From Beijing to Seoul
Well, we all met back at the hotel at 4, but the bus didn't show up til 5 and was still a mile down the road so we had to walk over to him. It's always interesting crossing 8 lanes of traffic with a bunch of luggage.
Finally, getting to the bus we loaded up and got to the terminal about 6:30. Then we had to say good bye to Crystal at the immigration point since we were leaving the country and she isn't until the Fall. We will miss her dearly until then and I will be practicing my dumpling making.
Then we worked our way through security, up to the terminal and eventually onto the plane. The plane started out be 30 minutes late then was delayed on the runway for another 30 minutes. So, when we got to Seoul it would only be a 9 hour layover.
Finally, getting to the bus we loaded up and got to the terminal about 6:30. Then we had to say good bye to Crystal at the immigration point since we were leaving the country and she isn't until the Fall. We will miss her dearly until then and I will be practicing my dumpling making.
Then we worked our way through security, up to the terminal and eventually onto the plane. The plane started out be 30 minutes late then was delayed on the runway for another 30 minutes. So, when we got to Seoul it would only be a 9 hour layover.
At the Seoul Airport
I have missed Korea. You can drink the tap water without fear, there are no squatting toilets and it's much more like it is back in the states. The airport is the prime example of this, there are people of many different nationalities here and we have been hanging out in the lounge. This lounge is for those of us who have layovers more than 5 hours. Well, we landed here about 1 a.m. local time and I got really tired about 2 a.m. so I crashed until 7 a.m. I'm quite glad that I got that 5 hour nap since it should help a lot with my lack of sleeping on planes. We also have Facebook, Youtube and free internet in Korea. Just another reason for me to enjoy being back in Korea. People have been coming in from all over with a variety of destinations. The Incheon/Seoul airport is the hub for most of the travel between Asia and many other places in the world, so people are always coming and going with a variety of accents and almost all of them speak English well, so not only can I read the signs again, but I can understand the conversations of people around me. It actually feels a bit unusual after spending so long away from both. Though it is a bit relaxing to understand what is going on instead of trying to figure it out by context in body language. Well, we have 2 more hours until we leave for the states on that 14 hour and 40 minute flight.
The flight
Well, the flight was a long 12 hours and 30 minutes. I would prefer not to do any such traveling again in the near future. I slept about an hour and the was woken up with pizza. No complaints here. Then a little bit later, there was an announcement that there was a medical emergency and that they needed someone trained in the medical field. It appeared to get cleared up because when we finally hit land, we didn't stop in Seattle. I watched a few movies, read some more of China Road and ate when they offered food. Eventually, we made it back to Atlanta, officially completing our time abroad. Then we headed through customs and it was quite a simple thing. The guy at customs was very nice. He didn't ask me anything, though I suppose that is mostly because I was all smiles and telling him how happy I was to be back in the beautiful U.S.A. The drive back to Greenwood felt shorter than we expected because everyone fell asleep. Finally, were all picked up to head home.