Starting things off right

Last night I decided to venture into Seoul. I had a friend meeting me there and felt confident to get around. I was driven back to the airport from my hotel. My friend told me that I should catch a bus to meet her in Seoul. So I bought a ticket and headed on my journey. Oh as a side note I found the elevators in the airport; I wish that I would have found them earlier :) The bus ride went very well and the people were very friendly. It surprised me that there were not that many people on the bus; its capacity was around 50 and I only saw maybe 7 people on the bus. I got off and met Holly, my friend, close to an exit for the subway. We decided to grab some dinner before meeting her friend and her friend's parents. She treated me to some authentic Korean food. It was nice to see a familiar face in the city and get a sense of how things are. The subway system runs until 1 am sometimes 12, so getting around is pretty easy. After eating we hopped on the subway to meet her friend. The system requires a t-money card to get on. You just load it up with cash electronically and put it on a scanner when you get ready to enter the subway. The trains travel fairly fast so one could get easily to different places. When we met up with her friend, we traveled to a tower and when up in it. It was a really nice site to see. At the top of the tower there was a section of fence with a bunch of locks on it. Couples come up here, lock two locks together on the fence and throw away the key. The locks being together represent them being together. It is kind of interesting. Then we traveled to a local market and saw the sites. I had fun, it was a great first day in Seoul. I traveled back by the subway system to the airport and then was picked up by my hotel and brought to my hotel. The driver was very friendly. I took a jacuzzi bath and relaxed. I hadn't slept in about 48+ hours. It was a nice rest.
The next day I got ready and headed back to the airport to meet my recruiting agency to go to orientation. They were very friendly and I got to meet some of the other teachers as well. I had a cups of Starbucks hot chocolate and I was ready to head to the orientation center. We took a bus to the center and arrived at the wrong location. Luckily some people had contact numbers for those in charge and were able to find the correct location of the facility. It was right down the road. We got our luggage and traveled down the road with them and arrived. I'm staying with two other gentlemen who have yet to arrive. I'm excited to learn and yet tired from lugging my luggage around. Be sure to check out my facebook page to see more photos :)

I'm finally here...well sort of ;)

Yesterday, it still seems like today for me since I haven't been to sleep yet, I loaded up my luggage and headed to the airport. Packing the luggage proved to be quite the challenge. At first I was able to put in everything I need into two suitcases (they were quite packed to be certain). There was a weight limit for luggage and basically an extra $15 bucks for every 2.2 lbs over 50 lbs per checked luggage. My dad went to weigh then and I think one weighed 80 something and another weighed 60 something. The extra cost for weight was going to be over $300, that's crazy. My dad, being the nifty guy that he is, thought of bringing an extra suitcase instead of paying the exceeded luggage cost or sending the extra clothes via mail. Mailing a 50 lb package was getting close to $300 bucks, but having an extra checked luggage was only $130 (and could weight up to 70 lbs), so in comparison I opted for the extra luggage. My dad was sweet and bought me another luggage container. We distributed the weight to try to get two under 50 while the last one was under 70. We came awfully close to it. My carry-on's then became our concern, there was a weight limit of I want to say 22 lbs, my carry was close to that and my bookbag which held my laptop was close to 30 lbs, so....we were curious to see how they would take it all at the airport.
With our hopes before us we headed out by about 4 pm (originally planned to be 2 pm [and in retrospect I am certainly glad for the delay]). I got to drive part of the way up there (I partially wanted to because it would be the last time I would be driving in a while and because I knew that my parents (namely my dad) would be driving back and I wanted to give him a break. For my last meal (dinner in the states) I was thinking of either Golden Corral or Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut was spotted first and I put in a request for a pizza I love: Stuffed crust, Hawaiian pizza with barbecue sauce instead of tomato sauce. Our waitress was doubtful of the cook wanting to make it (I guess it wasn't quite so popular (or perhaps it was non-existent as a request) in the town we choose to eat at). The cook came out and gave me a bit of a hassle about the order, but eventually came out to making it for me. That was very sweet of her.
My dad drove the rest of the way and we arrived at the airport an hour before we could check in. So I went to the currency exchange to see if they were still open, but they only had enough money to exchange roughly $15, which isn't a whole lot. I was supposed to get money exchanged at place in Chicago before the airport, but they didn't receive the funds in time. Oh well I got the money exchanged when I got here and the exchange rate was way better, like yeah....a lot better, lol. But that's getting a head of the story. So we waited an hour to check in and there was a very friend gentlemen who engaged my parents and I in conversation. I checked my baggage in and there was no problem with the weight limit of any of the items. I was quite pleased. My parents and I hung out until around 10 pm where we said out goodbyes and I advanced towards security. I showed the first attendant my boarding pass and passport and went to go through the scanner. Somehow after I put all my items in the bins I lost my boarding pass. Oh boy was I freaking out. I scanned my tubs for about five minutes waiving several individuals on ahead of me, only to discover that I still could not find it. I told a security guard about my problem, she looked down and found my pass on her side of the security on the ground. I was so glad.
It took a bit for the boarding of the plane, but over all went fairly quickly. I was seated next to an American Marine. I was also near the emergency exit so I had plenty of leg room. It was nice to have someone to talk to on the way over. And boy was he talkative, he would just go on and on about anything and everything. It was really funny to me that we didn't even introduce ourselves until the very end of the flight. The flight was long, but wasn't too boring with my exciting companion so it was very durable. The food and service was delightful, I think one reason my marine friend was so talkative was because of all the alcohol he had, but I enjoyed it none the less.
It seemed like it took forever to get to our terminal in our airplane once we had landed. But after we did, I had to wait a while to get off. My carry-ons were stored in bins behind my seats. Going through customs and through the passport check in was very easy. But boy oh boy was in it interesting dealing with my luggage. So I had three large pieces of luggage, a carryon, a bookbag and my trenchcoat (very hot to wear by the way). I at first piled them all upon a cart and began to push the cart, but they eventually all feel off the cart. I rearranged them and had greater luck. When I got to the main area, I checked to see where I would need to go to catch a ride to my hotel. I didn't see anything immediately, so I decided to sit down and e-mail some people letting them know that I had arrived safely. Fortunately or not so much, my computer's battery lasted all of 30 seconds and shut down right as it was being pulled up. With that I was determined to find a way to my hotel and take a shower, I can become quite stinky from wearing the same clothes all day long. I found out that I need to head up to the 3rd floor to catch shuttle that runs to my hotel. Well that meant taking my bags off my cart and trying to roll them along all at once. I found a center to call for a shuttle and got a great exchange rate for my money and was going to head upstairs. A gentlemen then informed me that there was an elevator. I was going to use the eslcator. He pointed me in the direction of it and I headed that way. There was no elevator, grrr. So I went back to the escalator and tried to get on. It was a bit hard though because there was this point that stuck inbetween so I had to menuvure my bags around it. That was quite challenging let me say. I did ok from the 1st to the 2nd floor, but from the 2nd floor to the 3rd I fell and my bags almost feel down the elscalator too. I held onto them until I arose to the top, scrapped up what little pride I had and headed out to meet my shuttle.

