Well... after 40 hours of traveling, I finally made it to South Korea. For those of you who don't already know from seeing my frustrating tweets and facebook updates, my flight plans did not go how they were suppose to.
My flight was scheduled to fly out of Lambert at 8am on Monday the 20th. Kierstie and I woke up at 5am to get everything together and took off for the airport. I should have known my travels were going to be problematic when I arrived at the E-Ticket check in and my passport scan wouldn't match my boarding pass. Luckily my other friend Megan arrived right around the same time, and her dad who is an expert flyer refused to let me stand in the long American Airlines line and found a way to get my passport to work through E-Ticket. The sun was barely up, and I was already stressed.
The three of us waved goodbye to loved ones from the security checkpoint as it finally hit us we were going to South Korea. As we got our Starbucks and proceeded to stroll on those moving walkways, (I love those and take them every chance I get) someone yelled at us and said, "Hey are you going on the O'Hare flight at 8am? It's cancelled!" We all looked at each other in disbelief and had no idea what to do. Then, like clockwork, I got a text message from my American Airlines app on my phone (thank goodness I brought my phone) saying my flight had been cancelled and gave me a number for rebooking. All three of us were on the phone close to an hour until finally Megan got ahold of someone and got our flights rebooked. We were DEFINITELY missing our connection in Chicago, as they couldn't even get us to Chicago to make our 12:35pm flight to Seoul. So our new itinerary went something like this... Flight from STL to LA at 1:40pm (mind you it was 8am at this time..) which meant arriving in LA at 3:40pm western time, only to enjoy a wonderful 8 hour layover and then take off for Seoul at 11:40pm. After confirming with the woman on the phone that our luggage would be transferred off the Chicago airplane onto the LA one, we went back upstairs to get our boarding passes... again.
We didn't have enough information to use E-Ticket, so we had to stand in that dreadful line that never moves. Luckily we had some friendly people in front of us that coincidentally were also going to Seoul. They had been there before and told us everything we needed to do and see and made it a lot easier for us to stay positive. We got our boarding passes and once again confirmed that our luggage had been switched. (I hope everyone understands where this is going...)
1:00pm came around and we finally started boarding our plane after 5 hours of playing speed, rummy royal, and a creative game of "I'm going to give you a jelly bean and you need to guess what flavor it is." It was comical. I was sitting next to a 50-something business man with 3 kids, who was pretty funny. He kept my mind off the flight and quizzed me on random Sky Mall items like... "Would you spend $3,500 on this watch?" Four hours later we touched down in LA. This was my first time at LAX and not only was it extremely packed and confusing, but we had to make our way to the International Terminal which of course was outside. On top of that I couldn't get the stupid Miley Cyrus lyric of... "Hopped off the plane at LAX with a dream and my cardigaaaan" out of my head. (Terrible.) We second guessed ourselves multiple times but we finally made it. (This was the first of many times that I was SO thankful I wasn't traveling by myself.) Prices were absolutely ridiculous at LAX. I'm not sure if it's because it is LA or because it's an airport, but a salad was anywhere from $15-$20. LA brought nothing but the longest 8 hours of my life. Come around 10:30, Megan went up to ask the Korean Air desk person whether her ticket was a window or aisle seat when he told her that what we had weren't tickets. The guy at Lambert basically gave us a voucher saying we were on the flight, but it wasn't a ticket even though it had our seat #, time info, etc. on it. Then he also broke us the wonderful news letting us know that our luggage was not on the flight, and that it was most likely in Chicago. After calling our parents at 1am STL time waking them up and breaking them the terrible news, we boarded the plane with our new tickets and hope that somehow, someway, our luggage would make it to Seoul. (On top of this, by the time we were boarding our flight in LAX we would have been landing in Seoul, had our first flight not been cancelled.) We were BITTER.
I slept a lot on the plane. After all, we had been traveling almost 24 by this point. I was in one of those dreadful middle seats next to a Korean man who was a huge armrest hog. Regardless, I slept a lot. They offered dinner and breakfast but I didn't eat either. I didn't feel very well, and getting my first wiff of Korean spices and smells didn't help my cause. I stuck to my peanuts given to me by Melissa before I left. (You were a LIFESAVER! Thanks :)
We arrived in Seoul around 4am. Here we were meeting Aivil where he would help us buy a bus ticket and find the bus. We went to baggage claim hoping to see our luggage. My one bag that I was originally going to take on as a carry on actually was there... because I checked it the second time we went to get our boarding passes. Unfortunately, this bag contains my nice clothes, like dresses... nothing too useful like toiletries, shorts and t-shirts, etc. We went to lost and found where we encountered our first real language block. The woman spoke english, but it was very choppy. She couldn't even locate our luggage and said she "thought" it would be arriving on the flight from Chicago to Seoul at 3:30 that day. At this point in time, we didn't even enjoy the fact we were in Korea, we were just overwhelmed, hungry, and probably smelly.
