Alaska to Seattle... Touchdown Korea

The reality set in during the drive to the airport.  I sat in the back of the SUV silent, watching the Alaska winter landscape pass in the dark of night.  My father was driving and my stepmom was sitting shotgun.  I searched for words to thank them one last time but failed to form any sentences.  I was nervous and not looking forward to the daunting task of navigating through airports with three heavy bags, the heaviest of them being my carry-on that lacked wheels.  Separate from the luggage was my skateboard deck that simply wouldn’t fit in any of the bags because it is too long.  This created some stress as I imagined getting hassled boarding three planes with an extremely heavy and over-sized carry-on bag and a skate deck.  I could picture the overhead bins full with the luggage from other passengers and the bag and board not fitting anywhere near my seating assignment.  When we arrived at check-in we said our goodbyes keeping them short and sweet.  This was it.  Goodbye comfort zone.

 What I didn't foresee was the line to check-in at the airport at midnight on Christmas.  I was a good 70 passengers deep to check into my flight.  Three different youth hockey teams flying into Seattle were waiting in line with all their gear and coaches and parental chaperones as well.  All of them plus thirty or more regular folks all flying the red eye to Seattle.  Behind me dozens of people filed in.  I was severely bummed as I strained, inching my bags three to four feet every couple of minutes.  I was tripping at how awkward and heavy all three bags and a skateboard were to carry and tried a different way of holding them each time I moved.  I began to sweat and stressed about that because I knew I was going to be in the same clothes for nearly twenty-four hours of travel before I reached my final destination.

When I reached the check in counter and all my bags were weighed (nearly maxed out), the woman looked at the size of my carry on and looked perturbed.  I was sweating, she was frustrated (looking at the long line still behind me), but kindly figured out that if I removed a few things from my carryon I might get lucky about boarding in Seattle.  I frantically pulled some novels from the end pockets of my carryon and stuffed them into the other bags now weighing the maximum 50 lbs. with the new items forced into their bulging mass.  My carryon was four and a half pounds lighter and she said I should give it a go.  What else was I supposed to do?  I explained to her that I was moving to Korea and everything must come with me.  She waved me through.  After all that jostling I moved to the side and pulled my carryon over my shoulder and winced at its weight and began my way to the departure terminal.  Its awkwardness created problems and its weight overcame my strength.  Every sweaty 60 feet I needed to put it down and readjust the bag.

I made it to the gate and sat down feeling like I just threw my back out.  I felt the wetness pooling under my arms and beads of sweat forming along the brim of my hat.  It didn't help that I had my heaviest of coats on, but it wouldn't have fit in any of the bags so I intentionally wore it to save space and weight.  All the while I was stressing about the skateboard deck too.  It wasn't going to fit into the overhead compartment with other people's stuff or under the seat in front of me.  I boarded the plane and found my seat.  It was a window seat so I just kept it against the side of the plane out of sight from the stewardesses.  Nobody was seated next to me for 3 hours thankfully.

I arrived in Seattle around 7:30am the 26th of December.  My bags were automatically transferred to Korean Airlines and onto my plane that wasn't set to depart until 1:00pm.  Once I figured out where my next plane was departing from, I slowly made my way with that ridiculously heavy carryon and my skateboard to the first open bar in sight.  It was close to 8am and I decided to have a beer and a shot.  I wasn't the first one there having a drink at this hour, but had i been it wouldn't have mattered.  I needed to rest my shoulder.  I asked the bartender who was nice enough to verbally direct me to the area where my friend Vince could meet me in a pre-security zone for a coffee.  I was thrilled that he was making his way over to see me before I left the USA for a solid year.  I had called him and informed him where we should meet according to what the bartender lady had told me.

When I reached the coffee shop area I saw Vince in the airport.  It was awesome seeing what would most likely be the last familiar face for quite some time.  We spoke about many things; Matt, tattoos, art, surfing, hackysack, Hawaii and the wonders of life over coffee and it was a pleasure being in his company.  He set me at ease and filled me with words of encouragement.  By this time it was after 10am when we parted ways.  Vince headed home and I, after checking in with Korean Air and getting my boarding pass, lugged my stupid ass carryon up to the international travel security gate.  Surprisingly I had no problems with my bag that was packed to the hilt with random things after it went under xray.  I was relieved that they didn't pull me aside at either airport to examine my belongings.

