Time Travelers

(Pictures will be posted at a later date)

Leaving home was very difficult. I was saying good-bye to my home, my family, and my pets as well as my familiar pattern and way of doing my everyday life. I was saying good-bye to more things than I could know at that time.

We got up really early, and we had a quick shower and breakfast. I wanted to be able to have time to say good-bye and get ready. We were waking up from literally an hour nap. We were up packing and sorting and worrying the night before.  I have to admit that leaving my family has always been difficult for me. People wouldn’t think so because I am always the one to sign up for the adventures that take me away from home and away from communication. But I really hate leaving them, and I really hate not being able to see them. Leaving for a year was going to hurt. And mostly because I have no sense of time and cannot wrap my mind around how long or short a year actually is.

My doggies were together on  the floor in the living room when I was ready to leave. I knelt down next to them murmuring their names. Jackie and Riley both gave me happy wags and leaned into the feel of my hands running the length of their bodies. I wanted to hold onto them forever, I wanted to better explain what was happening, I wanted to not leave the most right at that moment.

I am so scared that my good-bye to Jackie will be my last. She’s my best friend and I still don’t feel like I’ve thanked her enough for all she’s does for me, for all she’s done. Riley and I lived together in Tallahassee and it breaks my heart to leave him for a year. We bonded so well that I hate leaving him for the weekend let alone for this long. Lucky for me my dog and father are sneaks and cheats, and have managed to find themselves very close. I am so jealous and yet completely reassured by this development.

Walking out of the house I knew I would be back for my doggies and did my best not to look at them while they watched me leave. My family has tried to reassure me that I will be able to see my dogs over Skype, but they can’t visually recognize me through the screen nor can they hear me seeing as how they are both going deaf. I miss them so much already.

Our goodbyes, going through security, and getting on the plane happened so fast. It seems a blur looking back at it. I slept the majority of the first two flights and part of the long one. My eyes ached from the crying I had done. My mind strained to imprint the faces of my family so I wouldn’t miss them so much.

The long plane ride we had over the Pacific was almost 11 and a half hours. We each had our own screens on the seat in front of us. We had free socks and tooth brushes! The food was phenomenal and we had two full meals. The first one that I had was a fried rice dish with beef and kimchi. It came with bread and cheese and dessert., to say the least I was very impressed. The second meal that we had was the Indian food. I couldn’t tell you exactly what we ate but it had peas and curry, it was served on a bed of rice, and was again delicious!

I struggled to sit still for so long. I switched seats with Sean and managed to sleep for a little bit. I watched the movie “How to Train Your Dragon” which is one of my favorite movies ever =] I watched episodes from the Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, and the New Girl. I also managed tot each myself how to count from zero to twenty in Korean!  This was a great accomplishment for me. Believe it or not I found that part of their music selection included Adele… Let’s not lie I listened to that a couple times. It was not as rewarding because I couldn’t belt it out loud but it was still really good to hear something familiar.

Getting off the plane in Seoul was as much a relief as it was nerve wrecking. We had been on the plane for over 11 hours and we were ready to stretch our legs but I was not quite sure if taking on everything new was worth the room to move.

We left the plane taking with us of course the free pillow and blanket. We walked up the gangplank and… into an airport. It looked just like an airport, like all the airports I had been to. The only difference was the language and the people. The signs had some English on them and we were able to get onto the train and off at the baggage claim.

As aforementioned things going from West to East seem to be free or free-er. Another example is the cart we acquired to help carry all of our luggage. Besides being poorly designed it was just like the carts we use in the States but this time it was free!  We balanced our luggage on the cart and had a momentary celebration that everything we brought made it to its final destination.

Our next little stop would be to buy bus tickets to get from Incheon to Jeonju. We found a little information desk, the woman spoke some English and she told us where we wanted to go and where to get the tickets for it. While Sean waited in line I ran over to use the bathroom. I was for some reason mildly shocked that the bathroom looked normal. I don’t know what I was expecting! But I do not think it was for everything to look normal.

I made it back to Sean just as he was ready to buy the tickets. We got our tickets and had maybe fifteen minutes to spare before the bus left. I made my way over to a pay phone and finally figured out how to use it. It looked like the pay phone I had used in the States but did not act like one. I feel like this one was more expensive as well -___-

I called both the recruiter and the girl who would be meeting us at the Jeonju bus stop. They both were excited that we had made it with no hiccups and that we were going to be on our way soon. We left the pay phones and went out to where our bus was already waiting. We showed our tickets to the guy and he seemed to agree that we were in the right place by pointing to the underbelly of the bus. This was another difference from America, the drivers are usually kind of enough to help you/ they want you to tip them well so they help you. This guy just stood there… Thanks bud.

