10/20

The first step of my journey has happened. I got on an airplane. And it was horribly hard. I sat in the airport with my mom, dad, boyfriend (Aaron) and his mom (Tracy) and sobbed as I said good bye for now. Then I took three deep breaths and walked through security. Which took up absolutely no time at all so it didn't distract me in the slightest! Then to my gate and I sat down and kept crying. Which is when a very nice man came and sat by me to ask if I was alright. He was going back to New Mexico to finalize the sale of his house so he and his wife could permanently move up the the Dakotas.

A crazy short plane jump to Denver then a speed walk through the airport to get to my gate for San Francisco. Where I chatted with a man I had just meet as the plane from rapid landed in Denver. Then 2 and a half hour flight to San Francisco. I sat next to more nice people this time a couple from Boulder, Colorado going to Monetary for a library conference and the man flies to Japan for business often so explained the international terminal to me. The plane landed 20 minuets late and I had a nice jog through the international terminal, only freaking out a tiny bit because my flight was already boarding.

It was all good of course and I sat way in the back of the plane next to a window and a really interesting man who works in Silicon Valley but grew up in India. He told me about India and how much he loves Thailand and his job and a tiny bit about his family. Very interesting, very nice man.   Then we settled in for our 12 hour flight. So far I have watch a weird movie which I think was kinda good but I'm also a bit punchy so I honestly don't know. I have listened to all of the Shins songs Aaron loaded on my I pad and am working on the Strokes. Tried to sleep for a while. I have no idea how long we have been flying or how much longer we have. I'm pretty sure we are flying over a far eastern section of Russia. And the damn TV screens keep glitching!


10/22

First day at uncle Michael's house. To finish off yesterday we landed with out event got thought the airport and finally saw a face I knew. Then Michael and I caught a train from Incheon airport to Seoul station. One of the first thing I noticed was 1: everyone wears amazing shoes, 2: I am taller than most of them! So hung out at Seoul station until our next train which would take us from Seoul to Ulsan. Had some ice cream and a green tea smoothie thing that I have no idea how I ordered. A two and a half hour train ride, on a train that was going 180 mph at one point, and we got to Ulsan. Then we got in a taxi for the 30 minuet amusement park worthy ride to Michael's. They have the coolest GPS systems. Not only do they direct you on the quickest route but they tell you when you are on radar. So that makes speed limits extremely optional 60 km/h can totally be fudged to 180 km/h that's fine. Red lights are apparently a bit optional as well. But man was it fun! Ok I was a bit punchy, at that point I'd been up for more than 24 hours.

A quick tour of the apartment a shower and finally bed. Which brings us to today. Michael works so I am alone. Happily I slept all though the night and woke up at 8:30 Seoul time. So far I have watched 3 movies and taken a bath and wished I had Internet connected. I have decided I do not like blue ray über high definition movies. Everything is to sharp and shiny. It makes me feel like I am watching reality TV and I don't like it. I like the sort of unreal effect movies have with out high definition.  

Michaels house apartment is the top floor and you can see the ocean from almost every window. He has several hundred DVDs so I can veg out for days without running out of things to watch! I am lonely right now. A bit jet lagged. But it's raining and there are lots of movies to make me laugh.

10/24

Haha Internet! I spent an hour yesterday rummaging through every stack of paper I could find in search of the freaken Internet password. But success was mine! So I finally have Internet and it is a much less lonely world.

The only exciting thing that happened yesterday was we went shopping! Oh my god... The store we went to is called home plus and it is like a super Walmart on steroids. Multiple floors which you could go up or down to on slope moving walkways that had groves to fit your cart wheels and everything you could ever want in the form of food, home decor, electronics ect.  You name I bet you could find it! I had so much fun just getting to look at everything. They had a kimchi bar with at lest 9 different types of kimchi (which I got to try at dinner at a meat bar where you go load a plate up with meat and cook it at the grill that is in the middle of your table. The best way to eat the meat was to wrap it up in a lettuce leaf with sauce, grilled onions, and garlic. Yum. The kimchi was interesting. Something I will defiantly try again but not something I immediately loved.) I could have just wandered in the grocery store for hours. Which is good because everything is in Korean so you have to walk up and down every aisle to find what you want. The signs won't tell you much if you can't read Korean.