Onwards! To Korea!!!

Dorval to Detroit

Today was the day of the flight. Mom, Nicki and I left home at 5:15, and picked up Mel along the way. We then arrived at the airport, got to the counter and weighed the baggage, to find that the black luggage was overweight. Problem easily solved: move the maple candies from the luggage to the on board and ditch the travel pillow. In retrospect, I could have left the travel pillow in my normal luggage, but it was early, okay??? Anyway, Mom then proceeded to exchange Canadian dollars for a giant wad of dreadfully colourful Korean money (like 3 inches thick….). After our farewells, I headed through security, which went very well, and then wandered around the airport a little. Since I had nothing better to do, I headed over to the plane 45 minutes early, which was a wise choice as I was one of the last ones on board. The plane even took-off before the leave time, which was nice.

My expectations about what coach would look like were pretty much on-par with what I experienced. This was a small aircraft, composed of two columns that were two chairs in width. So, pretty cosy… As for takeoff, I found it quite fun, like a really pleasant roller-coaster ride. On the plane, I chatted with Maria, the elderly lady I happened to be seated next to. She was visiting family in Montreal (in DDO if I am not mistaken), and I also found out that she has family in all the major Canadian cities, even though she lives in California. After a nice chat, we did our own thing: she read and I watched Xena on my PDA, and read that ridiculous modern-day Joan of Arc book. All in all, the flight went by really quickly. We then landed in Detroit at around 10:30, which is a really, really big airport (like, kilometers long, on only the “A” terminal!). Since I was feeling peckish at the time, I decided to browse the restos. After looking at some family restaurants, a place called “snapshot” and a bar & grill, I finally settled on a breakfast place. I ordered the French toast and hash browns, and as I waited for the food, I read Joe’s letter, which was very nice, by the way. Breakfast arrived quickly, and the French toast was quite good if you didn’t use the fake syrup. However, I had forgotten that the hash-browns were “a l’Americaine”, so they were less than delightful… Ah well, ya win some and ya lose some!

Detroit to Tokyo

After that, I loitered about the airport, and then found an outlet and watched more Xena. When 12:50 (boarding time) rolled around, there was an announcement that boarding would be delayed 20 minutes due to plane cleaning (hey, maybe someone threw-up or something). Then it was finally boarding time (I had been waiting a little while now…). At this point, I was much more impressed with the plane, as it was quite a bit larger and had 2 floors (rows of 3-4-3 on the ground floor). I was advised to sit in the aisle seat so that there would be a little leg room, but to my great fortune, I had the corridor to my left and an empty seat to the right. Super! Also, I was surrounded by very friendly Asian people (mostly Japanese, since we were heading to Tokyo). There was even a family with a small child. I don’t know what Japanese children are made out of, but all in all, they’re bloody quiet! Imagine that!

Anyway, the long flight was long, but not uncomfortably so. Since I had many, many sources of entertainment (like Xena, 24, FMA, two books and writing this), the ride was quite pleasant. Also, the food wasn’t half bad (although it wasn’t quite half good either), but they had Pepsi Light (which is actually just diet Pepsi, re-marketed), so that was cool. Since we were traveling with the sun, the day was really, really long (lol). But I had an abundance of food (cashew… mmmm…. Thx Mel!) and my entertainment, so it was pretty good. That pretty much sums that up. As for the last flight, it very short. I met some international students heading to other universities, but none that were going to INHA (they were American, so doing an *exchange* would be very uneconomical, as they would pay their outrageous American tuition).

Incheon International Airport

Finally, I arrived in Korea at around 10:00. I proceeded through Immigration, which was a cinch, and waited absolutely forever for my baggage to arrive. After that, I sought out the sign with my misspelled name on it (Tosag), and was welcomed to Korea by this very friendly man. He made a quick phone call and brought me to the sidewalk… thing to wait for the driver. It took all of 30 seconds or so. I will take some time now to describe the surroundings: it looks like an airport. Actually, it looks like Dorval. A lot like Dorval (except no snow). Anyway, jumped into the cab and he drove me to the University, which took about 35 minutes. En route, the taxi-van-thing driver gave Mr. Kim a call, who then asked to talk to me, and he said that we should meet at the bottom of the guest house at 11am, which gave me plenty of time to sleep. I happily agreed and bid him good night.

INHA University Guest House

Basically, the Guest House is a very nice hotel room that is right on campus with a kitchenette, a balcony and plenty of space. Below are some pictures! Anyway, I had a shower (which was heavenly), took out my pillow, hooked up the net, sent a *very* brief email and went to bed.

Here are some pics of the guest house!

*Very nice*