Before my departure from Ulsan, I had a final meal with two of my best friends (Jon and Rathi) --- we kept to tradition by having Korean BBQ and Baskin-Robbins ice cream. We all went out for coffee/tea in an effort to not think about my impending flight (they're staying for another year).
The trip from my little apartment in Eonyang to my brother's place in downtown Seattle was exhausting. Fortunately, I managed to pull through and survive though. Lugging my overweight suitcases was probably the worst part. I did minimize the amount of suitcase lugging though. One of my Korean friends (Ashley is her English name) helped me by calling a taxi directly to my apartment at 11pm last Thursday night. From there, I went straight to the bus station in downtown Ulsan. The bus trip was longer than the KTX would've been, but it dropped me off directly at Incheon Airport just outside of Seoul at around 5am. This is exactly when the very long wait began.
(This very long wait was plagued by annoying phone calls from my old main co-teacher. Before leaving Ulsan, I had asked how to pay my final gas and electric bill. Nobody seemed to know so I didn't think much about it. A few hours before leaving, she frantically calls to get me to pay via ATM transfer. "Um... my Korean bank account had already been emptied," I said. She said the school couldn't just deduct it from my final paycheck due to tax reasons. The bills were in the school's name, so it doesn't really hurt me in any way. Oh well...)
I finally boarded my place to Narita airport in Japan about seven and a half hours later. Ugh. Thankfully, there was high-speed, wireless internet throughout the terminal. The flight from Seoul to Japan wasn't too bad either. They served us these little ham and cheese sandwiches. I ordered my obligatory ginger ale, of course, and had a great conversation with an American military aviation specialist who was three times my age. He had lived in Korea and Japan for the better part of the last four decades. My wait at Narita wasn't too shabby, but the airport wasn't the best either. It was nice, but appeared to be relatively dated.
The flight from Narita was only 8 hours, but seemed to last forever. I did manage to watch Source Code starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Aside from that, my tired mind couldn't focus on anything more than the monotonous image of a tiny plane slowly traversing a miniature Pacific Ocean. The meals weren't great, but they weren't terrible either -- chicken and rice for dinner & some puffed omelet and strawberry croissant for breakfast. Occasionally, the pilot tried to fulfill the role of inflight comedian. He failed miserably. I'll give him some credit for trying though.
Arriving to 64°F (17.7°C) weather in Seattle was just the remedy I needed. It was so nice seeing Sean and driving into downtown (despite the heavy fog). Thankfully, the fog cleared up by midday. Seeing the city and diversity was refreshing. Something about it all felt so... American. It was nice a feeling after such a long absence.
PS -- Oh! I just realized something. The worst part was not dragging my luggage. It was the fact that I can't sleep in public spaces. Yeah, I was awake for at least 36+ hours.
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