Since luck wasn't going our way, naturally Aivil wasn't waiting for us at 4am at the gate. We were phoneless and in a foreign country. We saw a 7-11 in the airport (which was very Americanized with 7-11's and Dunkin Donuts) and bought things like toothpaste and face wash, all things left in our checked luggage, just to get some spare change. We called Aivil on a pay phone, which took 5 minutes to figure out how to work, as it was all in Korean... only to find out he couldn't get to the airport til after 6am, since the train he had to take doesn't start running until then. Aivil came two hours later and got us on the bus. A bus ticket from Seoul to Gwangju (which is about 4 hours) cost 30,900 won, which is about $28. Not too shabby! The bus ride wasn't bad at all. The scenery was beautiful. The only negative is that the bus was rather hot. I'm starting to realize that it's pretty common for A/C to not be on in Korea...
Our Chonnam "Buddies" were waiting for us at the bus station at Gwangju. There was one for each of us. My buddy's name is Hyeji In. She likes to say, "Just call me In, not out!" She is so nice. We immediately looked for a place to sit to wait for a cab, and we got to know each other. She is a double major... Business and Geography (with an emphasis in Korean Geography.) It's pretty cool that we share that similarity and that I don't need to explain to her why I'm interested in geography... she just gets it. By this time my hair had proceeded to make it's way onto the top of my head in a messy bun, my makeup had melted off in the bus, and I'm sure I probably smelled. I had been traveling for 40 hours, anyone who smells great after that long... I applaud you. Anyway, she said I looked exhausted and said "Want massage?" Everyone had been telling me that there is a different sense of space over here, but this was my first experience of it. I didn't have her stop though... it was probably the best shoulder massage I've ever had. And then, just like all of our orientation materials told us, she started asking me questions like how old I was and about my family. I could tell she kind of didn't know how to ask me because she felt like she was being nosey, but I didn't care. The cab finally came and we went outside to meet it. It was pouring... and it was at this point in time that I realized I forgot my umbrella and rainboots back in St. Louis. Hello, Monsoon season.
We arrived at our dorms around 20 minutes later. My dorm is pretty nice. They are suite style. There are 3 rooms with 2 girls in each room. We share a bathroom with 2 toilets, 2 sinks, and a shower. I'll post pictures later... my camera cord is in my luggage that is lost. :(
We spent the day touring campus in the rain and buying toiletries and other things that we didn't have due to our luggage. The girls went and bought us sandwiches and we had lunch together. They also bought Korean Sushi for us to share. The kind they bought is essentially the Korean form of the California Roll. It had egg in it and some other stuff. I actually REALLY liked it. Yes mom- I tried it! I even used chopsticks. We learned a bit more about the campus and such and also learned that rainy/monsoon season had come early and that it'd be around for about the next three weeks. Let me say the only shoes I currently have are my Toms, which are fabric slide on shoes. They are soaked and have already had one round in the dryer. I bought a pair of slides from the market, which are VERY popular here. You see almost everyone in them and I found out why. They were 3,000 wons. That's about $2.50. Dinner was interesting, where I had my first encounter with bibimbap, a popular Korean dish. I wasn't a fan, but I was also told that this cafeteria food wasn't good so I'm hoping that's why. After dinner I showered and put away what I had in my room. I struggled staying awake til 9pm, so I went to bed.
Today I woke up around 8am, responded to some e-mails and started my day. I got an e-mail from my TA in my political geography class saying my teacher was out of town til Friday night, and because of this I didn't have class until Monday. So I have my 1pm class today and tomorrow, and then start both classes Monday. My 1pm class is Contemporary Societies and Culture Movements. I'm hoping it's interesting. After I got ready, I decided I'd take a trip to one of the many coffee shops on campus. I brought my camera and was pretty excited to venture out on my own. I found my way to the coffee shop. It's called "Angel-in-Us Coffee." It's very Starbucks-esque, even price wise. This was a bummer, I was hoping to get lucky with prices, since so far everything else has been pretty cheap. My Caffe Mocha was 5,400 won... about $5. Looks like Angel-in-Us will be a weekly thing. My goal for the week is to find a cheaper coffee house. This place does look like a great atmosphere for studying or lounging. The building is cool too.
And here I am, back at my dorm soaking in Gwangju. I felt guilty when I came back. I realized that because of my busy, hectic, tiring day yesterday, I neglected to ever look out my window. I'm on the twelfth floor of my dorm and my view is absolutely beautiful. I'm facing the mountains and there are many interesting buildings, including a pyramid shaped building that reminds me of something you'd see in Las Vegas. I'll post pictures of this later too. I'm off to get ready for class and have some lunch. I promise every post won't be this long! Thanks for reading friends and family! I miss and love you all!
Also- Congratulations to my cousin Laura on the birth of her baby boy. I'm so excited to welcome another boy into the family! :)
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