[textbook hippie man // get rest while you can]

I made it to Korea safe and sound! Actually, I made it to Korea safe and sound five days ago, but have yet to post because I'm a slacker. Also I've been busy with the whole moving thing and the sleeping at massively irregular hours. (Oh jetlag. I hate you.)

The flight was uneventful. I lucked out big time and had an empty seat next to me; fifteen hours is a long time to spend tucked into a seat like a sardine. The other woman in my row was super nice; she was visiting her daughter and son-in-law in China and we ended up talking for a lot of the flight which went a long way to keep me from freaking out too much. She also fed me, which was awesome because I left the food I'd brought with me in the car and, as it turns out, Korean Air had an all the beef you can eat menu, which, in my case, is none at all. Each seat came equipped with a personal entertainment system in the headrest, so I able to chose what movies I wanted to watch and when, which was a *godsend* on a flight this long. Plus, the flight have a bunch of movies I actually wanted to watch: Prince Caspian, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Iron Man and Indiana Jones. I also managed to doze for a few hours.

At the airport I was met by someone who put me on a bus to Ansan, a suburb of Seoul where I now live. The bus ride took two hours, which was a bitch after an hour clearing customs, fifteen hours on a plane, two hours waiting in Atlanta and a four hour drive to the airport. I only barely stayed awake, and had to keep pinching myself for the last hour. I was met in Ansan by Kim, who is the English teacher at my school, the head of administration and the principal, which was awkward. They were all dressed up for the occasion (the principal was wearing a suit) whereas I was rocking a pair of jeans, Chucks and was vaguely unwashed. I know there was nothing I could do about it - I had been traveling for over twenty four hours - but that wasn't the first impression I wanted to give. My welcome party took me out to eat - Italian, and how guilty do I feel that my first meal in Korea was pizza - and then shopping at the Korean equivalent of Wal-Mart. The shopping trip was a bit traumatic, since I was asleep on my feet at that point and people kept shoving things in my face and asking me if I needed them. While I did get the basic necessities (bedding, kitchen supplies and some food), I also ended up with some really random things such as a singular cushion and two different pairs of house slippers.

I finally made it to my apartment around midnight, where I quickly emailed my parents to let them know I was safe and then collapsed into bed.