It didn't take long for the shuttle to arrive and load my baggage. My driver drove really really fast though, or at least it was quite fast for me. I almost though the van was going to tip when he was going on a turn. I arrived safetly and checked in. There was no Lobby, just a reception Desk. So not much to hang out at the Hotel until check in. I only had to pay 7 dollars to check in early. I was so happy to get to take a shower. I was struck at first by the seperate room to change your shoes. There was also a slot for you to put your key in, without the key in that slot none of the electricity in the room would work. The room was hot, because of the heating from the floor, but I am quite content and happy about that. The furniture isn't has soft as one would find in America, but the shower room really makes up for it. There are so many different spays and I have a tub with jet sprays :) The toilet doesn't take toilet paper, but it does have plenty of sprays as well to clean your bottom and even a dryer to dry it off afterwards. I was quite impressed.

So I took my shower and felt wonderfully better. I turned on the television and found 3 or 4 English channels out of the 70 available. I rested for a bit on my bed and talked to my parents for a bit on skype. It was nice to see a familiar face. I then headed out on my journey to find an adapter for my computer, a charger for my phone, and to add minutes to my phone. Each of which I succeeded in. I was quite happy, but I had help from friends. I ate pinnaple pizza for dinner (I didn't want to try a random Korean resturaunt just yet) . Most of them looked like pubs rather than placed to eat at anyways. I tried a pop called Kin, its kind of like sprite, but better I think. The pizza was great, couldn't tell it was Korean at all. I also found a library. I might go visit it if I don't head out to Seoul this evening.

Getting Ready to Leave

I will be leaving to head to the Chicago airport tomorrow to leave the country. My flight is at 1 am Thursday morning and I will arrive at 6 am Friday morning (South Korean time). The flight is 14 hours long, it'll be the longest flight I have ever been on and I have never flown overseas before. The only countries I have been to so far (besides the US) are Canada and Mexico. I'm a little nervous and scared, but even more than that I'm excited. Excited to finally become a world traveler :) Yesterday I called around to get exchange rates for currency. I made one call to South Korea, a gentlemen answered in Korean. I asked him if he spoke English, he said yes. I asked him for the exchange rate, then he hung up on me. That was the only call I made, lol. This last Sunday I got to see my brothers one last time before I head over. It was bittersweet. On the one hand it was nice to see them, on the other, it'll be a while before I see them again.

I've been packing my bags for the last couple of days. I'm fairly certain that I'm over the weight limit, but also certain that I'd rather pay the extra charge for luggage rather than the charge to ship items over. I sent a stack up papers over to Korea that was about two inches maybe less thick. It cost me $70. I can't imagine the cost of sending a package of clothes :-/

I'll be staying at the Incheon Airport Hotel. I'll be chilling in the aiport for a while though, check-in isn't until 2 pm, so from 6 am until 2 pm I'll be amusing myself in the airport. What was the movie where the guy who spoke bulgarian lived in the airport? Tom Hanks was in it I think. Whatever its called maybe I'll be like that for part of a day, lol.

My flight over has American food, yes!!! And a wide variety of movies to select from. There are tvs on the back of each person's seat, so you can choose whatever you want to watch. I hope that I can fall asleep for the majority of the flight. It would be nice to leave the airport, fall asleep and wake up in Seoul :) That would also help with my sleep adjustment and jet lag. :)