My Z-List Life Goes Global!!

Well, here I sit again in front of my computer, thinking about what to post about!  It's been a long 5 months since my last post so I guess I'm about due for a post or two....

Everything feels the same for this post as it does for every other post I've written; I've got plenty of things to say, the entry is all thought out in my head, and I'm in a writing mood, so this should go pretty smoothly.  However, there is one thing that is different: This blog comes to you from my new home in Changwon, South Korea!!!!

For those of you that have followed this blog for it's previous 10 entries, you will know that I lost my job towards the end of last school year.  However, what you may not know is that shortly after that happened I applied with Aclipse Recruiting for a teaching position in Asia! The application process was pretty long and drawn out, but eventually I heard back from the agency and I had a placement! This placement was with the Changwon Franchise of the Chungdahm Learning Institute, which is an English language academy that can be found all over South Korea and Japan!

With that being said, I made preparations for my departure from the wonderful United States on November 18!!!  Little did I know what all this really entailed...  I had to buy myself international health insurance, book and one-way international flight to Seoul, South Korea (the sight of the Chungdahm training facility), buy odds and ends for an apartment I had never seen, and familiarize myself with as much Korean culture as possible in just 2-3 short months!  Now, it might not seem like too much, but honestly, forking over that much money to cover the costs of all these things is quite stressful!!  Thankfully my wonderful parents, Susie and Edward, were kind enough to help fund this amazing endeavor!  I'm forever indebted to them!!!

Anyways, so in the mean time, I've been working my fingers to the bone at a local Texas establishment known as Chicken Express! This was my way of life every summer during break from college, and I thought back then that it was the greatest job on Earth.  I seriously had no worries, I was a pro at everything from buttering biscuits to frying french fries, and from making the world's best sweet tea to cupping up gallons and gallons of cole slaw a day!!!  However, this time was different..... This time I found everything that had to do with that job so tedious.  I often found the minuscule jobs so tedious that they often verged on offensive and unnecessary!  I continually bumped heads with my "superiors" over stupid things like facial hair, how I answered customers on the speakerbox, how I cleaned, and even how I washed the dishes or took out the trash.  It seemed as though every day, someone had something new to say to me about what I was doing "wrong", when actually I just wasn't doing it they way they did it!! Needless to say, I was never more happy to see this stint of that job over!!!

So now came time for my new journey to begin!

It all started the night of November 17th, when my mother, father and I left Cisco to head to Dallas/Fort Worth so I could catch my flight!  My flight was leaving DFW airport at 6:45 in the morning on the 18th, and I figured that since it was a Friday that the airport my be pretty packed, so I probably needed to be at the airport no later than 5:00!  So, my parents and I drove into the metroplex to find a place to stay for a few hours before I had to be at the airport.  Luckily we were able to find a room 7 minutes from the airport for a really reasonable price!  So, we unloaded our car and headed inside for a short nap.  By the time we found the room and got settled in, it was already midnight, this meant we only had like 4-5 hours to sleep before we had to get up again!!  GROSS, right?

So, I swear that no sooner than my head hit the pillow that my alarm was going off signaling that I was going to be spending my last hours in Texas sitting in an airport terminal.  So, we awoke, got dressed and headed for the American Airlines terminal of DFW airport!!!

Once we go to the airport, we found a place to park and unloaded all my bags.  This is when I noticed that Susie already had tears running down her face.  So, I knew this was going to be an emotional and very hard goodbye!!

We approached the ticket counter at the American Airlines terminal and I picked up my tickets and checked my 2 rather large and heavy bags straight through to Seoul!  Last time I travelled internationally, my parents were able to purchase 2 fake boarding passes and sit in the terminal with me until my flight started to board, so we figured that we would be able to do the same thing this time.  Boy were we wrong!  The lady at the ticket counter not-so-kindly informed us that boarding passes were for "ticketed passengers only!"  This immediately made Susie burst into tears!!!  Her heart was dead set on sitting at that terminal gate and holding my hand until my I boarded, but now the ticket counter lady had crushed every dream she ever had!!!

