Touchdown

Well it is by far a new experience. I am in South Korea, in the city of Cheonan to be precise, in culture that I have really thought about or had much interest in…ever. This world moves so quickly and I have been thrust into the middle of it. I have been trying to catch my breath since I arrived and it is only sixteen days, later that I have the energy to put together anything to relate back home. Now that I have some time, let me back up a bit and give you a brief timeline of my arrival in South Korea.

My journey began at 6 p.m. in Nampa Idaho on September 3^rd – I was actually supposed to leave the 25^th of August, however my passport which was sent in for the proper visa did not arrive on time, in fact it did not arrive until 3:30 p.m. on the 3^rd which cut things very close – I drove to Boise to catch my plane to Portland. I was super excited to be in Portland at first, but after spending 11 hours in the baggage claim I was ready to leave. From Portland it was on to wonderful San Francisco! My plane in San Fran was supposed to leave at 12 p.m. and my plane from Portland landed at 11:15 a.m. so my plan was to run full speed from terminal to terminal, which I did, got on the plane right away, and settled into my lovely seat in Coach next to a Korean boy and an American with a tiny dog (which barked uncontrollably for almost the entire 14 hour flight). I was ready to take off for my first flight across the great Pacific! I was ready but the plane was not “just a little problem with the fuel tank ladies and gentlemen, we will take off as soon as it is fixed.” Fuel tank, what could be wrong. Nothing major I’m sure or else they wouldn’t fly right? Should take just a few minutes right? Two and half hours later we are ready to fly, the whole time waiting I am thinking of all the possibilities and the longer I thought the worse the scenario became, what I imagined as a finicky gas cap quickly became a gaping hole created by some unknown creature of the air, the longer we were on the tarmac the hotter it got and the more my air monster who eats gas tanks became a reality, I envisioned myself looking out the window shortly after take-off and seeing the beast savagely sink its shark-like teeth into the fuel tank. I became frantic but no one would believe me, the stewardess thought I had gone insane. I became wild with fear and began screaming, the plane had to be grounded in Hawaii the whole time John Lithgow is laughing at me. But to my dismay, I was not in the Twilight Zone, I was somewhere worse - a plane full of angry, sweaty people who were two hours into their flight haveing gone no where.

The plane finally landed in South Korea to my great relief, because the dog was getting super annoying, although his owner was super nice. The poor dog would just not shut up and everyone from the stewardess to the 70 year old Indian woman in front of me was getting very ticked off. I felt bad for the dogs owner because there was not much she could do, although I do have fond memories of thinking about drowning the dog in the airplane toilet. Once we got throught customs I was greeted by David Laird, which was nice because it was a familiar face in a new world. What wasn't nice was the discovery that we had about a two hour bus ride to our destination, the great city of Cheonan. We finally did get to Cheonan, though not to our dorm. We got off the bus smack in the middle of Downtown (a little note on Cheonan, it is considered out in the country by those living close to Seoul, which it may be when compared to Seoul's 10 million+ people, but Cheonan itself seems like a bustling city with amost a million people). It was a bit overwhelming because I was dead tired, it was saturday (remember i started traveling thursday) and we still had to catch a cab. Davids girlfirend, the first Korean I met in Korea, lukily was already waiting with one; we just had to find her. Once we did and exchanged greetings we were off and I quickly became aware of th fact that Korean cab drivers are like Dominican cab drivers are like African cab drivers, basically seatbelts on is the advice. Finally we arrived at Korea Nazarene University, quite the impressive outfit i must say - I will put some amzing pictures up later.

Once i finally got settled - a feat which took about an hour and a half because I had the wrong room key and had to wait for someone to come find the right one - it was about midnight. What a long journey with many delays and crises! The whole time my mentality was that of a vacationer, the fact that I am going to be here for at least a year was not sinking in. It still hasn't completely sunk in but I am thankful for a safe arrival. Just relfecting on this has exhausted me and I must conclude here but I will have another post very soon that will have more substance than just a play by play.