Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

Well we’ve made it. For those of you who are curious, to move to the future all it takes is 4 flights, 12 time zone changes, 1 date line and 25 hours of flying. Honestly, the flying wasn’t nearly as bad as I had anticipated. This was probably partially due to the “I can sleep anywhere” genes I’ve inherited, thanks Dad. I managed to sleep through the entirety of 2 flights (Chtown – Tdot and Seoul-Ulsan) and the better part of the other two. Overall the entire journey was quite smooth and really didn’t feel like we had been traveling for as long as we had been.

That being said, yesterday or was it two days, were one of the most tiring and overwhelming days I’ve ever experienced. It probably didn’t help that both Jacob and I had probably only had 5 hours of sleep Friday and Saturday night combined but we got off to a shaky start. While I realize Sandy and Muddy are going to be fine actually leaving them was just about torture. Throwing up in the Toronto airport was another low point in the day. I blame the plane. I’m fairly certain that thing was small enough that it was powered by the pilot using some kind of bicycle system Pippy Longstocking style.

I never thought I’d say this but there was a point on the 12 hour flight from Vancouver to Seoul where I would have gladly stayed on the plane forever. Not because the flight was overly comfortable but because it was familiar. I knew how to get food, where the bathroom was, people spoke english and I was being taken care of. It was a way to delay the inevitable – landing in a foreign place where nothing is familiar. Like all good things though, the flight did eventually end.

My very first impression of Asia, or at least the airport, was exactly what I had expected. Efficient and germaphobic. When we stepped off the plan in Seoul we were immediately shuttled into a line to have our temperature taken and hand in our health forms. No fancy heat scans or anything, they just held the thermometer near our necks and then waved us through. Even the washrooms are more advanced, at least in the airport. The toilet seats have plastic wrapped around them that when you push a button it slides around and gives you a new section.

Luckily almost everything in the airport was in Korean and English and we found our way to customs and to our bags with no problems. We got our first taste of preferential treatment as either Canadians or caucasians, it’s hard to say which. I wasn’t asked a single question going through customs, they just stamped my visa and away I went. Jacob only had to say he was here as a tourist and they let him in with no other questions. In the Gimpo airport, my carry on luggage was searched very quickly and they even put it all back together for me with a great big smile and a thank you.

We were greeted at the Ulsan airport by Jun, the director’s assistant for ELC. The plan was to take us back to the apartment we’ll be staying in and share it with the girl I’ll be replacing for the next couple of days. That didn’t work out so insteadJun had us take a few things and head back out. So we picked up our carry-on luggage and walked to a hotel. The hotel is interesting, you can see some pictures below. There are no sheets for the bed, the towels are about the size of tea towels and the waters had already been opened. Other than that though it appears to be mostly clean and quiet. Now lets hope we can find it again later today.