Well, with that being said, my parents and I made our way over to the security checkpoint in the airport.  We stood around for a bit checking out the line, deciding how long it would take me to get through the line, fighting back tears (at least mom and I were), and really putting off telling one another bye for a whole year!  Alas, it had to be done!  So, I hugged Susie and she buried her tear stained face into my shoulder and cried a little harder.  Then I hugged Edward, and he was pretty much emotionless!!  Hahah!  Then I went back to hugging Susie, who was now more emotionally distraught than before! Eventually I was able to pry myself away from her and get into the security check point line! It was really hard to believe that I was going to be away for a whole year!  Man, this was going to be hard!!

So, as I approached the new x-ray machine, I could see my parents getting further and further away from me!  I took off my shoes, placed them in the x-ray bucket, looked up and Susie and Edward were waving at me!  I think in this moment I got a little teary eyed....  It broke my heart for some reason and I'm not quite sure why!

Was I ready for this trip?  Should I even be going?  These are the thoughts that rushed through my head!  Can I really make it a year without seeing them?  Well, I guess there's only one way to find out! Here goes nothing!!!

So, my first leg of this new journey would take me from Dallas to Chicago for a connecting flight straight through to Seoul!  I've flown American Airlines before, so it really wasn't anything new to me.... it's just another domestic flight from one place in America to another!

Anyways, nothing too crazy happened on this flight, as far as I can remember!  It was pretty routine!!!

Once I made it to Chicago O'Hare is when all the fun began!  I picked taking the round about way to Seoul because I was told that at least 5 other people going to work for Chungdahm were going to be on that flight from Chicago....and I figured it would be a good way to meet a couple of people and hopefully not feel so alone in a foreign country.

So, I get to the Chicago airport and have to make my way to the international terminal!  Being as O'Hare is a rather large and frequently used airport, I didn't think this would be too hard of a task, but I was definitely wrong!  Maybe it was me, but I definitely do not think that there were/are any signs in the American Airlines terminal directing you towards the "international terminal".  I literally walked half way down the terminal in one direction, then got a hunch that I was going the wrong way, so I turned around and went back the other way.  After doing this 5 or 6 times, literally, I panicked, stopped to tie my shoe and saw the light!!!

To the right of me was a map of the entire airport.  It showed me where the international terminal was in relation to where I was currently squatted trying to get my shoelace unknotted and trying to avoid being trampled by the herds of travelers dashing to and fro!  This map definitely seemed like an oasis on my never ending journey through the desert know at Chicago-O'Hare!  Could it be true?  Am I really going to be able to find the International terminal before my flight for Seoul departs?

After calculating my next move, I marched forward toward the terminal in search of the Asiana Airlines ticket counter....  This meant I had to hop on an outdoor train/rail service and be carried to this different part of the airport!  I was a little worried once I hopped on the rail service, because I wasn't for sure that I was heading in the right direction.  If it was this hard to navigate myself around an American airport, how on God's green earth was I going to be able to even find the exit at Seoul Incheon Airport when everything is written in Korean characters?  I could just picture myself wandering onto the tarmac and getting tackled by an immigration officer or being ran over by and incoming international flight!!

Luckily I had hopped on the right train and was finally headed to the ever elusive international terminal!!  Anyhow, after exiting the train I found my way into the terminal and approached the Asiana Airlines ticket counter..... where standing at every kiosk was an Asian, no Americans in sight.  Maybe I was disillusioned, but for some reason I thought that there would at least be Americans working at the ticket counter!!!  Maybe that's racist and ignorant for me to say, but I was totally thinking I was going to see a few Americans!  However, I approached the next open service attendant and she asked for my "passpore"... yeah, no "T"! Then she started asking me a slew of questions that I absolutely could not decipher.... which obviously frustrated her because she kept having to repeat herself due to the fact that all she was getting from me was "Wha?"  "Huh?"  and "I'm sorry..." responses!  I'm sure she hated me!

