Meghan은 간다, Meghan ya no esta aqui

Arrival

oh my word, I'm in Asia!

Or, Seoul, South Korea to be more exact.

I left Thursday morning from PDX. I almost wrote "I left yesterday morning" because that's what it feels like, but in reality, it's Saturday morning here in Seoul. Anyway, it was a nice, short flight to San Francisco, and then I board there at 1:30pm to Seoul. After 12 hours of being bored, we landed in Incheon, South Korea, an hour outside of Seoul, where all the international flights fly in. My arrival at the airport was what I was most nervous about. I had to go through immigration, get my luggage, go through customs, exchange money, call my contact from a payphone, and then find the right bus to go into Seoul.

And all of it was so incredibly easy. I was picturing the airport as being loud and crowded, which would make me even more nervous, but it was so quiet, and so large that it wasn't crowded at all. The most anxiety inducing thing was that I packed so much I was worried about getting it to the bus. But the Incheon airport provides those luggage carts. FOR FREE. That's right, for free.

I boarded a "limosuine bus" for the ride into Seoul. It was only about half full, and very comfortable. I got out my ipod and listened to music while I watched the countryside pass by. Once we reached Seoul we were stuck in a ton of traffic, but we made it to the Terminal where my HR director, and the director of my school were waiting. My school's director drove me to the apartment where Stephanie and I are living, and showed me a few things before he left. Then I just got to wait around until Stephanie got back from work.

Stephanie gets off from work at 10pm, and I was thinking that it would be a half hour or so, but she came running in the door at 10:15, saying that she and the other teachers had run to the subway to catch the 10:05 train, and then ran to the apartment once she reached her stop. We talked for a long time, and then went shopping at the E-Mart, sort of Fred Meyer or Wal-Mart.

We walked the few blocks from our apartment, which is on a main thoroughfare, and the streets were crowded, even at 11pm. There were street vendors selling DVDs, sunglasses, and other various items. Also, there were more smells than I know how to categorize.

I tried to sleep last night, but only got about 4 hours of it, and I'm not sure why. I should be needing to sleep more because I only slept about an hour on the plane. But, Stephanie and I are going shopping today for some things for our apartment, and hopefully soon we'll have a power converter, so I can then charge up my computer and we can download the season premiere of the Office. Don't anybody tell me what happened.

posted by Meghan @ 6:06 PM