"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].

"Leaving on a Jet Plane"

I apologize for not updating my post in the last few days, but as you can probably imagine, it has been very hectic!

Friday was my official last day of work at Brown, and it was a bittersweet goodbye to all the folks who have been like a family to me these past few years. However, I feel they understand that this is an amazing opportunity that I can't pass up, and it is just time to move on with my life. I also got to go to lunch with some co-workers and students - of which I received some great advice about traveling abroad and what to be aware of in Seoul. (thanks for the heads up Mark and Arian!)

Saturday, I decided I could at least pack up some winter clothes in one of my suitcases. I'm allowed two, but they need to be under specific dimension and weight. It is kind of bizarre packing your winter gloves in late May, but I need to pack for a whole year. You should see how much deodorant I'm bringing! (I hear it is not easy to find, and expensive when you DO find it)

Apparently my little sister also wants to buy my car from me - something I wish I known earlier (thanks A LOT Lauren). This isn't something I wanted to have to think about over the past few days - but the paperwork is going through today, and I won't have to worry about car payments, insurance, registration, inspections, etc. (then again, Lauren, you're saving me money and a ton of aggravation in the long run - {insert hug here})



Saturday night I got to introduce my family to grilled pizza. I made them Grilled Taco Pizza, which is basically a pizza dough cooked straight on the outdoor grill, ground beef in salsa (instead of tomato sauce) with cheeses. Then you can top it all of later with lettuce, tomato, olives, sour cream, guacamole, and crushed up Doritos (or some sort of combination to suit your preferences)

Sunday was very eventful as well. After church with my parents, we had a amazing 90th birthday party for my Aunt Hilda. A ton of family showed up, the food was excellent, and Joe Zizik put together a tearjerker of a slideshow of basically the history of the entire family. It was also a good opportunity for me to say goodbye to a lot of family members as well.

Later that afternoon, we went to my cousin Joe Massad's Eagle Scout Ceremony (congrats Joe!). I got another chance to hang out with my close relatives that attended and say more goodbyes - which is getting really sad now. I did, however, get to see my favorite teacher from high school who inspired me to study history and go into teaching - Mr. Currie! That was a treat, and I hope he is keeping up on this blog, and hopefully I can share some information about Korea with him in the future.

Also, if you've been paying any attention to the news, NKorea has been flexing it's muscles even more -making an already nervewracking experience more nervewracking. (thanks alot Kim Jung Il!) The runnning jokes have been the following:

My Dad: "We've checking out the weather for Nick's flight into Seoul, and it seems like there's a cold front moving in with a chance of ICBM's..."

My Cousin: "When you come back, you and your mail order bride will be glowing in the dark"

Uncle Gerard actually left me on a high note however with this one: "What's Korea's National Bird?" --- Duck!

Alright, time to do some final packing! Next post will be from Korea! (although I will have 15 hours to write one on the plane...ugh!)

"Aeroplane"

Today I booked my ticket to Seoul, (ICN) for all you airport savvy people out there. It's actually in Inchon, a large city immediately west of Seoul, but still is listed as Seoul. I suppose this makes sense as Providence airport (PVD) isn't actually in Providence but in Warwick.

I was lucky enough that my recruiter and co-teacher agreed that I should NOT arrive in Seoul on June 1st (which my contract states). I was told that the contract date could simply be changed - something you don't really expect in the States as we're sticklers when it comes to written contract.

Thanks to some sleuthing and a little bit of advice from my good friend Nick E (aka Nick #1) I found out what to expect on my Korean Air flight. I'll be aboard a Boeing 747-400, and thanks to SeatGuru.com found out what seat would be best to book.

For those who care to know, I'll be departing on June 2nd from (JFK), expecting to arrive on June 3rd (Seoul time) around 5:30pm. Don't worry, I won't call you all at 4am EST to let you know I've arrived!