EPTAfter being extremely nervous for a few days, the day finally came for me to head out to Seoul and start the study abroad experience. This of course was about to consist of a 12-hour flight from Chicago to Tokyo, a 2-hour layover in Tokyo, and then another 3-hour flight into Seoul. Long day eh? Well, it's not so bad when you have FANCY SEATS!!
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Yes, my friends, that is a business class label. Using the 50,000 frequent flyer miles my dad gave me (thanks
) I was able to get business class over to Seoul. This didn't stop the attendant at the American Airlines counter from being pissed off that my name on my passport isn't exactly the same as my ticket, and that any TSA agent "would have every right" to consider me dangerous and search me because of it. Luckily, that didn't happen. After a sad goodbye to my mom and Katie, I jumped right through security in the priority access line (which basically meant I waited behind 2 people instead of 200, as you all know how O'Hare can be) and got right into the terminal. This is where the fun begins.Being a fancy person, I got into the Admirals Club, and the drinking begins! Here's the meal I ended up purchasing in there, and a few other pictures to boot.
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After the first Captain/Coke I was feeling a bit better. The sandwich and soup needed some work..but that's the airport for you. Once I left and got over to my gate, I really noticed how big the Boeing 777 is, especially compared to domestic planes.
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Looks like that thing could house all of us about 8 times over, but I was the first to get on (fancy class will do that!) The flight attendant offered to take a picture of me in my awesome seat, and here was the end result.
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The seat had all sorts of controls to change the leg rest, foot rest, back height and angle, etc.
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This made the trip immensely better by itself, being able to lie down while watching movies. Since I've been discussing flights with people, it seems like every airline had The Avengers as a movie on demand, which I found funny. I ended up sitting next to an older guy who seemed like he had seen a few too many international flights, and promptly fell asleep after his 4th glass of free wine, and bitched about every meal we got, which I will now show you!
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This was the "Appetizer". A pretty good salad with some teriyaki beef and baby corn. By the way, yes, those are two separate alcoholic drinks at 1:30PM, bringing me to three for the day. It was pretty good even though I had just eaten.
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Even though I wanted the fish, I didn't want to spend the trip sick. I ended up getting this chicken with purple mashed potatoes (someone please explain this...) and corn. It was alright...not the greatest thing I've ever eaten, but better than the crap in coach that I saw. That's also the third different wine I tasted on the flight. Free is the best price!
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Easily the best part of the flight food-wise, dessert was Ben and Jerry's rocky road ice cream with marshmallows and walnuts on it. Yeah, it's as good as it looks.
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This was the mid-flight snack. Decent chicken wrap and nutty brownie with surprisingly fresh fruit. 5th glass of wine. The amount of food they chuck at you rapid-fire is amazing.
I ate the pre-arrival meal too quickly to take a picture of it, but it wasn't anything special.
As far as the rest of the flight goes, I decided not to sleep the entire time. This definitely helped me with jetlag problems that everyone else is facing right now. By not sleeping until I got to Seoul, I basically skipped a day of sleep, but it set me up to go to sleep at the correct time. The whole "not sleeping" thing allowed me to kick back in the extremely comfortable seat with my blanket and watch The Avengers, Thor, a couple of episodes of Family Guy, The Office, HIMYM, and House. The Bose noise-cancelling headphones they gave us were awesome for blocking out the loud engine sounds.
The TV in the back of the seat ahead of me had lots of features, some of which I took pictures of..
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Basic setup, tray table under TV.
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Remote with all the buttons!
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THOR!
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Decent Tetris score..turbulence killed me
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Being over Alaska got me some awesome pictures.
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Finally getting to Tokyo!
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That's fast...and cold..
By the time I got off the flight at Narita, Tokyo, I was obscenely tired. The two-hour layover didn't help. I called my dad at around 3AM CST which I'm sure was a killer but it was nice to let him know I wasn't dead. The flight from there to Seoul was uneventful other than me being tired and refusing yet another tray of food. Then I finally got to Seoul. YAY!
Seoul, as a very sleepy first-timer, struck me as New York on crack, even at 11PM. Subways were packed but clean and WiFi-equipped, and once I finally did get out of the subway to head over to my guest house (bibimguesthouse.com) I couldn't find it, and I couldn't call anyone because I haven't gotten a Korean phone yet. I had to ask a taxi driver where to go and he drove me there for just under $3 so it worked out. The guest house itself was actually pretty decent (save for the bed), down a very small alley in Seoul. Most of the people were foreigners, some from Germany, the UK, all over. I took a couple of pictures of it.
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Got some free breakfast out of the deal and a ride over to the subway (which is surprisingly easy once you're awake). Time to head to my final destination to meet up with the other members of my group, Busan!
And just to throw it out there, Korean airports beat the crap out of American ones. It took the attendant 2 minutes to change my flight from one six hours away to one that took off in 20 minutes. I got through security in 5 minutes while all the Korean girls giggled at the white guy and got there in plenty of time.
After arriving in Busan, which is beautiful...and HOT, I took the subway over to Seomyeon Station to get to my hotel. In order to get out of the subway, you have to scan the ticket you received to get ON the subway which being the smart person I am, I tossed it. I had to call an attendant to let me out
I was stuck. It's so humid here...I can't even deal with it, and carrying my 60+lb suitcase up 50-60 stairs was tough. I emerged into a furnace and walked aimlessly to the hotel but finally found it and got into my room, which is pretty tiny, but I'll discuss all this at another time. I'm exhausted, and just wanted to get a post out to everyone to let them know I'm not dead. I'll post about the first few days in Busan tomorrow! Night!!--Alex
here and here are the rest of the flight pictures.
