Its been a long, eventful, and exhausting trip. I'll start at the beginning. While sitting at Pearson with my parents soaking up some together time before I had to leave, there were some loud teenagers behind us disturbing. I turned around to give them a dirty look and it was the kids from DEGRASSI!!! Jimmy, Spinner and 2 girls I didn't recognized. I'm such a nerd. I wanted to go up to them and be like "I saw you on TV today!!", but of course I'm not that nerdy.
After my first celebrity, I said a tearful goodbye to my parents and headed to American customs. The customs officer saw that I was a bit upset and asked what I was going to do in Korea. He then proceeded to give a lecture on how I have an amazing opportunity and how I have focus on what I have and not what I'm going to miss. He went on for a while completely ignoring the growing line behind me. He was the nicest customs guy I've ever met.
On my first stopover in Chicago, I met a girl named Mikala taking a similar journey as me. She was going to teach in Ulsan on the south east coast of Korea. So we decided to stick together, as we'd have to figure out how to switch airports in Seoul.
On the flight from Chicago to Seoul, I sat next to an American Korean war vet named Ronald. He was really interesting. His son is an ex-colonel in Seoul and collects information on North Korea. He was a funny guy and even suggested quieting the screaming kids with chloroform. The flight was long and crowded. Darkness followed us across the Pacific Ocean, which helped everyone sleep. For some unknown reason, sleeping of planes is very difficult for me, so unfortunately the darkness didn't help me.
We arrived at Incheon airport at 5am. We were very excited about being in Korea. It was very surreal for both of us. We caught a bus to Gimpo airport where Mikala and I had to catch domestic flights to Ulsan and Daegu. Unfortunately, it was still dark out and we couldn't see Incheon airport (which is supposed to be amazing) and the surrounding area. When we arrived at Gimpo airport, we checked our luggage and the airport employees made me open my luggage to inspect my hair products. Since I had a 7 hour wait and Mikala had a 3 hour wait, we set-up our computers on some comfy couches and had some green tea.
After the Mikala left, the rest of the rest of the time dragged on. I wandered around aimlessly until I got tired. I watched Sicko on my laptop, which helped pass the time. At 12:35 pm, I finally got on a plane to Daegu. It was the a short flight, less than an hour. The plane flew above the clouds and I got my first glimpse of the sun in a very long time.
When I arrived in Daegu, I went down a set of escalators and came upon a strange sight. A group of airport employees were gathered around and were pointing their cell phone cameras at a washroom. I thought it was some weird Korean custom until a tall man with big glasses, long hair and spiffy clothes walked out of the washroom surrounded by an entourage. Screaming ensued and then there was more screaming as he walked towards the exit and a large crowd of excited girls. I found out later that it was probably Rain, the Justin Timberlake of Korea. This was my second celebrity sighting of the trip and my introduction to life in Daegu, South Korea.
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