Whew – where am I? What day is it? What time is it?
It’s a bit disorienting the first time making such a drastic time zone change. I’ve flown back and forth across the US many times, pacific time to eastern time, which can have a sense of 3 hours lost or gained, but that doesn’t even compare. Meghann and I left Phoenix Saturday morning for a 10am flight. We had a layover Saturday afternoon at around two, and boarded our ~12 hour flight to South Korea. Being that going from Phoenix is in the -8 GMT time zone, and South Korea is in the +12 GMT time zone, this meant we lost 20 hours, in addition to the flight time. We arrived in South Korea at around 7PM on Sunday. Pretty weird, huh? To top it all off, we flew west with the sun, meaning we had daylight from when we woke up in Phoenix, and throughout the entire flight to our new time zone. Despite being in a weird sleep state, I know my adrenaline will keep me alert all day.
Despite a few hiccups with a close connection and low overhead bin space, the flight from San Francisco was very interesting. First of all – making an international connection we had to leave security and re-enter security through a (very slow) international security checkpoint. After hurrying to our gate and arriving just as boarding was finishing, I realized at that point, for maybe the first time in my life, that I was definitely a “minority” to the Koreans and other asians that were on our flight to Korea. I tend to thrive in new or unique situations, so I was enjoying it and very curious about anything and everything I was unfamiliar with.
Once we were boarded it when I really began to feel the “international travel” experience. Everything was translated into another asian language, visually on signs and verbally for any flight announcements. Each seat had a screen with games, guides, book summaries, and a lot of other interesting info. I spent some time with the “learn another language” app, which had english to Korean. Meghann and I also played tetris against each other to pass time. We slept off and on throughout the flight, watched some TV on the MacBook Pro, and talked. They did serve free wine and two free meals. I enjoyed the first meal, which had a salmon salad appetizer and chicken, rice and vegetable main course, but Meghann, not so much. We opted out of the second as it was late in the flight and we were both didn’t have much of an appetite. They did also bring by fresh fruit at once point, and a delicious ice cream bar!
Once we arrived at the Incheon airport (about an hour west of Seoul), we were both eager to get off the plane. I found the airport had free WiFi, so I did a Facebook check-in and update from my phone. The airport gate was very clutter-free compared to an American airport. There were no restaurants, booths, and minimal artwork. It was all very clean. We arrived at the baggage claim, which was still inside the secure area, different than any American airport I’ve been in. Once we were outside the secure area, it looked a lot more similar to an American airport with restaurants, shopping, and information booths. We met the others on the tour, and walked to a small bus that would take us to the airport.
The bus ride was very cool, as it was my first “exposure” to what things were like there on the ground. I don’t know what I was expecting, but the trees, plants, landscape, all looked very similar to something you would see in the America, similar to the midwest except with more mountains. Much of the buildings and architecture were all very similar as well. All of the road signs were in both English and Korean, which was helpful. Lots of public transportation everywhere.
I’ll write more about our room and some other experiences in my next post. Today we are touring the city of Seoul, but not before Meghann and I go for a quick run outside around our hotel area. I don’t think my text messaging or calling will work the entire time that I’m here, but we’ll be reachable by email, FaceTime, Skype, etc. I’ll be checking email, Facebook, and my blog for comments each time I’ve got a moment and there is WiFi. More to come!
