Before
I left home, everyone kept asking me: “Has it hit you that you’re moving to
Korea?” My response: “No, but it will probably hit me on the plane.” I was
right. I’m not going to lie, I got a tiny bit teary-eyed on the flight to Seattle,
but I think my body just needed some sort of release from all the craziness of
preparing to leave.
After
arriving in Seattle, I was able to meet up with my dad for a few hours while my
brothers, who said something like, “Jena, yeah, I’ll see you at the airport,”
were probably sleeping away. I tried to text one of them using airport WIFI for
my IPod, but it didn’t work. By the way,
connecting to WIFI in Korea is a dream…and nearly ubiquitous. Getting back
through security at SeaTac- not so dreamy.
It took about three minutes the first time and about forty-five or more
at SeaTac and that included having a TSA compliant computer bag. It was packed
with people!
Despite
never flying internationally before, I did pretty well. In between
watching about three and a half movies, I got to eat Korean airplane food,
which was really pretty tasty and looked great compared to the “American” food
that most everyone else was eating.
Incheon Airport is
beautiful as well as clean. I can see why it has won so many awards for best
international airport. Despite preparing as best I could for the trip and being
just under 50 lbs. for both bags, navigating escalators and hallways with these
bags became a bit of a workout in a jacket, big wool sweater and winter boots(
Yes, I tried to wear my bulkiest, warmest clothes on the plane. What a great
idea…until that moment).
This is my luggage....empty
After
exchanging half of my US money (also a breeze), going through customs and
immigration (pretty simple, too), I found my way to the information desk with
easy instructions from my EPIK recruiter. First problem: asking to use the
telephone to call the hotel and asking for a shuttle. After spending about 10
minutes trying to figure out how to ask that in Korean, I cautiously approached
the lady and said, “annyeong-haseyo.”
She immediately started speaking back to me in English, asked my name and
called up the hotel for me. Wow.
My
first night in Korea was fantastic. I met a bunch of other EPIK teachers and we
went out for dinner at a nearby restaurant. I tried kimchi stew, kimbab( kind
of like Korean sushi), seaweed, some sort of salad, and left with a satisfied,
if not steamy mouth. The food so far has been really delicious.
For all of you who have
been waiting patiently for a post, I do have somewhat of an excuse for being tardy. I left my computer cord back home. Don’t even ask me how that happened.
Luckily, my mom is awesome and sent it by FedEx once I found out the address of
Jeonju University( which took about 15 minutes to type out in Hangul because I
am not good with knowing where the letters are on my keyboard yet and I don’t think
she even needed it.) The package cost about $80 ( :gasp:) and took about 3.5
days to get here with the day differences and a weekend. I even got it a day earlier than expected,
which made it even more amazing. Thank you customs for being cooperative. And yes, this actually was cheaper and faster
than buying a new one from Dell Korea. You can bet I did a happy dance when one
of my Orientation teacher/leaders gave it to me after one class.
I have so many more adventures to post about and I
will try to do it soon! I start school on Monday( tomorrow for me). Wish me luck!
So excited to read your blog! Ive been checking it every few days. You look very happy! Cant wait to see how your year unfolds! More pictures please:)
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