The trip to the other side of the World (Starting at the beginning August 24, 2012)

Since my last blog, I manage to condense my life into two 50 pound bags, get on a plane and fly to South Korea. (All while I kept the tears to a minimum...lol. or at least I tried to). I have now been living in South Korea for two month and 20 days.

The trip here was long (28 hours long), but exciting as it was the first time I have traveled by myself. Luckily, the flight was divided into to parts, the first being from Toronto to San Francisco and the second being from San Francisco to Seoul.

The first portion of my flight was flown with Air Canada airlines. Not the best airline in the world but I was not flying in Cargo so I was happy. This part of the trip started with staying up and pulling an all nighter with my Mum (we watched episode after episode of Storage Wars and Pawn Stars). After weighing my bags for what seemed like the tenth hundredth time (really like the 5th or 6th), my Dad loaded them into the car and we were off to Toronto Pearson International Airport (P.S. it was only 3:45 am in Ontario when I left for the airport).   Meeting up with Kay (Short side note, Kay is my sister Kristina. She does not like me calling her Kay but I do just because it is fun and everyone else gets to call her it.) around 5:15am (Ontario Time) and heading into the airport to check my baggage all while making everyone in my family cross their fingers and toes in hopes that I was not over my baggage limit. Luckily my baggage was not over the limit of 50 lbs a bag, however we did have to pay $75 for a second bag, as Air Canada only allows one checked bag.

With ticket in hand, my bags labeled and weighed, everything became very real to me that I was leaving my family, friends, and home for a place that I had very limited knowledge on. It also became even clearer that I would have to say goodbye to my family as it is very unlikely that they would be able to visit me while I was away.

I had however come prepared for the goodbyes to my parents and sister, fully equipped with hand written cards, heart warming and thoughtful gifts that were sure to make my family burst into tears before I did.  Very proud to admit that I only let one or two tears fall while saying goodbye, but many others tried to escape while I made my way through the customs line, mainly each time I was in view of the doorway and my parents or sister started waving like the crazy people they are.  Yet, I made it through proving to myself that I can be an independent traveller (even if I had to have some little old lady explain to me what I had to do to get through customs).

After clearing customs, checking my bags and passing through security it was about 6:30, so I had about an hour until my plane started to board. This is the point that my stomach decided to make it clear to me that I needed to make my last trip to my beloved Canadian Tim Horton's for a breakfast bagel and a steeped tea with one milk and two sugars, fully knowing that I would be unable to have Tim Horton's in South Korea. I may have gone a little overboard and ordered the extra large tea, but Hey! I had already been up for 24 hours (not really sure why I thought it was a good idea to pull an all nighter before a 23 hour flight), I may have also become very amused with the moving side walks that made you feel like you were walking a light speed...lol. With tea, bagel, backpack, side pouch and little blue suitcase I found a comfortable seat outside my gate. At this point I met the first of three Micheals, that I met while travelling. Micheal #1 was also traveling to South Korea to teach english and had never traveled alone either, so we became travel buddies for the day as neither of us really knew what we where doing. Upon boarding our flight, I found out that I did indeed have a window seat and the seat beside me was empty. However the seat in front of me, was stuck in a partially reclined position, that made me have limited leg room on take off and landing (and no leg room at any other time). The view from the plane was amazing, I really enjoyed it and what would have made it even better was if Air Canada fed it passengers on 6 hour flights. Yet, to my loss they only offered one free very small cup of apple or orange juice :(.


We arrived at San Francisco at 10:15am (San Fran Time or 2pm Ontario Time) and were told that we needed to leave the gate we were at and travel across the airport to the gate on the other side. This meant that both Micheal and I had the opportunity to go outside and get some fresh air, then on to U.S customs for the second time within 10 hours. Upon, removing my cowboy boots, sweater, belt, side pouch (which is what I call my fanny bag) and emptying out my backpack, I went through the x-ray scanner, then was asked to step into the pressurized air tube (I guess I looked like trouble or something). After putting my boots, sweater, side pouch, and belt back on, I went to collect my backpack and my little blue carry on bag, only to find out that my back pack made it through with my laptop. However my little blue bag was flagged as being dangerous, and they needed me to open it in this little room, where they proceed to swab it and remove everything that was packed in it (just so you know all I had in it was some clothing, my flute, travel papers, a few gifts for people and some travel snacks). When, they finally allowed me to pack my bag again and cleared it to travel, Micheal and I were feeling a little worried as we only had 45 mins to grab a bite to eat and check in at the Flight desk (we wanted to eat as we did not know what to expect for food wise on the Singapore Airlines flight). So in our worried state we decided to check in with Singapore Airlines first then grab a bite to eat, and good thing we checked in first as we found out that our flight was delayed by about 3 hours. This allowed us plenty of time to get something to eat, make a quick call home, visit the restroom, stretch our legs, check my little blue carry on (the Singapore Airline flight representative at the check in desk thought I looked really tired and strongly suggested that I check my little carry on for free so I did not have to pull it around, so I checked it) and become bored sitting around waiting for the total of 5 hours (original stop over time 2 hours plus delay of 3 hours) to pass.

