A few days ago I left for Korea. It was a weird experience leaving. The fact that I was leaving started to hit me when my parents went to bed the night before my flight. I felt a wall of nerves and anxiety as I realized I was leaving in a few short hours. So I did what I think a majority of people do when they start to feel like that, I went to the bar, with my brother, his girlfriend and some other people of course. It was just good to get my mind off of things, even if it was only for a little while. After a 45 minute nap, it was off to the airport. Ole, our families dog sat in the back with me. As we got closer to the airport, he started to cry. I'm not sure why he was doing it, maybe it was the tunnel we went through or the turns we took. I like to think he was crying because he was going to miss me. The fact that I was moving didn't hit me until I was getting in line to go on the first airplane. There was homeland security there and I could see they were looking at me, I knew they were going to call me over and I was right. The lady was very nice, but all the emotions from the day finally got to me and I started tearing up. I held it together pretty well until I got to my seat. Thankfully, I was wearing a sweatshirt so I put my hood up as I let a few tears out.
When I finally arrived in Korea, the school sent a driver to come pick me up. He didn't speak English and I felt like a jack-ass because I couldn't speak back to him in Korean. Finally I made it to my hotel room, which was...let's call it eclectic, with it's giant daisy wallpaper from the 60's, purple velvet covered chairs, shower with no shower curtain, and outlets where I couldn't plug in anything. It was okay though, because there was a bed and after traveling for over 20 hours, that's all I wanted. So I jumped on that bed, and I nearly had the wind knocked out of me because it was so hard. It didn't matter though, it was a place to sleep (even though, I didn't really sleep - thank you jet-lag). Despite my restless night, I got some rest and I was able to stretch out my very tired legs.
Side story: As soon as I got to the hotel, the first thing I did was use the restroom. Of course there were lots of buttons, so before I went I wanted to figure out the flush button. Naturally, I pressed the bidet button. This little tube descended into the bowl in a rather menacing manner (keep in mind the bathroom door was open and the toilet was in front of the door). This little tube sprayed water all over the bathroom and all into the hotel room. Thankfully, it was only water.
More stories to come this weekend about my first few days of work and embarrassments. It's hard for me to write during the week due to my long days, but you'll read about that soon.
Miss you from Korea!