However, I was finally able to figure out what she was saying around the second or third time she said something, and was finally able to get my ticket issued for Seoul!  Man, that was a lot of work and just think.... I have a whole year of that to look forward too!!!

After checking in, I made my way to yet another security check point, with a line stretching all the way back to Dallas!  It made me really nervous because I was really concerned that I wouldn't be able to make my flight in time!

Speaking of this security checkpoint, here is something that I absolutely DO NOT understand:  Why do they put the most unworldly and rudest people in charge of these checkpoints?  I swear that these people screamed at everyone in line in a failed attempt to make them understand what they were saying or asking!  "WHERE IS YOUR BOARDING PASS!?" "IS THERE A LAPTOP IN THIS BAG?!"  "ARE YOU WEARING A BELT?!" "SIR, PLEASE TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES?!" Don't these people know that they don't have trouble hearing, they have trouble speaking English?  I think it's hilarious because the people in line who didn't speak English would just nod their heads at these workers no matter what they are being asked!  I think it's even funnier when they got in my face and yelled at me like I didn't understand what they were asking me either!  I mean, really? Why not take some of the Asians working at the ticket counter and put them at security?  It seems like all the problems would be solved!!!  But I digress....

Finally I was able to evade the screaming, shouting, translating and frisking and find my departure gate.    I was also able to find some of the other Chungdahm employees in the crowd, and began to make friends with a few of them!!  That really helped calm my nerves....  Thank goodness for Americans, right?

After about an hour of sitting around we were finally able to board the plane!  I was rearing and ready to go.... and excited to find my seat, Seat J10!!!  The whole time I was searching for my seat I kept begging, "Please don't let me sit in between two people for 16 hours!! Please! Please! Please!"  Then, I spotted the J row.... seat 1, 2, 3 on the far right of the plane.... seats 4-8 in the middle of the plane.... and 9, 10, 11 on the left side of the plane!  10 WAS IN THE MIDDLE!!! Ugh!!  Just my luck.....

As I approached my row, I saw what appeared to be a nice looking younger man and a younger girl sitting on either side of my seat!  Maybe it wouldn't be so bad?  Maybe we would all get along really well and have a grand time flying ALL the way to Seoul!

Here's how our initial exchange goes down:

Me:  Hi, I'm seat 10!
Guy:  Oh, you're in the middle?
Me:  Yeah, lucky me, right?
Girl:  Yeah.... I suppose!
Guy: Hey, do you maybe want to switch seats with either of us so that we could sit next to each other?
Me: Sure!  I really don't want to sit in the middle anyway!
Girl: Do you want the aisle or window seat then?
Me: Well, I guess I'll take the aisle, so we don't have to shuffle as much! (Thinking the guy in the aisle seat would skooch over into the middle seat to let me sit down)
Guy:  How about you take the window seat?
Me: Ummm.... I'll just take the aisle.
Girl: No, here take my seat and I'll sit in the middle!  (she proceeds to get up and crawl to the middle seat)
Me:  Ummm.... OK?!  (now I have to squeeze past the guy and his girlfriend so that I can get to my window seat)
Me: Thanks....

So, now I'm stuck in the window seat, which is quite possibly the worst place to be right now..... besides sitting in seat 6, which is trapped right in the center of the entire plane! Anyways.... they flight attendant hands me my complimentary pillow and blanket, which sort of calms me down.  However, both of them are wrapped in some weird sort of plastic wrap, which after about 3-5 minutes of being in my possession start to make me really hot and sweaty! That's definitely not a good sign... I have 16 hours on this plane, trapped in the corner next to two love birds, and now I'm sweating!  TRAGEDY is on the horizon, for sure!

I did manage to get a small conversation out of these two before our flight departed.... They were heading to Bangkok....  That's about it! That's all the information I could muster from them! You would have thought I was a spy or something!  Oh well, who needs them, I have my iPod and my built in T.V. in the seat back in front of me to keep me company for the next 2/3 of a day I'll be on this plane!!! I can't wait see what kind of in-flight programming was in store for me!