When we where finally permitted to line up to board the plane, we had started talking to a few people in line who where very friendly and helpful with regards to our overall concerns of moving to Korea. Once on board the plane, I realized that this flight with Singapore Airlines would be very very different to the Air Canada flight. As when you got to your seat, these great looking guys (I started calling them Singapore Airlines Hot Male Flight Attendants or SPAHMFA, but only in the confined of my mind) were there giving you a blanket, a little pouch (that had socks, a tooth brush, and tooth paste in it), and warm cloth for your face.  Only 15 mins after take off the SPAHMFA came around again to hand out complementary snacks, and drinks (not just apple juice ladies and gents but alcoholic drinks as well).

Oh, I guess I should mention that this is where I met Micheal #2. We were seating in the same row with an empty seat in between us. Micheal #2 was also traveling to Seoul to teach english at a private school. Micheal #2 was really nice as great to chat with, for the 13 + hour flight...however he was very concerned with trying to make his sleeping schedule work. Which only resulted in him sleeping for an hour and a half during the whole flight. I however felt like a champ, only getting 5 hours of sleep, which meant by time I go to my apartment I had only had 5 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours :(.

The food on Singapore Airlines was amazing...so yummy, and anytime you needed anything (a drink or a light snack) the SPAHMFAs were there before you could press the button to call them. :) I highly recommend Singapore Airlines to anyone, it was the best flight I have ever had in my life.

We arrived in Seoul, South Korea around 7pm, and departed our plane, only to find out that we needed to take a Airport Subway to get to the main part of the airport where customs and immigration are located. Getting through immigrations was very easy, and the immigration officers were very friendly (the one even kept telling me in his best english "Photo Pretty, Very Pretty", all while holding my passport).

So far my trip to South Korea was going great almost too wonderful, I started having a feeling that something was going to go wrong. But, I only thought it would be that my friend Micaella would not be able to meet me at the airport, I was not expecting to go down to baggage claim and only find my little blue carry on (the one that Singapore Airlines had me check) and only one of my two large checked bags. I waited and waited hoping that my bag would show up, and worrying that I would not be able to communicate that my bag was missing at the help desk, as my Korean was almost non existent at the time. Yet, once again one of the SPAHMFAs were there to save the day when they came up to me and showed me a form that was already filled out with my information for my lost bag, and they informed me that Air Canada had left my bag on the tarmac in Toronto, and Singapore Airlines were already dealing with getting it transported to South Korea at no cost to me. All they needed was a number of someone they could call to notify when my bag arrived and an address of where to drop it off. I however had no clue where they could drop it off, as at the time I thought I was going to be staying in a hotel, and I also did not have a cell phone. However, being the thoughtful planner that I am, I had printed out a list with all the contact numbers that I was given and I gave the SPAHMFA one of the lists that I printed out. I was then directed to the exit and went out to find my friend who had sent me a Facebook message saying she was running a bit late but would still be there, and the mystery person that my school sent to collect me.

The mystery person turned out to be Micheal #3 also know as Micheal Kim. He is one of the managers at Knox School where I work. A wonderfully friendly man, that does not speak a lot of English, however my friend Micaella showed up and acted as my translator. Mr. Kim told us that I would not be going to a hotel but I would in fact be travelling to my apartment, where I would meet one of the my foreign manager Evan.

Once we arrived at my apartment Micaella, showed me how to turn my water heater on, work my stove, operate my washing machine and connect to the internet. We had just started speaking to my parents when Evan stopped by to give me a short tour of the neighbourhood.

Did I mention that it was now almost 10:45 pm on Saturday August, 25, 2012 and I had officially been awake for almost 48 hours.....I was definitely not thinking clearly or even knowing where I was.  I could not really see very much of the neighbourhood as it was dark, but the first impression was that is was very very different from anywhere I had every lived before. After the short tour, Evan explained where his apartment and some of the other teacher's apartments were in relation to mine, handed me my key and instructed me to get some sleep. So after another short Facetime call to my family my trip to South Korea was over, and I got to go to sleep in the place I will call home for the next year.

Well I believe that this post is long enough for now....I will post another belated update tomorrow morning. Until then, Happy Travels.

Love Ya,

Brittaney


P.S.

My missing bag showed up the next day at night with nothing missing. However it was clear that they had opened the bag as my vacuum seal bag that was inside was no longer air tight...lol. This resulted in them being unable to close the bag...so they left me a nice note and a piece of chocolate.

Update in Progress (I did tell you it was a not so perfect record lol)

So I did warn you in my first and last post that I may not be the best person for keeping a blog. As I have never had a blog before, and I was never one to even keep a dairy or journal growing up.

With this in mind, I will apologize for not updating my blog in months, I have however been keeping a journal to make sure I do not forget anything really important. So I will use my notes and make a few posts on different things that have happened since my last post. If anyone has any questions or comments for me about anything I have written about feel free to leave a comment below or message me on Facebook.

Thanks and Happy Travels,

Brittaney