I have arrived safely!

After a very long flight, during which I was trapped in the window seat and couldn't get out for much of the ride. I did wander the plane a bit to make sure I didn't get deep vein thrombosis during the 12 hour flight. I conked out for about 30 minutes at the beginning of the flight, which meant that I missed the beginning of "Conviction," which I'd actually really wanted to see. However, it also meant that I completely lost track of time and thought a couple hours had passed, so quite a while later when I asked the guy sitting in the aisle what time it was, I was shocked that I'd only been on the plane for an hour and a half. However, he is also coming to Korea to teach English for Chungdahm and we're staying at the same hotel, so we were able to find everything together, which was good. (I knew he'd be sitting there. My travel agent told me).

Then I studied my training packets, then I listened to my ipod, then I studied some more, then watched the episode of "Friends" that was on the tv, then an awesome show about the ice sculpting world championships in Alaska, where the people who won made an aquarium, which included an enormous Lion Fish. Then I slept some more, then I studied some more and listened to my ipod. At that point about 4 hours had passed. Twas a slow flight.

So after I got off the plane, I immediately lost the guy I meant to go around with to find the bus to the station we needed to get to the taxi. Why? Due to the enormous crowds that went surging on the train and pushing people into the train and then dragging them in to make sure the doors didn't close on them. Then the surging crowd that all tried to get on the escalator all at once. I went through immigration, which took about 12 hours, then collected my baggage. Thank heavens they had carts and that they were free, otherwise I'd never have managed to get my stuff anywhere. The rolling suitcase plus the much shorter suitcase that gets pulled by a flimsy rope that kept tipping over as I tried to move an inch meant that I would never have made it to the bus. I stumbled upon the bus counter, bought my ticket and dragged my stuff to the bus, where guy from plane showed up right before the bus came.

So we rode the bus together past many very cool looking bridges and buildings. For some reason, I didn't realize Seoul was on the water. I'm not sure what I was doing with the map I was looking at. Then, we got off and found the cab (with the help of another cart) and went on quite the hectic drive throughout the city, which involved more cars than I've ever seen in my life, no stop signs on the side streets, even though there are 4 way stops and almost hitting many pedestrians. Also, there were several motorcycles that crossed multiple lanes of traffic without looking. On the drive I saw more cool buildings as I was attempting not to think about the multiple near death experiences I was having, but also noticed there are several Dunkin Doughnuts, Starbucks and 7-11's.

It is now 7PM in Seoul (3AM at home) and I will explore a bit tomorrow (and take some pictures to add to the blog). But for now, I'm exhausted and will study a bit more, then lie down and probably fall asleep pretty soon.