My Trans-Pacific Adventure

Good news: I am currently safe in Busan, South Korea. Unfortunately it took me a lot longer than I thought to get here. (Sorry if this story is poorly written, but my brain is still somewhere over the Pacific ocean)

The flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo was overbooked, so they didn't have a seat for me when I checked in at the counter. So when I got to the gate I went up to ask for a seat assignment, and it turns out I had been bumped up to Business Class. Business Class, for those of you who have never been lucky enough to fly in it, is about like being in the movie Wall-E. You sit in these comfortable chairs that can lay completely flat if you want them to, and people keep bringing you food and drinks. And apparently ( I didn't find this out until later) they are the only seats on Northwest flights in the Pacific that have the individual screens. Unfortunately, with this amazing development came the news that we were going to be delayed on the runway for an indefinite amount of time. After two hours sitting on the runway, they finally fixed the problem and we were allowed to take off. So, add two hours to the already twelve hour flight. Although I can't really complain (for reasons see above discussion on Business Class).

When we finally landed in tokyo after a fourteen hour afternoon, my flight from Tokyo to Busan had already taken off. So I, along with other members of the flight to Busan as well as another flight to Hong Kong, were told we would be spending the night in Tokyo. We all gathered near the Northwest desk, and were told that we would be staying at the Radisson, and the bus would leave at 8:10. It was around 7:15 so when we found this out, so we all filed out the door to go wait for the bus. After what seemed like an eternity, the shuttle from the Radisson finally arrived. All thirty of us were slightly dismayed that this shuttle turned out to be an 8 person van. On top of that, the Radisson didn't actually have enough rooms for us to stay in. So we all trecked back to the Northwest counter, where a Japanese man in a suit proceeded to talk on a cellphone for a very long time. They finally found us another hotel, and we all filed out to meet our fullsized bus. They provided us dinner and breakfast and sent us on our way the next day. Through that entire ordeal I did manage to meet some very interesting people. One man who plays bass in the Hong Kong Symphony, Three other english teachers going to mainland China, and two other English teachers who were going to work in Busan, and had been in Korea for three or four years apiece. It was really nice to get to pick their brains a little bit and get to sleep before I finally showed up at my school.

I finally got in to Busan yesterday afternoon and was taken directly to the school where I started shadowing the person I will be replacing. Since then, my time has been occupied by wandering and waking up at 5:30 am. My appartment currently does not have internet so I am writing this from a "PC Bang" down the street. I will describe my first week in Korea soon, but for now I need to go get some lunch before I start training for real.

You found it!

That's right. This is where you'll be able to find (hopefully) frequent updates about my entire experience in the great nation of South Korea. Since I'm currently sitting in Mounds View, I don't really have any more to tell you right now. Check back soon!