We are back! Less than a month ago Jacob and I made the much delayed but exciting decision to head away for the month of April. We thought this might have been the year we had to skip our annual travels – we were away for 6 months last year – but it turns out we just couldn’t do it. Nora started her ringette career this season and so we needed to wait for that to wrap up. We wanted to do something big for this trip. It’s Charlie’s last year in elementary school and it felt like we are leaving a few hard years behind. We also didn’t have a whole lot of runway for planning. On a bit of a lark I looked up what it would take for us to go back to South Korea. When the flights worked out and we could build in some time in some Southeast Asian countries we jumped at the chance.
It’s been a number of years since we have done any significant flights. The last time we did any serious long haul travel would have been our trip to Portugal in 2020 and even that is accomplished in relatively few hours of flying. Asia is a whole other beast. We set off from home at 4am Sunday morning for the 5:20 flight. We connected in Toronto and Vancouver with just enough time in each to pee, grab a snack and get to our gate. Three flights, almost exactly 24 hours (19 of them in the air), we landed in Seoul. The kids were total champs on the flights.
We crossed the international date line on my birthday. Lucky for me that means I am just skipping my birthday this year and will just hold steady at 40 for another year. Air Canada surprised Jacob and I with champagne at some point during the flight to celebrate – the only indication that it was actually my birthday which was just perfect by me.
After getting settled in at Mr Kim’s guesthouse for the evening – the kids were introduced to Korean bathroom, shower shoes, shoe lockers and shared common spaces – we wandered around in search of some gimbap and mandu for supper. After a quick snack and a stop at the 7-11 for a strawberry sandwich and instant rice we all got some much needed sleep.
Our final destination in South Korea is Ulsan, where Jacob and I lived in 2009-10. We are on the KTX as I write this. I can’t wait to see how much has changed and what is exactly the same. We will take this afternoon and evening to adjust and hopefully hit the ground running tomorrow. The jet lag is real and we are all just keeping it together for now.
Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids 
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