With a little over an hour to kill I went to the bar around the corner from the departure gate.  I sat at the bar and struck up conversation with the guys sitting on either side of me.  One was a military fellow who had spent time in Busan.  The other was a guy who had married a Thai girl and was working overseas.  They expressed their opinions about living overseas and informed me of what a good experience it is and how important it had been in their lives.  After two beers, a shot of Jager and a plate of hot wings I made my way to the line forming to board my flight to Seoul.  It was soon time to board.

I was surrounded by mostly Koreans (go figure) boarding the plane.  It was a trip walking down the ramp to the aircraft and seeing welcoming Korean flight attendants.  The language bubble was quickly forming around me.  I managed to get my bag in the overhead bin above my seat before anyone else and was relieved once again to have the window.   I put my skateboard deck against the side of the plane next to me.  A young military kid in a sweatshirt sat next to me sitting bitch.  He seemed not too thrilled, or maybe just exhausted as he pulled his ball cap over his eyes and shut them without saying a word.  I was fine with that because I wasn't in the talking mood either.  Next to him in the aisle seat sat a Korean gentleman.  We sat quietly ready for take off as the rest of the passengers filed in and got situated.  Goodbye USA, I thought.  The Korean stewardess in charge of our side of the plane was absolutely beautiful and refined.  She came by and asked to me to shut the blind on the window and I stole one last look of everything familiar to me before closing it.  Suddenly we were in the air.

In the back of the seat in front of each passenger was a video screen with movie options and other forms of media at our disposal.  I decided that with 10 and a half hours ahead of me I would get into that later.  I was tired from being awake since Christmas morning already twenty four hours earlier.  Refreshments were offered once we reached cruising altitude and I had a white wine and quickly fell off to sleep.  Maybe an hour later I woke up to lunch.  I opted for the Korean fare; some meat, rice, kimchi, veggies and sweet pastry.  After, I floundered with the video screen.  The words to select a video were in Korean.  Thankfully there were pictures accompanying the choices.  I started watching some documentary on Freud in English and again dozed off.  When I awoke it was time for food and more refreshments.  This time I had water and some beef bowl thing.  After I had finished eating, I hoped that I wasn't going to have to get up to take a shit at any point during the flight.  I didn't want to piss either if I could help it.  I was planted.  I was comfortably uncomfortable in my seat and had no intentions of moving.

Later I decided to watch 'G.I. Joe' and the action kept me awake for the whole movie.  It was visually entertaining.  I used to watch the cartoon as a kid and was pretty stoked on the story that they made for the big screen; the origin of Destro and what not... "Knowing is half the battle!"  With no concept of time I decided it was better to just not know (the time).  I was a little restless but decided it would be better to kill time with another flick.  I watched 'Land of The Lost' with Will Ferrel and laughed my ass off!  Talk about an adaption from a childhood favorite of mine that had little to do with the story line of the TV show.  I recommend this movie to anyone who needs a good laugh, likes potty humor, sexual innuendo and blatant slapstick for sure.  It was silly... I almost watched it a second time.

Hours later the pilot announce that we would be landing soon.  (I had survived without leaving my seat.  It is possible that stretching would have felt good, but I still had another flight to catch and it would have been a burden trying to climb over two people...)  It was around 5:15pm in Seoul at the time of the announcement.  We were scheduled to land at 5:30 so everything was going to plan.  Minutes later there was another announcement.  Apparently there was snow on the ground that delayed our landing for another forty-five minutes as we circled above the airport waiting for the groundskeepers to clear the landing pad.  It was at this point I started to stress a bit because I needed to take a train to Gimpo Airport and board an 8:30pm flight to Jeju, Korea.  I was uncertain about the amount of time that I would need to make the transfer.  I assumed three hours would be enough since my boss in Korea had booked the flights for me.  I didn't know how close I would be cutting it with the delay.  I breathed deeply and thought happy thoughts.  Everything will work out.  My bags will be on the ground waiting in Seoul.  I will find my way to the train and make my connecting flight at Gimpo... wherever that is.  Hopefully someone will be able to direct me in English.  

Touchdown Korea...