Touchdown

After 26 hours straight of chasing the sun over the Pacific ocean I have touched down in the Land of the Morning Calm. I'm not big on long flights so the 14 hour stretch from Seattle to Seoul was pretty exhausting.

The good people at Asiana airlines know how to fly though. Every seat on the plane comes equipped with an LCD monitor on the headrest in front of you for your viewing pleasure. There were about 25 different channels showing Korean movies (with English subs) and also a GPS channel. The GPS channel was pretty cool- it showed flight progress on a map and other useful information such as cruising altitude, ground speed, and ETA until arrival. The food was actually really good for airline fare and you had a choice between the Western menu or Korean menu. And last but not least, free booze. Last time I checked, not taking advantage of free booze over international waters was a deportable offense. Got my first taste of Korean beer, Hite, which was less than impressive. Kind of tastes like Busch, which isn't all that bad, but is definitely on the low end of the pole in terms of quality.

Seeing the snowy mountain ranges over Japan was awesome. There were a couple of active volcanoes we flew over that were billowing smoke. It looked amazing from the air. Also flying into Seoul in the evening was like nothing I've seen before. Imagine Vegas x100 and that would begin to give you an idea of how it looks at night. Unreal. A ferry from where I'm at is just a few hours away I hear to Japan, and is definitely on my to-see list.

Fastforward to a connecting flight from Seoul to Busan and I'm touched down on my way to a hotel for the night. This isn't your typical hotel, at all. Many hotels in Korea are of the 'love motel' variety. Essentially what this is is an affordable solution for infidelity. It's not dirty or anything like what you'd imagine, but, it definitely has some quirks tailored to a couple. It was about $30 USD and actually pretty nice. The whole payment process was anonymous, you just slide the money through a small opening in an office and the clerk hands you your key. Is quick and dirty the expression I'm looking for?

Opened my Korean bank account, got a bus pass, figured out ondol heating (freaking brilliant, full post to come on this), met my English co-teachers, and just finished my first day. Much more info to come and pictures.

To be continued...