Thursday, March 31, 2011

My journey to Korea.

I made it! I'm writing this from my new apartment. It has been a long journey over here. Today is Friday here in South Korea. I left my house in Minnetonka on Wednesday March 30th at 4am. My Mom, Dad, and Mocha (my puppy) drove me to the airport. I was so tired and didn't have much sleep because Mocha kept me up - she was sick. I went to bed around midnight that night and had to wake up around 3:30. Anyways, after checking in my two monster 49lb bags I had to worry about getting my oversize carryon backpack and "purse"  (more like a huge beach bag) past the gate. Turns out they didn't even question it. I got on my first flight from msp to denver which left at 6:15. I fell asleep instantly after I sat down in my window seat and woke up to an announcement from the pilot that we were landing in Denver. One down, two to go. At this point I'm starving and haven't had anything to eat. I had about a half hour before my next flight boarded so I quickly walked to the nearest sandwich store and got a sandwich to go, I wasn't going to last till San Francisco with no food. Once I got back to the gate, we boarded ten minutes later. This plane ride was a bit longer than the first. I had a window seat again, but this seat was in the very last row - GREAT! Looking over my documents I was getting a little nervous because it said that when my flight to San Fran lands at 11am I begin boarding my next flight to Incheon - Seoul. I didn't sleep on the flight to San Francisco at all. They played a few shows that I watched. We ended up landing in San Francisco a half hour early but when we got there there was a plane in our gate so we had to wait. We eventually got off the plane; I was the last one off of course. Good thing the international gate happened to be close to our arriving gate. I booked it with my carryon bags through the airport to my departing gate. When I arrived they had just began boarding first class and business. I got on the plane about ten minutes later. This plane was HUGE. It had an upstairs. It was 50 some seats long and 7 across. I think it's the biggest plane I've ever been on. It looked to be pretty much full, no open seats that I could see. I had a window seat again in the middle of the plane. I fell asleep once we got in the air for about 5 hours. I missed the first meal even! I sat next to Jinwoo (a Korean who was just returning home for the first time in 4 years - he went to college in San Diego) and next to him was Gill (he was from Texas working as an engineer. His work told him 4 days ago he had to come to Korea for business for 3 weeks. He recently got engaged and his fiance wasn't too please about him going, haha) When I first met Gill which was about 5 or 6 hours into the flight I said your name is Gill? Like in Finding Nemo!? Haha. He has never seen the movie and didn't think it was too funny - Jinwoo thought it was funny though! I chatted with my new friends off and on throughout the rest of the flight. They were both super nice. Jinwoo's parents now live in LA, they have a 5-year working green card. So he's going back to Korea with no home to go to. He still has relatives and friends here though. He said he wasn't sure what he was going to do yet. That's got to suck! He was funny. He was interviewing for grad school today in Korea. Gill has three weekends off and wanted to travel during them. He was asking Jinwoo if he wanted to come with him to Hongcheon and visit me, Jinwoo has no plans so he was excited about the idea. I don't know if that will happen but it would be kinda cool. We all exchanged e-mail addresses so we can keep in contact. Jinwoo told me that the third month was hardest for him getting homesick so if I do call him up to hang out. He said he can show me around. It felt really good to get another contact in Korea. When I arrived at Incheon I found my bags right away! I was super pumped about that. I walked out of the baggage claim and there was Mr. Kang with a sign saying Welcome to Korea Ms. Julie Magnuson! He immediately got me a bus ticket to Chungcheon (20 min north of Hongcheon which is where I am now). The bus took off about an hour later from the airport. I had a window seat again with no one next to me, which was nice. The bus ride was about 2.5 hours. I didn't think I was going to sleep on the bus ride but I closed my eyes and 2 hours later woke up. Haha. Amy - my school director, and the supervisor Sharon were at Chungcheon bus terminal to great me. Sharon knows english pretty well so she talks for Amy a lot. I got off the bus put on my backpack and took my rolly bag to the car while the two girls tried to carry my duffle bag; it was a struggle for the two of them. We went straight to a restaurant in Hongcheon. The other foreign teacher, Elizabeth, met us there. I just got noodles, which was good. I wasn't ready to have super spicy food yet. After diner we came to the apartment where they showed me how to work the heater and washing machine. They then left and I took a shower - at first is was hot then it started to get really cold (I don't think I have the whole heater thing down yet). I went to bed shortly after that and it was about 10pm Korean time, 8am central time at home. I fell asleep right away and woke up at 3am. I couldn't get back to sleep so I started listening to a book on tape - Atlas Shrugged that Jane and Doug (my regulars at Starbucks) bought for me! Thanks guys if you're reading this!! It helped me get back to sleep. I then woke up at 7:30am and am writing you this letter. I am going to go downstairs to the school - level 2. My apartment is on level 4 of the same building. Today I sat in on classes and saw how the schedule works. The kids are so cute. There is a girl named Julie in class that I will be teaching and she finished her plate first at lunch... sound familiar? I think we'll be good friends. Elizabeth asked me if I wanted to go to Seoul on Saturday. She said she has an extra map and would show me how to get there and everything so I think I will be doing that tomorrow. I hope you all enjoyed reading this post.

Till next time, 
Julie