Monday, June 10, 2013

Arrival.....

I know this is a tad late, but whatevs!!
I am currently experiencing some mild culture shock.  It's very difficult being in a place where I can't understand anyone.  I think it wouldn't be so bad if I didn't look like I understood what people were saying...but I digress.
When I first landed, I was so tired after the flight that I was almost apathetic about landing in Korea!  The flight was 12 hours long but I think that I slept through some of it, so it didn't seem too bad.  I (thankfully) had an aisle seat.  What's really strange when I departed is that there were a group of girls in the Tucson airport who were on the same flight to Korea as me, and some other guy not associated with them who was on the same flight as us as well.  He had a U of A sweats on and I think I heard him check in.  But I thought that was really odd.  Apparently that was the day to fly from Tucson to Incheon.  LAX has the most confusing airport I have ever been to.  There were absolutely no signs on how to get to the international terminal and I had to stop and ask three different people.  I feel bad for the ones who don't know English!!  I had to completely leave the United terminal and get on a bus/shuttle next to taxis and people being picked up and then take it to a different terminal.  Then I waited there forever so Asiana would open their check in line and after I checked in, I was starving and there were no restaurants or barely anything there.  So I ate a couple of stale bagels for my 11 pm dinner from a tiny Einstein Bagel stand.  I was going to get a turkey sandwich but it was $12!!  A total rip off for a tiny triangle snack.
When I was waiting for my driver, there was a gaggle/pack/group of girls with long lens cameras waiting and after a while, I saw them take a flurry of pictures of a group of young guys.  So I think some K-Pop group came through.  I was super tired and I took pictures out of the car on the drive to my apartment, but the drive was long because Incheon is quite far from Seoul.  I have since learned that Korean drivers love to switch lanes a lot, but off people, and honk.  And it also seems that pedestrians generally never have the right of way and scooters can drive wherever they feel like- even on sidewalk looking places.  I almost got car sick because the driver pulsed the accelerator instead of just using steady pressure.  So I would try and close my eyes so I wouldn't barf then I would take a picture out the window then close my eyes again.  I'm so classy.
I have a small apartment (which I shall post pictures of later) that is basically one long room with a tiny bathroom.  Although it is a bit larger than the one I had in London, which is saying something, but not much.  My London bathroom was so tiny it could have been on a ship and you would have expect a port hole to be in there.  You could sit on the toilet, wash your hands in the sink and wash your feet in the shower.  So when I say this one is "bigger," it might have about an extra square foot or two of space.  Silver lining: I have my own washer!!  But everything has to air dry and it's quite humid here.
However, when I first arrived to my room, it was filthy because it hadn't been cleaned.  It was pretty nasty but I knew this little old Korean lady called "grandma" was going to come clean it.  So I tried to go to take a nap but I couldn't so I would try and do something else.  When I finally fell asleep, grandma came and I had to leave for a couple of hours.  She doesn't speak a word of English but my friend says she cusses a lot.  It was nice and clean when I came back, though!!  A relief for sure.

No comments:

Post a Comment