After a week a fun filled week of goodbye parties, lunches, and general libations I made it to O'Hara airport at 10pm, in the middle of a blizzard, to catch my 1am Asiana flight to Incheon S Korea. I came completely prepared to pay huge fees for being WAY over my luggage allowance. I go to check in my massive suitcases and the attendant told me to redistribute the weight in my bags and she wouldn't charge me. As I started to lift the behemoths to retreat and redistribute another attendant snapped that I couldn't check bags that were 'leaking' at all. Then the first attendant told him not to be rude and 'couldn't he see that it was a blizzard outside and it was obviously melting snow!' and then immediately checked my bags, un-redistributed. Awesome.
Even more awesome, the flight had to de-ice twice but still left only 20 minutes late. The seats were the usual small size but more comfy than a domestic flight and they give you a big blanket and pillow. Plus- there is a screen on the back of the seat in front of you and a remote control to pick which shows or movies you want to watch with quite a selection in English, Korean, Chinese, or Japanese. And language lessons. And a flight tracker. And music that you can play by the album or pick a station.
I watched 'The Invention of Lying', 'Where the Wild Things Are', Korean language lessons and read a graphic novel about a french animators experience in N Korea that Jenny gave me. I tried to sleep but I was surrounded by kids. They were actually all pretty good but they didn't all go to sleep at the same time and were too loud for me to crash even when I played Billy Holiday at full volume.
The stewardesses were all tall, thin, gorgeous, and super attentive and nice- even when the kids repeatedly pushed the call button. Drinks were free and they fed us 3 times. The food was actually incredibly edible. First meal I had bibimbop, soup, fruit, and some kind of a salad, second meal was a huge sandwich, 3rd meal was an omelet, fruit, a muffin, and yogurt.
My first view of Korea was the mountains poking through the clouds as we came in for a landing
We arrived at 6am and I was out of immigration in less than 1/2 an hour. Since I had 4 huge bags and was sweating from just getting them to the curb I took a taxi for the first and last part of my journey and a bus only for the middle part. I made the taxi driver carry my bags to the bus in Seoul.
I got another taxi to the University from the Andong terminal and arrived at 12:30pm. And began the afternoon of hell. But- it's the only really bad afternoon I have had so far.
Everyone was at lunch and no-one was there to meet me. After wandering around for a little while, staring at a pay phone for 10 minutes trying to will it to work, I was approached by a group of Koreans who asked me who I was. When I told them they said 'Your not supposed to be here until 6pm!' but got on the phone and called my new boss, loaded my stuff in a car and drove to my new apartment. We pulled my suitcases in and met my new boss. Him and my escort then said 'Ok, well Eric will be around later, he'll fill you in on when you should be a work, see ya later'. I almost went into hysterics- the apartment was filthy, freezing, I was starving and had no idea where I was. I asked if they could point out a good restaurant before they left or a store and my boss must have seen the look on my face because he took me back to the university and fed me lunch and then handed me over to the coordinator for foreign employees. He showed me around the building and then told me to take the bus home. I didn't know where home was so I asked him to call me a taxi and to please tell the driver where home was.
I got back to the apartment, still freezing, sort of just turned in circles for 1/2 an hour, pushing buttons on the thermostat trying to turn it on and then- glory of all glories!- heard people speaking English in the hall! I whipped open the door and met the first of my new neighbors Chris and Sue. After introductions I asked where the nearest store was- because there was no way I was going to unpack until the place was cleaned, and Sue went and got me some cleaning supplies and Chris showed me and another newbie, Doug, how to work our heat and invited me to come along with them to walk downtown and get food and drinks. I said yes, of course. And had 2 great meals, many drinks and a general idea of where and what by the end of the night. The next day I got lots of cleaning supplies and spent the weekend scrubbing my place down. Now I really like it.
Turns out that all of the western university staff lives in the same building. Also turns out that there are over 20 of us- 6 of us brand new (though 4 had worked in different cities in Korea before). I think I have met almost everyone now, I like everyone, and have a crew to hang out with. It's been a week so I have lots more to tell but it's 2am so I'm off to bed....