The first half of the bus ride went by in a hurry. We got on the bus, there was once again no ability to get any Wifi to communicate with my family back home and I felt a twinge of sorrow. I did what I could to shake it and started to look around me. The bus was leaving the airport and everything looked so normal but not quite the same all at once. There were so many Koreans and nobody else.

The bus had a television that played loud enough for the whole bus to hear. This was unfortunate because of what was playing on the TV. Some sort of Korean Sister Show to American Idol/ America’s Got Talent was playing. I thought it was amusing at first and then quickly became annoyed with it. None of them could sing! Some of the contestants could not even carry a proper tune!

Keep in mind that it was still light out at this time and we did direct our attention intermittently from the television to what was outside. We passed over a number of suspension bridges, and saw many cabled decorative upraised walkways and building tops. We saw a few areas with numerous high rises but they looked funny. It did not take me long to realize that the reason they looked funny was because they all looked the same. The buildings seem to vary slightly which was a different feel completely then any city skyline in the United States.

Another odd thing  was their cell phone towers. They seemed to have wanted to disguise them instead of having them stand there. They were all much shorter than our towers, not as shiny, and were a dark metal. The towers each had two layers of “branches” protruding from its sides… I believe they were trying to blend them in but I’ll have you know there was no fooling me =]

I did my best to look around and see what we were passing but sleep soon overcame me. I once again delved into a deep catnap. The bus switching off and everyone getting off for the break woke me quite suddenly. The bus driver was out the door and headed towards the rest area by the time we had stood up out of our seats. We had no idea how long we had to find food and restrooms or even where we were suppose to go. Frustrated we headed towards the main building and found what we were looking for.

Nothing was in English. Pictures and Korean names represented all the foods; nothing looked familiar and nothing sounded appetizing. Sean quickly chose a dish as I agonized over my food choice. I eventually picked something with a name too long to remember that looked vaguely like what I had eaten at the Korean restaurant in Tallahassee. It was a bit of a cop out but I couldn’t help it!

We got our food and began eating. Sean wolfed down what he wanted and then went in search of bottled water. I sat with my food in front of me struggling with the chopsticks. I know how to use chopsticks but I am no pro. Not to mention that the chopsticks I am use to are round where as these chopsticks are flat. Flat! I had the hardest time trying to restrain my rice noodles and bring them up to my mouth.

I was intimidated by all the people, the different food, and the lost feeling of knowing I could probably not get back to the bus on my own without directions. I must of looked pretty sorry because the ladies behind the counter came up to me with a fork and an encouraging smile. Smiling back I felt like crying, what a nice gesture.

It was a good thing that she was so nice because within 2 minutes of her being really thoughtful our bus driver showed up in a total huff. He was blabbing away in Korean about how the whole bus was waiting for us, we were suppose to be back, blah blah blah. This guy was so rude. He didn’t even tell us when to be back on the bus and we had not even been off the bus for 30 minutes! What a jerk. No worries, I did not let him phase me! We politely apologized and then apologized to our bus as we got on. The bus driver was the only one who seemed even remotely bent out of shape.

I watched a little more on the Korean T.V. and then went back to sleep for the duration of the bus ride. We got off safely at the Core Hotel in Jeonju and immediately found Liz, and her friend Marsha. We all made our quick introductions and then they noticed how much stuff we had with us… They were pretty surprised we had been allowed to bring so much with us.

It took two cabs to get us and all the stuff over to where we live. It was at this point in the night we found out we live on the third floor of a building with no elevator. Does this sound familiar to anyone? It seems to be a reoccurring pattern in my life. We all pitched in and got it upstairs pretty quick. Liz and Marsha left us to our rooms and we were going to meet up the next night.

First things first I found the sheets to the bed and how to work the A/C. We had enough pillows and enough sheets to make a complete bed. It was almost midnight by the time we had finished putting the sheets on the bed and I knew that it was time for us to retire. Sean was beat from not having slept most of the day but I still wanted to be up for just awhile longer.

Taking a quick shot of Nyquil and settling down with my book “Eat, Pray, Love”. I got in some good reading but it really wasn’t all too long before my eyes started to close. I couldn’t believe we had actually made it! The excitement was the last thing I thought of as sleep claimed me.