My recent travels...part uno

Oh dear me...I am tired...no, exhausted is a better word. And my butt is numb from too much sitting in one place. So, kiddoes, I'm in Seoul (well, in a suburb of it anyways), and it's almost 2am...tomorrow for those of you in the USofA...Haha! I'm in the future, and it's very odd to think of it. I know, I know, I'm not really in a future time stream, but whatever, it's fun to say, and you can't stop me. Especially when I'm this craccked out...

So, I'll begin from my Austin leavetaking...

Lau and Anthony were my lovely friends (thank you!) who escorted me to the aeropuerto at 6am...I don't think Anthony should drive that early in the AM again...but it was a fun start...we missed the exit for 290/71 (Anthony, again, why did we go that way again?), and then got pulled over for speeding on the service road to Stassney. The cop was actually quite nice, i.e. no glaring bitterly or flashing a Mag-lite in your face or having a back-up cop car to make sure we wouldn't become a safety issue, etc. You get the idea. So, Anthony gets his citation, and we're off towards the aeropuerto once more. It's about 6:20ish or so by then, and Lau muses, "I sure hope you can get your luggage checked in since you're gonna miss the 1-hour-before-your-flight deadline." To which, I start to worry, but only a little since hey, i've already missed the whole damn flight once, so i know i'll live through it if it happens again. Anyhoo, Anthony drops us off at the curb, and Lau and I wander inside the pretty, new ABIA. I gotta say, ABIA is new, so it's pretty in that shiny new kind of way. Not necessarily better, but I haven't really memorized the layout of the different airports yet. I'm just observing since I got to layover in 3 different cities on the way to Seoul, so I noticed the differences in newness by using the restrooms at each airport. My restroom gauge? Well, I did think it awfully smart that the airports in Tokyo and Incheon had separate little vanity stations where women can put down their bag and have a big mirror only to 'freshen up', as they say. The stalls were strange to me in that instead of the usual space above and below, the stall walls are complete. They're tiny rooms with toilets. I have to give the higher score to the restrooms in the USofA in that aspect. The room thing might be good for privacy, I guess, but then the smells tend to hover more. I think I'll get off this subject now...so where was I? Oh yes, so my layover in St. Paul/Minneapolis was TERRIBLE. We passengers file into the plane as usual, and then this man with a large family asks me if I would mind moving to a different seat since my window seat was in the same row as his family's seats and he wanted to keep them all together. So I move, not minding much at the time since hey, the flight to Seattle isn't that long. The airplane decides at that point to throw some kind of fit, and so we all wait for around an hour or so before actually taking off. ACK! Screaming kids behind me the whole way. Joy of joys. I'd already imagined this whole scenario where I would be forced to catch another flight, but when I get to Seattle, it turns out alright. I didn't get to rest for a little bit, though, cuz my connecting flight was waiting for me. Hop off one plane and get on another. Not much to say about the long leg of the flight. I did learn that instead of going straight to Seoul (like my intinerary said), I would have another layover in Tokyo before going on to Seoul. So, yes, long flight. I watched "Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou", which I actually liked more than I expected. Very Wes Anderson, of course. And I played a lot of 'Bejeweled'...got to level 6 at one point, hells yeah! :-p I do think the airplane food is somewhat better than the last time I tried their fare. So that was good.

And I get to Tokyo/Narita International. I have a 2 hour layover there, so I decide to amuse myself somehow. Tried using the internet, and that didn't work. So I exchanged some dolares for some yen and bought a phone card. I was dialing my Austinite buddies, when I realized that it was around 3 or 4am and wasn't such a good idea. Oh well. :) So I get on my last plane to Seoul for a 2 hour flight during which I played more 'Bejeweled'. I was also served a meal, which was unexpected. Sushi and green tea...yum! And we get to Seoul at last!

I grabbed my luggage after going through customs/immigration, and exchange more dolares for won, this time. I'm wondering how I'm supposed to meet with my uncle, but that didn't turn out to be a worry. My aunt was smart and printed out a welcome sign for me. I got to re-meet my uncle (I met him once before it seems) and his wife and a cousin I didn't know existed. I think she's around 8 years old. But I could be terribly wrong. She's cute and hasn't learned to not be shy around me yet. We'll see if that changes soon. My aunt is a really nice lady...She chattered at me most of the way to the car, and I smiled and nodded a lot. I dozed off in the car and woke up when we stopped at this late night restaurant near their apartment. My uncle hadn't eaten dinner apparently. The food was gooood. Spicy and fresh, and I'm gonna miss it when I return to the States. *anticipatory sigh*

So, I'm finally in the apartment, and staying up typing when I should be asleep. So good night/morning to you all...miss you and love you!

*huggles* from the bannana