Seoul Incheon Airport

I thought I would add some photos on here of my 12 hour vacation in Seoul's lovely airport. I'm not being sarcastic, this is a really nice airport to spend 12 hours in. They have a nice lounge area upstairs that I highly reccomend, it's dimly lit and a nice place to chill out and relax in for a while. Korean money is hard to wrap your head around when you have a nasty cold though, it's in 1,000 denominations so when someone is like "6,000 won please" you're like "Holy crap!" then you realize that's about 6 bucks. Thankfully Singapore's money is called a dollar.

This was the first sight I had when I entered the airport in Seoul at about 3:30am Korean time.

This was the plane that took me from Canada.

This is a doohickey that makes electronic water noises so no one can hear the ladies making poop.

In true Whitey (Or Kingstonian) fashion I ate me some fried chicken. It wasn't as salty as ours is.

Starbucks in Korean! (Of course I'd find one ASAP, it's me!)

This is the gate where my plane to Singapore will be.

Korea!

As I write this I am tucked away in a dark corner of the airport in Seoul, South Korea. I am on a 12 hours stop over between Toronto and Singapore. It was a 14 hour flight but it wasn't too bad. I had a window seat and the seat between myself and another lady who was alone was empty so we had some space to stretch out and spread our stuff.

When I went to the airport in Toronto to check in they stopped me and I had to sign a waiver that if the Singapore customs people send me back to Canada when I get there I won't hold Korean Air responsible because I don't have a return flight booked and they might not beleive my work contract and documents. So that was an exciting way to start my trip! I'm hoping that it doesn't happen and I think I should be ok.

I've got a nasty cold right now so I spent the flight sneezing and blowing my nose which surely made the other passengers happy. I ate a lot of Halls and used up a pack and a half of Kleenex. Luckily I was able to use the cold medicine pills I brought and they knocked me out so I got about 8 hours of sleep on the plane. I also watched the King's Speech and ate Bibibibop and Rice and Green Tea Porridge which were both actually quite good.

I might be hooking up with my friend Laura while I'm in Seoul, I'm not sure yet if we will be able to or not. I also don't know if I will be able to find a place where I can plug my laptop in so I'm trying to conserve precious battery power. At least the wireless here works, because the wireless in Toronto didn't on my laptop for some reason.

Right now I'm waiting until the stores all open so I can buy a phone card and call Ben and get something to eat. Hey, maybe I'll be luck and there will be a Starbucks somewhere...

Leaving on a Jetplane

Tonight is my flight to Singapore. Well, technically to South Korea first. I am leaving Pearson tonight at 11:50pm and arriving in Seoul at 3:30am Sunday morning their time. My flight is KE0074.

I have weighed all my bags and made sure that my bags don't weigh too much. I also have a raging cold, so that sucks the big one. I'm hoping I can take some cold medication and sleep through the flight.

St, Hilda's

Today my Dad and I packed up the few remnants of my life into the back of his car and bid farewell to Kingston. It was incredibly hard to say goodbye to everyone, especially Ben, and know that it might be a very long time before I'm back in the Limestone city. At the very least I know that I will be a very different person when I get back.

Tomorrow night is my flight, it's going to be an epic 14 hour journey just to get to Korea. I've got my suitcases packed and my carryon almost all sorted out. It's weird to see your life condensed into two suitcases.

I got an e-mail yesterday that I am going to be teaching at St. Hilda's Anglican Secondary School. This worries me a little, I won't lie. I am no Anglican.

I don't have anything against them, I just didn't think that teaching with the Ministry of Education would involve religion. I e-mailed the resource person who is an overseas teacher and asked him about it, he assures me that it will be a diverse school with many religions and that the Anglican part is mostly a historical thing.

Flight!

Today I finally got my flight information, I am leaving Toronto at 11:50 on March the 4th, flying directly to  Korea. I am going to be flying for about 15 hours. I get in to Korea (Seoul) at 3:30am on Sunday the 6th their time and I have a 12 hours lay over. My friend Laura is living in Seoul right now so I am hoping to connect with her so that I can visit her while I'm in between. Then I have a 6 hour flight from Seoul to Singapore.

Things are getting pretty stressful with trying to get ready in time and deal with the emotional impact of leaving everyone behind and especially saying goodbye to Alfie. 

Hotel

I am starting to get excited. Still scared and stuff, but also excited. My finalized departure date is March 4th, the Ministry is supposed to send me my departure information in the next few days. They sent me the information on my hotel when I first get there, the website looks pretty cool and I've looked at the map and it should be easy to go to the Botanic Gardens and lots of cool food markets from there. Also, it is near a SingTel phone dealer which is good because one of the first things I want to do when I get there is to get an iPhone so that I can call home and such.

Saying Goodbye

This weekend I turned 24. I spent my birthday in Windsor saying goodbye to a huge portion of my Canadian friends who I know I won't see again for quite some time. It was very hard and probably the hardest of all of the preparations that I had to make to leave for Singapore. I know that I'm not leaving them forever but it is still incredibly hard to say "See you in like, I dunno, a year or something?" to people who are like your family. I don't want to think about what it will be like to actually say goodbye to my family...