Turbulence, yapping pups and evil flight attendants

Annyong haseyo! I realize it's taken me a long time to update you all but I'm having to use the school's computers and internet for right now so I don't have a long time to play around before classes (yes, I am already teaching!). Let me start with the trip stories.





One valuable lesson I learned: ALWAYS have a travel buddy on long flights so you have a shoulder to sleep on!! I had 3 flights total; one from Charlotte to Detroit, Detroit to Tokyo and Tokyo to Busan. I didn't have anyone sitting next to me for the first flight and thought that was a good start to the journey. I did, however, have a complete spaz sitting in front of me! I think I may have laughed out loud once because when the air turned on really high the first time he freaked out and almost jumped out of his seat to turn it off and he quickly fixed his hair. It was hilarious. That was before we even took off! I slept most of that flight which was nice but I could almost feel his spaz-tastic energy the whole time. I had a 1 or 2 hour layover in detroit and I made sure not to sit at all. There were so many people waiting for that flight so I knew it was going to be crowded. Brad, my recruiter, had told me the other foreign teacher going to my school may be on that flight with me so I was looking out for anyone that looked like an adventerous spirit/teacher type. Everytime I saw a single guy I would either think, "oh please be him" or "oh please DON'T be him!!" Ha, lame for sure. The flight was delayed a little cause they were cleaning and catering so we were all waiting there forever and there was one guy standing near me, probably 25ish and I was kinda hoping he was the other teacher haha. We started talking and joking around and he kinda calmed my nerves even though we were joking that I was probably headed to my death since everything was so uncertain! He's actually in the airforce and was headed back to Japan for another 2 years. He had a middle seat while I had an aisle seat and he kept saying he wanted to trade. Let me just tell you how much I wish I would have traded!!





The drama on the 13 1/2 hour flight was absolutely ridiculous. First of all, I sit down and there's a dog just yapping away somewhere close...of COURSE they are sitting right behind me with the dog UNDER my seat! And then, to top it off, none other than the spaz comes to sit in the seat beside me. It's comical now but not so much right then. When we finally took off (late), the dog lady takes out the dog and put it on her lap. Well everyone around them is thankful because the dog stopped barking and is happy...until the really really awful flight attendants freaked out and start this huge, 12 hours long fight. Lectures were involved, fingers in faces, tears (on not only the lady's part but a flight attendant too!!), and unity among passengers who thought this was all ridiculous. We all preferred she keep the dog on her lap instead of a loud annoying barking!! On top of that situation WE DIDN'T HAVE A MOVIE!! Our screen was broken!! The front and the back of the plane had movies, TV shows, etc...but not us. Anytime the FAs (flight attendants from here on out) were serving anything they would either be rolling their eyes at people, basically yelling at people, and just very obviously irritated and seriously just mean. There was one nice FA who was on the dog lady's side and that got her in trouble!! She was yelled at by the head FA and was the one who ended up in tears. So of course we had the head FA visit our section and lecture the dog lady (she wasn't the first to lecture her...poor lady was crying:-/) and instead of talking quietly and only involving the two ladies with the dog, she is talking SO loud and kept pushing on my seat!! I was actually sleeping soundly until she came around. But my nice little row (the spaz guy was really nice when he was talking, then there was a Thai lady and her American husband going back to Thailand to visit family. The spaz was going to Vietnam to visit family) and the row behind us complained a lot to her because of that plus the movie thing so we got free drinks:-) Actually, we demanded free drinks. Anyways, it got a little better but I did tell my air force buddy that he can absolutely have my seat if he wanted it about halfway through the flight! I also got a $50 travel coupon because of our lack of entertainment situation! Sweet. Can't wait to go to Cambodia for $50 cheaper:-) There were so many things the FAs did that I would tell you about but it would take too long. Just know, they were MEAN!





Wellll I was so relieved when the long flight was over. I was getting so bored even though so much was going on! We got in late and I was concerned that I may not make my Busan flight since I had to go through mini customs in Japan. I went through as quickly as possible and made it in enough time, even though they were gonna leave early! I began to scan the passengers for Joseph again (fellow teacher) but was so tired, nothing really mattered but getting on the plane and sleeping again! They served sushi that was shaped like an ice cream cone for dinner and I thought that was pretty awesome. I could not keep my eyes open for that flight and was hoping I would be awake enough to attempt to communicate with "Chally" (wasn't sure who he was at the time but I knew, whoever he was, he was meeting me at the airport!). We go to Busan and had to take a bus to the terminal and it was so cold!! After going through a customs-type thing and an xray I was finally at baggage claim and once I started collecting my huge suitcases I had a lot of Korean eyes on me. I know they were thinking, ohhh no, another stupid American moving in! Haha! But then the guy I was pretty sure was Joseph came up to me and asked if I was the awesome, popular, amazing, Erica Jane. Ok, he didn't ask it that way exactly but I understood what he meant. We got all our stuff and found the "Way out" (not the exit, it's the "way out" here hehe). We found Chally, who is actually CHARLIE HAH! I guess he didn't know how to spell his American name. He and his wife were waiting for us with signs and when they saw all our bags they said, "oh...ohhh." And we had to call a taxi for Joseph and Charlie! His wife and I went in their car (which is INCREDIBLE, as is basically everything in Korea). We couldn't say much to either of them but his wife speaks NO English but wanted to talk to me so I got out my Korean book and was able to say a few things to her. We connected:-) She's my Korean mother! She took me to my "one room" which is what they call our apartments.

Ok, that's basically the end of the TRAVEL part of the first week so I am going to post this and go teach my kindergarten class! There are so many more stories to come and I cannot wait to tell them!!

~Teacher Jane~