However, before I could delve into my in-flight entertainment, the lovely couple I'm sitting next to reach over and tap my shoulder.  So, I take my headphones out of my ears and listen diligently to what they have to say...

Asshole: Hey man, I'm not sure how long it's going to be available, but there is an empty aisle seat a few rows up.  You might want to move up there once we get going so that we can have this seat to ourselves.
Bitch:  Yeah, that way we could all have more room!
Me:  Ummm... No thanks!!  I'm sandwiched in here pretty good now!  I offered to sit on the aisle when I first got here!  I'm definitely not moving now!!  Sorry!  But please, feel free to move as necessary, more room would be really nice!

Well, after this short little exchange I realize we are in the air and headed to South Korea, FINALLY!!!  But there is just one problem.... I can't find my pillow!  So, I lean forward and reach in my floor space to see if I've dropped it; it's not there!  Then I look to see if maybe it fell behind me, but it's not there either!  Then, I think that possibly it got kicked under the seats in front of us, so I bend over to see, but I have no luck there either!  That's when I realize that there is a red-ish box both in front of my under the seat and one directly under my seat.  Confused, I examine the box, seeing if it would move so I could have some leg room and maybe discover my pillow, but I don't have luck.  Come to find out it's the box that contains our life vests and our floatation devices..... and my pillow is still no where to be found! This means, I am stuck in the window seat, have no pillow, have no one to talk to, and I am now sweating more than before because I have been frantically searching for my pillow!  I give up, and finally ask the mean girl next to me if she had seen my pillow, but she said no and then went back to laying her head in her boyfriend's lap!

Where on Earth has that little pillow disappeared to?  How am I supposed to rest my head against the window without the cushion of the pillow to protect my head from slamming into the plastic wall next to me when we hit some unexpected turbulence!?

However, I am bound and determined to find this stupid pillow.... even if that means having to call the flight attendant to bring me a new one.  I search under my seat again, not there.... Ask the girl behind me if it had fallen back towards her, but she said she didn't see it!  So my pillow is officially M.I.A.! That's when I decided to just give up...  and use my jacket as a pillow and call it a day!  However, in my search for my jacket in my floorspace, or lack there of, I look over and see that the guy has one pillow under his head and his girlfriend next to me has one under her head and one in her arms!!!!  Did she just lie to me? Is she laying on or hugging my pillow?  Are you kidding me?!  At this point I'm so mad that I just decide to forget about it.... I'll find a way to get back at them at some point during this 16 hour flight!  Maybe I'll get up to go to the lavatory every 30 minutes or something?  We'll see.... I have to be sneaky!!

So, intermittently throughout the flight we are given meals on the plane... obviously because we are going to be there for 16 hours!  So, the flight attendants start making their rounds to pass out meal number one; which you had an option between a "western meal," which was some sort of a beef dish with various sides, or a "Korean" dish, which was bimbimbap that also included various sides.  Bimbimbap is a traditional Korean dish that is served with a bowl of warm white rice and a bowl of assorted vegetables and some form of meat.  I believe that this particular bimbimbap came with beef, bean sprouts, pickles, mushrooms, and about 2 other vegetables that I was/am not able to identify.  The term "bimbimbap" actually means mixed meal, so you are supposed to take the various ingredients and mix them with the rice.

Now back to my story....

The flight attendant approached our aisle and explained our meal choices and asked which we would like to partake in....  I, of course, wanted to the western meal, so I could have some familiarity, and because I wanted to hang on to western culture for just a little while longer.  So, I asked for the western meal, the girl of doom next to me ordered the Korean meal and her boyfriend asked for the western meal as well.  Then the flight attendant informs us that they only have 1 western meal left, so someone would have to switch to the Korean meal instead...

