pretty sure none of them really spoke English.
The bus ride was fine, I mostly looked out the window. It was really exciting! I was really in Korea and on my way. The supposed 3 hour bus right was a lot quicker than they stated. Maybe we didn't run into traffic? We got there in just a little over 2 hours. Also about 5 minutes before we reached the bus station the baby on board threw up. A little gross. Since I had gotten to the bus station early. I needed to find a phone or somewhere to wait for Andrew who got out of class at 10. I had finally managed to work up the courage to ask someone for a phone and she said phone? outside. So I headed outside and didn't see any phones near there. I noticed one girl waiting for the bus had her phone out and wasn't using it so I proceeded to mime and ask her to use her phone. It went something like:
Me: Can I use your phone? *makes a phone with hand and puts it up to ear*
Girl: Phone? *holds hers up*
Me: Yes. Can I use it?
Girl: *confused*
Me: Can I use? *points to self*
Girl: Oh *nods and hands me phone*
Me: Uhh how do I use it?
Girl: *unlocks phone and takes it to the phone screen*
Anyways I made my call and gave it back to her and said my thanks. We both bowed a little. :) So I'm waiting there and these two men in suits are waiting for the bus. I look really out of place, not only because I'm clearly not Korean, but also because I have a HUGE luggage and a full backpack. I notice one guy is inching closer and closer to me. I start to panic a little and put on my best serious face and ignore him. He gets pretty close to my bag and steps side to side. I can tell he's starting to check out the tag. He steps back and stares at my bag and then just stands somewhat near me. I look around hoping Andrew will get there soon. He was trying to find someone to cover his class so he could come get me. Anyways the guy in a suit says something to me in Korean. Normally I'd be friendly, but I had just recently heard some creepy stories about Korean men so I didn't smile or try to really communicate. He repeated himself a little louder (he had spoken somewhat softly). I just shook my head and made a gesture to show I didn't know what he meant. Andrew called the girl's phone and thankfully she was still waiting for her bus. He started explaining that his boss was going to come and get me. She would tell the taxi driver how to get to Andrew's school and I would meet him there. In the middle of the conversation the girl was like "bus" and pointed that her bus was coming. I had to hand her, her phone and she ran off to get on her bus. Thank you random girl! You were nice and totally saved me. :)
Eventually Andrew's boss Annie came and I took a taxi to Andrew's school. We walked back to his apt and he showed me around a bit. His friend James called to ask if we wanted to eat with them, but Andrew wanted to eat something else so we did our own thing. We went to a place that served Dakk Galbi (I think this is how you spell it). We sat on the floor with mats over a low table that had a big round cooking pan in the center of it. She served us banchan (or is it panchan?) which is all the side dishes. Dakk galbi is basically cabbage, mushroom, sliced hot sauce covered chicken, sweet potatoes, dakk or dak? which is this rice cake in almost a penne pasta shape (not hollow though). This could be completely wrong from what it really is, but this is what we ate. Oh man I had to get used to using chopsticks. I also need to learn Korean manners, like pouring drinks for my company and accepting drinks with either both hands or having one hand support the other. It's just habit to take a cup with one hand. Also when eating with Andrew everyone spoke to me first, maybe because I am Asian? But they quickly realized I was confused and Andrew responded so they'd just ask him questions.
Hm, we also got ice cream from Baskin Robbins. I had some green tea and it was delicious! I wish we had green tea ice cream more easily available at home. :( I also really wanted to play a crane machine just because they were scattered randomly on the street. It was just really crazy not being able to communicate or understand what people were saying. I don't think I've been that kind of foreigner in a very, very long time. We normally just vacation in places that speak English. So it was very weird to just experience how lost and somewhat scared that feels like. I'm not a super outgoing person, especially if I'm out of my comfort zone. So I get somewhat scared asking people questions. It's obviously even harder when you don't speak the same language. haha.
All in all this is a pretty interesting experience. I hope it only gets better. :)
