"Welcome to the World"

An-yeong-haseyo (Good Morning) for Gunpo!

Well, it's been an exhausting trip, but I'm finally here! The flight was uneventful (and very filling, as the gorgeous flight attendants were shoving food at me every hour).

Korean Air does a wonderful job of keeping you comfortable, there were plenty of amenities - hot towel, handi-wipes, snacks, and my favorite -- in flight movies! I watched such movies as Marley & Me, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (which I fell asleep during), Valkyrie (which I turned off because I couldn't hear Tom Cruise speaking over the engine), Paul Blart - Mall Cop (stupidly funny), and some others that I can't really remember as the trip seems all one big blur at the moment.

The flight traveled non-stop over Montreal, and close to the magnetic North Pole (I waved to the endangered polar bears). We made our approach in from Siberia, and China, and avoided North Korean airspace (which makes the trip a little longer), and approached from the west into Inchon Airport. Here's a map:


View Korean Air Flight in a larger map

I also took some photos of the flight which can be found here

When I arrived, I met with a taxi driver who was brining me to the school. He got a little lost and didn't speak ANY English, but we managed to find it! I met with a couple of co-teachers (Miss Kimberly, and another teacher who I think told me her name was Consul (not sure about that though). They took me to the apartment which is sweet

After dropping my things off, they wanted to treat me to dinner (I wasn't very hungry, but didn't want to offend them). We found a nice local Korean BBQ place where you sit on the floor (my legs were hurting from sitting the entire 15 hour flight. (the people I needed to climb over were always sleeping!). The food was good though, the beef was amazingly delicious, and the sides were very nice as well. I even tried jelly fish! (I was told this is the jelly fish that you eat - not the other kind --- because I totally chomp into jelly fish when I find them on the beach.) Either way, I think I got back at them for all those years of stinging people beachside. (Take that!)

I got back to the apartment and called some family and friends via Skype. Thank you to my neighbors with unsecured wireless routers. Just call me the "Bandwidth Bandit".

Even though I'd been up for almost 30 hours straight with a 30 min nap on the plane, I tried to watch some Korean TV - that was boring as it was all news, so I tried getting onto Hulu.com and other sites that stream tv, but apparently it doesn't work when in a different country due to copyright laws and such based on your IP address. I'm trying to find a way to bypass it, but am not having much luck with sites such as HotShield.

Ok, well I haven't had any breakfast yet, and really need to buy some supplies (the apartment has nothing in it - not even toilet paper, trashbins, hangers, or cleaning supplies). I'm going to make a trip to the local Dunkin Donuts (don't laugh) and stop by E-Mart. I'll try and take some photos of downtown on the way!

*****12:30pm*****

I'm back from a little trip downtown (sorry, I didn't take any photos, but there is plenty of time for that). I had breakfast a DD's as I said I would. It took some time and effort, but I got my point across. The DD's girl was sweet and was trying hard to understand me. Here's some vocab for you all. Coffee (Kop-ee), Ice (orum), Sugar (soltang) Vanilla (yeah, she didn't understand that, but when I looked at the Hangul writing and asked her to read it she said (Pah-nil-ah) which to me sounds the same...I don't get her confusion. Maybe it's because the word means something entirely different when it's spelled out to echo the English version? Either way, the coffee wasn't as good as home, but I think that's due to Korea's water and the cream she used.

I then took a little jaunt across the street to E-Mart (that was interesting). It was very crowded, but the downstairs grocery was set up similar to Whole Foods or Stop & Shop. There was a large section for produce, meat and seafood just like home - but the boxed/canned stuff was actually a lot harder to find than at home. There were only a few aisles. It could be upstairs or something, I didn't check it out. I stuck with buying the basics. Bananas, oranges, pineapple juice, peanut butter, bread, and toilet paper. Prices were about the same as home. The TP was probably the most expensive at 8,000W ($6) but I got a 24 pack. then I spent about $10 for all the rest. I figure I can at least save money on breakfast now that I can make toast with peanut butter and bananas for the next week. Too bad I didn't buy utensils - God made our fingers an excellent tool!

When in line to pay for my goods, an older Korean woman pointed to my peanut butter and began talking away. I gave her the "Lady, I have no idea what you're saying" look, and the gentleman next to me talked to her. (I think she wanted to know where I found it.)

By the way - I love paying about 60 cents for about a liter of pineapple juice. Such a deal! [insert rolling my eyes at my dad here].