It's only 7, 786 miles...

I left Oklahoma Saturday morning at 6:30am and arrived in Incheon, South Korea at 6:00pm on Sunday. It sounds crazy but South Korea is nine hours ahead of Oklahoma. But seriously, it was 20 hours of travel.

Leaving my family and friends at the airport was super hard but I knew everything would be ok once I was here in my new home, Iksan, South Korea.

THE FLIGHT

From OKC to Houston I had to figure out how to take three bags without paying for them so I "gate checked" a smaller suitcase. This meant that I had to pick it up once I arrived in San Fransisco since I would be switching airlines. The flight was fine and although Shelly, my aunt Kacky and my mom all had a stay up all night party, I didn't fall asleep.

At the Houston airport I only had 10 minutes before I had to board the next flight whose gate was directly across from the one I had arrived. Under the advice of a flight attendant on my previous flight, I grabbed some chips and pop tarts in case I got hungry.

From Houston to San Fransisco is a four hour flight that is NO FUN! The guy next to me was drinking Chardonnay and eating a subway sandwich (mind you this is only about 9:00am). He kept licking each finger and then licking his sandwich and taking a bite. SICK. But that's not even the worst part, after finishing he kept burping over and over! SO sick! The guy to the left of me was from Buenos Aires coming back to his new home in San Fran. He was talking to me in Spanglish which I thought was cool.

On the flight I started looking at my itinerary and saw that I only had 45 minutes to get off my plane, collect my gate checked bag from baggage claim, find the Singapore Airlines ticket counter, recheck my bag, get my boarding pass, go through security and find my terminal in international flights. Let's be real... I was running through the airport like I just realized that I had forgotten Mcally Culkin at home.

Praying the whole time, I went to the carousel that was supposed to have my bags...it hadn't started so I decided to go to the Information counter upstairs and see where the Singapore airlines counter was. The man told me to get on the light rail, the blue one, get off on gate G4 (the international terminal), and it would be there. Easy enough? NOOOO

I waited and waited on my bag and then when I got it I mad dashed it to the light rail, from there I got off as planned and could not, could not I repeat COULD NOT find the Singapore Airlines counter. I found this sign that had all the airlines but I couldn't see Singapore anywhere. I stepped up the United Airlines counter and interrupted two talking employees and asked where the counter is, to which they so kindly and generously replied, "There's the the list of all the airlines!". Normally I would have wasted time trying to read that horrible excuse for a key, but today I didn't have time to deal with their outstanding customer service and generally chipper demeanor. So I said, "I didn't see it on there could you point it out to me." one of the ladies sighed exaggeratedly and said, "Well let's just look!". So we did and she said aisle 4. "Oooook...where is aisle 4?". "Well let's think, this is aisle ONE, so aisle FOUR is going to be three more aisle that way." Remind me never to ever ever fly United...

When I found the Singapore airlines counter I asked to check the bag to which the guy was shocked and told me it would be $100. Fine I will pay I said, then I waited about 15 minutes for them to print out my boarding pass. It was 12:05, my plane leaves at 12:35...I pointed this out and he said, "No big deal, they've only started boarding.". Yeah I know douche! That's why you need to hurry it up!

So I finally get my boarding pass, now I'm going through security with my 60lb carry on that has officially left a bruise on my right shoulder and made my arms and back feel like I have been working out. They had to put it through the Xray three times...THREE! Then it was fine.

I followed the signs to gate 101. Which led me to a little counter with a lady selling magazines. "Excuse me ma'am, ma'am, ma'am! Excuse me! Where is gate 101?" Downstairs... great.
I made it just in time as they were loading the last 10 people. I was gross and sweaty and felt bad for everyone around me.

The flight was ok... I watched three movies and attempted with no avail to sleep. And I know there is this big Twilight craze... but I don't get it. It was a pretty terrible movie I thought... anyway.
They served two meals and about 5billion snacks on the flight. The drinks were just shots of water so I was dying of thirst.

Meal 1: Fish and roasted potatoes and a greek salad with shrimp. The salad was really, really good. But the fish left something to be desired. Dessert was awesome, an ice cream sandwich! MMM

Meal 2: Some sort of pasta with marinara and mushrooms and ham. Lets be real...this was TERRIBLE it was dried out and the mushrooms tasted weird and the salad that came with it was boring and only had French dressing. Hershey chocolate bar for dessert :)

While serving a meal to the lady next to me, the pretty little flight attendant definitely drooled on my hand. It was hard to notice at first because it was warm and then when it started cooling off, I realized EWWW.

INCHEON!

Going through customs took no time at all and I met a little Korean lady who gave me her number and said if I were in Seoul to call her and she would be my personal tour guide. And I also met a guy who was going to be teaching English in Seoul. And another girl who was coming back from vacation in Thailand to teach in S. Korea.

I met Mark, my friend who works at Wonkwang, and he gave me a phone to call my mom. We then got on a bus and were off to Iksan. Three hour bus ride!!!!!!!!!!!! AH! I was so sleepy my eyes couldn't blink without wanting to go to sleep. But I endured and we came to the Iksan IC (inner change) where we were met by Dr. Yu, the director of the language department. Dr. Yu drove us to our apartments, which are amazingly nice and look like they came straight out off an IKEA showroom! The floors look like wood but are more plastic-y feeling and they are heated. Mark gave me his bed so I have been sleeping on that.

My apartment is nice and I feel really safe here. There is a code to get into the building and then a code for my door...no keys! Which is great!

That's enough boring you for now, I will write about teaching next time :)