So, the guy looks over at me and says, "Honestly, I don't care, but I really don't want the Korean meal!"
So I respond, that I don't really have a preference either, so he could have the western meal and I would try the Korean dish.  I just felt like it was the most civil thing to do...in oder to avoid us having to play "Rock, Paper, Scissors" for the last American-ized food on the plane!

"Oh man, thanks a lot!  I really appreciate it!  I owe you one...  You can have the 1st choice next go round, I promise!"  he says....

Let's recap... not only has this man stolen the last western meal, but his girlfriend has stolen my pillow!! The worst part about it is neither of them are the least bit remorseful about it!  UGH!  Of course this would happen to me!

So the lady hands me my tray with the bimbimbap on it.... and this is what I see:

In this picture you can see the ingredients for bimbimbap in the big bowl in the center and the rice that is supposed to be mixed with it is to its left.   On the other side of the bowl is a small bowl of soup, which tasted like chicken noodle soup!  Directly above that is a small serving of kimchi, which is fermented cabbage and red pepper sauce.... (DEFINITELY an acquired taste)  but it is very very commonly served with every meal in Korea.  The small container next to that is some sort of sauce, but I wasn't sure what it was meant to be eaten with, so I didn't!  The long rectangular dish above the bimbimbap bowl is..... well, you know, I have no idea what that is!  It is however, in noodle form... so that's a huge no-no for me, and it definitely had some sort of seaweed sprinkles on it, which lead me to believe that it was more than likely something from the ocean.... so I deduced that it was obviously OCTOPUS in noodle form!!!! Needless to say, I did not try it!  I used up my one food adventure that day when I agreed to have the Korean dish!  I'll just have to eat those "Octopus noodles" some other time!  Anyways...the last dish on the tray is fruit!  Which is totally something I recognize and completely devoured!!!  On a more serious note... the rice was very delicious and the bimbimbap was honestly not that bad!  I kind of liked it, actually! :-) And for being airplane food, it was very high quality!

So, that was meal number #1.... a few 5-6 hours following that, we were served meal number #2!!!

This time I was woken from a slumber - against the hard plastic wall without a pillow - by being shook by the girl next to me!  "It's time to eat, again!"  she said!

So, I perk up, get excited to have something in my stomach again, and wipe some sleep crusts from my eyes!  Once again the flight attendant gives us a run down of the two options we have for our dinner selection...

Option 1: Chicken-based dish, which makes my eyes light up!  Plus various side dishes such as mixed steamed veggies, a dinner roll, butter, coffee/tea, and some fruit!

Option 2: Kimchi beef (which I'm sure is left over from the lunch courses), rice, crab salad, fruit and a dinner roll.  

Keeping in mind my ordeal earlier, I quickly answered that I would take the chicken option.  Mostly because I had been shafted before but I was also hoping that our in-flight chefs had prepared enough to go around this time.  

Flight attendant: "Chicken?"

Me: "Yes, please!"

FA: "Ok...." (starts digging in her cart for the chicken option
By this point my mouth has started to water, I can practically feel the tender breast morsel melting on my tongue....  I know, I have an unhealthy addiction to chicken, but don't judge me!
Meal Stealer: "I think I'll have the same....if there's enough this time!"
FA:  "AbsoRuteRy!!"
Meal Stealer's girlfriend: "I think I'll go with the kimchi beef..."
FA:  "Ok.... Give me just a moment pRease."

A few seconds later the flight attendant starts to hand us our trays.  Then she asks us what we would like to drink, distributes those and moves on to the next row of passengers.  Finally, I get to eat...  I'm so excited for this chicken you honestly have no idea!  Hopefully this would help brighten my day just a bit since I've been stuck beside Thing 1 and Thing 2 this entire flight!

So, I pour my drink over the cup of ice provided, open up my fork and spoon packet, and peel back the foil on my main course, excited to see a nice juicy piece of chicken staring back at me.... INSTEAD I see this......

Yeah, that's right.... It's not chicken!  It's kimchi beef and the crab salad!!!  What the hell!?  Once again I've been shafted!!!

