flight and arrival at Incheon Int'l Airport!

Annyeonghaseyo everyone! I have made it safely to Korea and am hanging out at The Coffee Bean here in the airport until I can take a bus or taxi over to Sogang University. Right now, it is 620am ( I arrived a couple hours ago). It takes about an hour to get to the uni in Seoul from here, so I have another 1.5 hours left to hang around. Thankfully, The Coffee Bean opened around 6am. I was in dire need of some  커피 (coffee). I haven't eaten much in the last couple of days probably because of nerves of getting here. Haha, in fact, one funny moment (now) was when I was waiting at the St. Louis Int'l airport. I got through security over 2 hours early, but I didn't care. I was just glad that there were no problems (except for my goal of having one bag~~yeah, I did it with room to spare, but it was TOO heavy, so I had to buy a tiny little one at the airport to fill with some of the gifts and such or else pay $200 extra~~really???!! Seems a little excessive to me, bc what is the difference if I get 2 bags free ANYWAY, but it's alright, it all worked out.) Anyways, back to the funny story...Ok, so there I was charging my Mac and sending messages to people and checking my email, etc. After all that, I was just grooving out to some sweet K-Pop. Oh dang, that reminds me, I have to listen to Dream High, just for you and me, Destiny! <3 Ok, I digress...so I decide to maybe see what books I have or anything else I could work on or something to do/organizing things again when I happen to look over at my laptop and the time reads 752!!! Ahhhh!!!! My boarding time was 650 and the flight was to leave at 733. OH MY GOSH!!! HOW??? THIS CAN'T BE TRUE!! OH MY GOSH, I JUST MISSED MY FLIGHT!!! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!! With this, I am frantically throwing everything back into my carry-on (can't even find my headphones anymore) and am about to RUN to the check-in when I decide to double check my ticket, thinking THERE IS NOOOO WAY THIS COULD BE HAPPENING?!!! I pull it open so fast from my passport that I rip the stub off~~yes, my times WERE right~~what am I going to do???!! As I am zipping things up and putting my passport back, it crosses my mind to check my ipod because there is just NO WAY this could be happening! 


~~~~and then a BIG SIGH of relief, although my heart is still pounding out of my chest, when I see the time is still in the 6 o'clock hour. Oh, praise Jesus! I'm not even Catholic, and I wanted to a few hail marys. Needless to say, after that I ran up to the check-in to make sure it wouldn't be a problem that I ripped my ticket and gave them a good laugh at my freak-out (at least I hope I did~~gotta laugh at yourself and find the humor in those situations lol) then proceeded to sit RIGHT IN FRONT of the check-in (I was sort of far away because I can before the flight BEFORE me took off at that departure gate). 


Ok, so after that CUH-RAAAAZY mishap, I made it to ATL and then safely to Incheon Int'l Airport, where I am writing to you now while sipping a straight black iced coffee (I tried to get a frapp, but she couldn't understand what I meant when I asked if it was made with milk (I'm lactose-intolerant, for those who don't know). She gave me a confused look and thought I wanted an iced milk. Iced black coffee seemed the easiest to get across. And boy is it strong! Having not eaten much lately and the nerves still plaguing my stomach I assume, it is still hard to get down. I am trying to eat a protein bar with it to calm my stomach and give me energy for the day.)


Now a little blurb on my flight. KOREAN AIR definitely lived up to the hype from all my friends. The plane is sooo big and clean. You arrive on the plane to find the following on your seat cushion: a large blanket (one of the warmest and most comfortable ones~~I wanted to take it with me~~this was no ordinary airplane blanket) , bottle of water, headphones, slippers, toothbrush, and toothpaste. If that wasn't enough, each seat has it's own touch-screen TV filled with music, movies, news, travel information, etc. After everyone telling me about the delicious bibimbap you get on your Korean Air flight, I am sad to say that I slept right through it. I slept most of the way and probably only watched about 20 min. of a Korean movie before dosing off to sleep again. I will have to try it on my way back (as the saying goes, to avoid bad jetlag, "Rest when going West (and stay awake when going East)." Special thanks to my friend, Kourtney, for that one!) I DID wake up in time for some breakfast. My stomach was still uneasy (I did eat ginger bites I had with me and wore my SeaBands, but it still wasn't perfect), but I knew I hadn't eaten but a little bit of plantanos fritos and gallo pinto for lunch the day before, so I probably NEEDED to eat something. For breakfast I had the choice of an omelet, yogurt, & fruit or porridge, fruit, and pickled radish. OF COURSE I would try the latter! I have really been wanting to try this porridge that I always see in the K-Dramas. And YUM! This one was green tea porridge, and let me tell you, it was so good! I only wish I was more hungry to eat it all. I can't wait for my stomach to go down so I can go eat my first REAL Korean food! ^^


BUt first things, first. Here's my plan for the day: leave in a little over an hour for Sogang, check-in (pray I don't have to drag all this luggage up tons of flights of stairs~~elevator, please?), SHOWER, did I mention I want to SHOWER?? (One of the disadvantages I hate of flying~I never feel clean when I get off a flight), and then hit up the electronics store for a converter/adaptor plug to charge my electronics, get pillow/bedding for my dorm, then explore around Seoul. Busy day, but so excited! I am excited to meet other people in KIP and explore together. I saw a few (maybe 4 or 5) other gringos on the plane with me, and I couldn't help but wonder if maybe they were studying with KIP or what they were doing in Korea. It's around 72 oF (I'd better start learning how to use Celsius!) and RAINING. Too bad it's raining or else I would just leave now for Sogang. I'm debating on whether to take the airport shuttle bus, which will put me about a 10 min walk from Sogang or just take a taxi straight there. I don't have an umbrella, and I would hate to get LOST (KNOWING ME, this is the more LIKELY occurrence) and then be walking around with my suitcases, lost in the pouring rain. Orrrr, just spend a little more  money and take a taxi straight there. Here's a thing too, I'm worried I'll get the wrong taxi. For instance, in China or some of the other countries I have been to, there are different color taxis. One is the "official" color, and the others are not "registered" or something. I'm not quite sure how to explain it. Some guy, as soon as I walked out of customs, came up to me and asked me if I needed a taxi. I didn't, honestly, at that moment, but even if I did, would it have been safe/the right choice to go with that person? Anyone have any experience? Also, I know there are different kinds of taxis here in Korea, each with different prices, as some are more "luxurious." I wouldn't know the difference. Oh, but thanks for fREE WIFI (one point for Korea because I had to PAY for wifi at the USA airports)~~I will try to find this information online before I go. Looks like I will probably spend a little more and take a taxi. Ok, well, I am going to leave you here with this. I took a little video of part of the airport, but something is wrong with my batteries on my camera. I charged them fully before I left, and when I put them in, it is flashing red at me for low battery. I will have to look into this. Well, I will try to take a couple more pics on the way before my batteries die, though. Love you guys! Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to get this all out, AND I had time to kill. Off to research taxis~~~Annyeong