I am writing this to you from a bus that is taking me from Incheon Airport to Jeonju where I will be living. It's 7:07pm Friday evening...or for all you good folks back home...4am Wisconsin time. I am surprisingly awake for getting only 4-5 hours of sleep in 45 minute stretches over the past 36 hours. My first impression of Seoul...and you laugh at the sheer simplicity of it...but is that it is just like the US, except everything is in Korean. Really...aside from the business signs...it actually looks a lot like Wisconsin right now and you would be able to convince of me that if I didn't know where I was. (Edit- Fast forward about 3 hours on the bus south...and I am definately not in the US anymore).
My flight went much better than anticipated. The seats are definately a little bigger, and through sheer luck my whole row was empty. The flight wasn't booked solid...but then again, it was a huge plane. Every seat had a roughly 9 inch monitor in the headboard and it was filled with movies, tv shows, games, and other little interesting tid bits. Since I had the whole row to myself, I used the TV next to mine to monitor our flight path. I'm unsure if this made the flight seem longer or shorter, but what was cool was knowing where we were...how fast we were going, how cold it was outside...and a whole host of other fun information. I was excited because we flew over Alaska, Russia, and Japan. We also flew over the Bering sea, so I got imagine I was crab fishing for a few seconds as I saw the massive floating sheets of ice. It was so cool! I kept myself busy on the flight by alternating movement with TV and movies. I watched "The Informant!" which I didn't like, but then i watched "This is It!" and "Big Bang Theory" for a while. I did a little sleeping, but could never stay asleep long enough for it to matter. The alcohol and food were free as well as was the inflight entertainment...so even though it was ungodly long...the flight could have been a lot worse. Unfortunately I was unable to take any pics yet because my camera is packed away in my luggage....but I should have some pics of my apartment by the time I post this.
When I got off the plane I started chatting up one of the few americans on the flight. She was a looker, and as it turns out was also from Phoenix. It was nice to see a friendly face before I left the airport in to the unknown. Luckily I didn't have any immigration issues and customs didn't stop me or I might have been fucked with the 1TB of illegally downloaded movies and music I brought with me...but I had already planned on claiming they were legal backups I made from my own collection....so who knows.
I think I finally know a little bit of what it is like to be a Mexican coming in to America (except that I was invited here..zing!). I needed help with everything...and most of the time people didn't speak english and I was left with the only option of pointing at various things for help. My flight was booked and paid for ahead of time by the school...but the bus ticket was not. More so...the information I was given on the subject was quite scarce...so I more or less had to fend for myself. Luckily I was able to get $100USD converted in to Korean Won, and bought my bus ticket for 28,000 won...which is slightly less than $28. Unfortunately my cell phone doesn't work here and I barely made my bus on time...so I was unable to call the guy who is picking me up at the bus stop. Hopefully I can find a pay phone nearby and hopefully he can still come get me...otherwise I am goint to be fuuucked. The novelty of this all is definatley helping my emotional state right now. The utter panic and constant state of being on the verge of tears my last 24 hours has been completely replaced with shiny new things. I know that the eventual jet lag, culture shock, and homesickness are destined to be around the corner...but hopefully I can stave that off for a while because right now I am just trying to stay awake so I don't miss my bus stop...and then getting to my apartment for a shower and a ton of water to drink because I am fucking thirsty. I think I have 2 hours or so left on this bus ride...so I am in for a bit of hell at the moment. That being said, I think I will leave you for now as I watch my new home pass by from a bus window. As always, I will keep you posted as to what is going on, and expect some videos in the near future as well. (Edit - the bus ride was 4 hours long... We had a rest stop about 3 hours in where I bought a coffee and gatorade. The gatorade bottle was in Korean...and tasted different.)
No comments:
Post a Comment