Girlfriend:  "Wait, didn't you order the chicken?"

Me:  "Yeah, I did...."

Girlfriend: "Man, that sucks...."

Me: "Ya think?!  That's twice I haven't gotten what I wanted! This is going to be a long year!"

Meal stealer: "Hmmm.... I heard you specifically ask for the chicken!  That's what I got, see!?"

Me: "Go figure.... Thanks for rubbing it in!"  So much for that promise....huh? 

RECAP: She stole my pillow, he stole my first meal, and now he's rubbing in the fact that I didn't get what I asked for for my second meal!  This flight may end with bloodshed in row J....  I'm just saying!

The rest of the flight can't come soon enough now!  So I vow that I am going to watch a couple of movies and sleep as much as possible in order to avoid ripping someone's head off and to try to take my mind off the overwhelming feeling of hunger that I'll inevitably have by hour 14!!!

So, I turn back to my lovely in-flight entertainment where I watch "Larry Crowne" and "The Green Lantern".... both of which were just ok, but they definitely ate up 4-5 hours of flight time!!!  The entire time I'm watching these movies my seat mates, or Hitler and Mussolini, have pretty much slept.  Not only have they slept, but she has been curled up into the fetal position and her head has been in his lap with MY pillow clutched in her arms, while her feet are pressed against me under the armrest that's supposed to be separating the two of us!  This honestly can't get any better!!!

So, by hour 14 I discover that I'm starting to develop RLS....  Restless Leg Syndrome!!!  If you remember right, there are two giant red boxes under both the seat in front of me and my seat.  So, I basically have only the floorspace right in front of me to put my feet!  Thinking about how tired my legs are only makes me 100% more uncomfortable and I start to get a little squirmy in my seat!  If only I  could stand up for like 5 minutes, I know I'd be fine!  However, I can't because I'm too tall because the overhead luggage storage compartment is right above me....and I already hit my head on it when I got into my seat....  you know, as I was crawling over that lady and her boyfriend!  Now, knowing that there is nothing I can do to cure my life threatening case of RLS and squirming around for about 10-15 minutes, I start to sweat....again!!!!

By this point I can not wait any longer for this flight to be over....  So, I decide that the only way to deal with the problem is to get up and move about the cabin or sleep!  I explore my first option... Look to my left where the love birds are now entangled into one another forming a human pretzel and completely barricading the only way out!!  Ugh!  I can't handle it!  Should I wake them up?  If I do, will they be mad?  Do I care if they are mad?  What could/would they do?  All the meals have been distributed...so they can't take that away from me for a third time!  I'm just gonna go.... No, I can't!!

I'll just sleep!!!!  So, I grab my jacket/pillow, turn on my iPod, and close my eyes hoping that the next time I wake up is when I'm jostled around during landing!!!  Please Lord help me sleep....  My legs are making me crazy right now!!  Luckily... I dozed off in a matter of minutes!!!

Finally.... We reach Seoul!  So the flight attendants come around waking everyone up and asking them to fix their seats back to the upright position in preparation for landing!  I can honestly say that I've never been more happy for a plane to land in my whole entire lifetime!  I was completely elated, exhausted, excited, restless, and most importantly HUNGRY!!!

So, our flight lands and we start to unload the plane....  Before we are able to get out of our seat the LOVELY lady I've been sitting next to this whole time looks over to me and has this to say:

Girl: "Man, we're finally here!  Wait, I don't think you got up once to go the bathroom!  Wow!"

Me: "You're right, I never got up! It's not that I didn't want to, but more like I couldn't.... Welcome to Seoul!"  Then I flashed her the most sarcastic smile I could think of.... "Have a nice time in Bangkok!"

Finally I would be able to get up, walk off the plan and start continue what has already proven to be a wild and crazy adventure.  But, you know karma just had to have its way with me one final time...  As I stood up to get my bag and get the hell out of Dodge.......

 I hit my head!  Welcome to my Z-List life!!!