The Korean “Adventure” – Part 1

Why is adventure in quotation marks? Probably because nothing very adventurous has happened, most of it has been pretty mundane/ tortuous. Let’s start where every chronologically inclined narrative starts, at the beginning.

                     I set out early Sunday morning for good ole’ PDX. My first flight was to Seattle which means taking a puddle jumper.

After getting personal with the turbines…

…it was time to wait for four hours for my next flight. This flight lasted 12 hours. Need I say more? I will! I officially hate international flights. It’s just a practice in patience, nursing muscle cramps, and not killing your fellow passengers (however, detailed fantasies about killing your fellow travelers are accepted and expected). To give credit where it is due, it could have been worse; I could have been flying United or anyone of the American based airlines. Luckily I was with Asiana airlines where the hostesses don’t ignore you/ have physical features that might turn a normal human into stone.

Upon landing I was “picked up” at the airport by a nice Korean man. He swept me and two other new Avalon teachers (going to different campuses from mine) into a bus bound for Suiji. I say swept but in reality we had to wait two hours for the bus, then the bus ride itself took an hour. Next it was into a car where I was finally, gratefully, deposited into my love motel. Sadly this was a normal love motel and despite its romantic lighting and large bathtub it gave no other indications of being very love-y. So, no whips or mirror ceilings. Shame.

What is my first impression of Suiji Korea? It’s the ghetto. Ok ok a clean ghetto, but a ghetto none the less. I don’t know if the Koreans just haven’t mastered the idea of aesthetics or if ridiculously huge cookie cutter skyscrapers made of grey cement is the new “in” thing. It seems the only decoration is in the huge advertisement/billboards that hang on these ugly buildings.

Anyway, by the time I got to the motel I had logged in an impressive 22 hours of traveling time. I crawled into my bed, fumbling with the button things that controlled the three different types of lighting and fans my room was apparently equipped with, and dropped off into blissful sleep. I would have to go to work the next day and needed all the rest I could get.

PS. Kudos to the man who picked me up for giving me, free of charge, an American-Korean adapter, without it I would not be blogging right now.

PPS. One the way to Korea we flew over Japan. On the inflight progress screen I saw the two places in Japan I lived: Toyama and my love, Kanazawa.