25 Hours to Korea

A fountain and sculpture just down the street from my hotel in Changwon.

     My travels over the last two days have taken me across the world, and they're not over yet...
     My journey started in Austin where I have been living for the past few years.  My flight was to depart at 8:25pm, which felt quite odd as it is very likely the first time I have ever boarded my initial plane of a trip in the evening.  It always seems that leaving on a plane should be an affair for the bright and early hours.
     The flight to L.A. was pleasant enough.  I passed the time reading on my nook and practicing my Korean alphabet (Hangul).  I only know a few words in Korean, but I'm getting mediocre with the alphabet, and feel confident that in an immersion environment I will pick it up quickly.  I had plenty of time during my four hour layover at LAX to study, but I was too tired to do much of anything.  Once I got to the gate, I mostly focused on not falling asleep, thereby assuring that I would not foolishly miss my flight.  There would be plenty of opportunity for 'sleep' on the flight to Beijing.  For a short time I was entertained by people watching as an older Chinese man tried to get his seat back from a middle aged Mexican lady.  After the old man tried to recruit the airport employees to help him (with no luck) the whole thing ended with the two people cursing each other in their own funny accents, in English.
     The eleven some odd hours it took to fly from LA to Beijing was actually not the worst experience in my life.  On these long haul international flights, they always have on-demand movies.  I managed to watch all of The Hunger Games and Wrath of the Titans and almost half of The Lorax before crashing out.  I wasn't running a timer, but I would guess that I slept about half the flight, in a small cat nap here or there.  Towards the end of the flight I was happy to strike up a conversation with a nice older Chinese man that I happened to be sitting next to.  We talked about all sorts of things: China, Korea, America, Economics, Women... The one subject I didn't want to bring up was the little tiff he was involved in at LAX.  Yes, it was the same old Chinese man.
     Once I arrived in Beijing, I was somewhat rested and ready to get to Korea.  We arrived just in time to see the sunrise, and I found it nice, as I watched the sun set in Texas.  I had just enough of a lay over to sit at a cafe in the Beijing Airport and drink a coffee while the sun came up in front of me.  Then it was time to board.  Up until this point there had been no real traveling issues.  And not to say that this was a huge deal, but we left the gate late, and then waited on the tarmac for 45 minutes in line to take off.  Once we got in the air though, the flight was amazing.  As it was daytime for this flight, there was plenty to see out the window, and I was in the window seat.  By the way, the urban sprawl of Beijing makes the urban sprawl of Houston look like the Urban sprawl of Waco.  That city seems to go on forever.
     As we approached Busan, I couldn't help but grin like an idiot.  This place is gorgeous.  There is amazing topography.  There were hundreds of ships coming in and out of port.  The sea is spotted with some of the coolest islands I've ever seen.  The city seems to melt into the green land that surrounds and penetrates it.  Any apprehensions I had melted in that moment.  I made it, and it was beautiful.
     For being the second biggest city in Korea, and one of the largest ports for the region, the airport in Busan is..... a little bit lacking.  There is nothing wrong with it, but it is definitely smaller than I was expecting.  We deplaned onto the tarmac via some 'Bluth Stairs' and were bused to the terminal.  During the process of getting through immigration, I managed to spot the other Teacher that arrived on my plane. Christopher and I managed to get all our luggage (a small miracle) and exchange all our nice green American money to nice colorful Korean money.  Thanks to the amazing people at Footprints Recruiting, we had a driver waiting for us as we walked towards the exit.  I would like to take a moment to fully endorse and brag on the people at Footprints because they have been nothing but amazing throughout the entire process of getting me to Korea.  If you're interested in teaching English abroad, you owe it to yourself to talk to them.  I digress...
     After a short trip to Changwon we found our hotel (also set up through Footprints) and finally had a chance to really rest for a minute.  We elected to get a room together, both to save a few bucks and to hang out a little.  After a much needed shower, we decided to explore the town a little.  After walking well out of the hotel district and back, we decided that this was a very cool and beautiful city, and that we ought to stop into a cafe.  We sipped our tea and had a good chat.  We went to a local foodery and shared a meal that was fried up right in front of us.  We bowled a couple of games at a bowling alley (I got an 85 and 127 and won both times BTW, NBD).  We went to an arcade and played Time Crisis until our coinage ran out.  We did all this, had a good time, and decided that we needed to study more Korean.
     We are now waiting to meet two other teachers that are slated to arrive this evening.  We aren't planning a very late night because we have a long day of orientation and traveling to our perspective towns tomorrow.  I'm excited for tomorrow.  I can't wait to see my town.  I can't wait to see my apartment.  I can't wait.