Getting Here

Sorry I haven't been updating. The only internet access I've had since I've been here has been on my boss' computers at work, and I didn't want to abuse that priviges by spending hours at a time online. I had assumed that the connection was not wireless, but today I figured I'd bring my laptop to work and see if I could connect. Apparently I can--there seem to be a number of wireless connections in this building that I can pirate, so this will help me out until I get internet at home.

So I made it to Korea. It was quite a trip--about 30 hours total. Dad and I left the house at 3am to get me there for my 6:00 flight. Of course, the car broke down, which he tells me only happens when he's on the way to the airport. We were already running a few minutes late, and waiting for Ryan, whom I had to wake up from a deep slumber, to come get us made it worse. I think we got to PWM around 4:30, a half hour later than I was supposed to, according to the travel agent. But I was lucky enough for my first leg to be both within the US and not full. So I made it from curbside to the gate in less than half an hour.

The PA system at my gate was out, as we all found out ten minutes before the flight left. Half the passengers were still sitting at the gate at 5:50 when someone shouted "Detroit!" and we all rushed to get in line and go through. In this rush, I left my brand new hat on the seat next to me, and left my reading glasses and my other two boarding passes on the floor near the gate entrance. I felt like I was running around with my head chopped off. Someone found the glasses and boarding passes and the stewardess gave them to me on the plane, but I've lose the hat forever. What a pissa.

The flights were okay. I have a quick two-hour flight to Detroit, and because it wasn't full, I got to move to an empty row. I had a middle seat on the 13-hour flight to Tokyo, which I was really unhappy about, but it was a four-seat row, and there was no one in the other middle seat, so it could have been worse. I slept a lot, watched a couple of the crappy movies they showed (Arctic Tale and Ratatouille--terrible), and ate a couple meals (luckily they were free).

I was only in the Tokyo airport for under an hour, so I didn't have time to look around or do anything. It was only another two hours to Busan, South Korea, where my boss Heather picked me up with her dad. She said that the girl I'm replacing wasn't going to be leaving Korea right away, so I would not be able to move into my apartment right away, and would have to stay with her for about ten days. I still haven't moved in, but I think I'm supposed to tomorrow. I'll be living right next to my boss' mom's apartment.

Living with Heather and her family has been okay. She had two kids, a girl who just entered fifth grade and who is one of my students, and a boy who is probably a couple years older. Heather's husband spends most of his time in Seoul doing business, but he came home this weekend. Heather's parents are also around a lot, and her mom cooks all the meals and does the cleaning. I'm finding it hard to be waited upon, but I'm discouraged from doing any clearing of the table or other cleaning myself.

I'll be doing some catch-up entries over the next few days.