In the Beginning

Hello family and friends!! I am pretty proud of myself that I have taken the time to sit down and figure out how to have a blog like I said I would. Well, where to start? Korea is amazing! Period! There are now other words to describe this experience. Just amazing!! I am having a great time out here. Before you begin reading I will warn you- I am wordy and my grammar sucks. If you don't like it, don't read it. But you will be missing out BIG TIME!!
Alright, this is a post for everyone who said they were going to live vicariously through me. Imagine you are me and leaving USA for the first time ever....   (pretty much I even documented with pictures the route the plane took because it was interesting. We flew over Alaska and Russia)
The journey began at about 5:30 am on Saturday Feb. 2nd. After about two hours of sleep I woke up, got ready as quickly as possible, loaded the car and we were off. When I arrived at the airport one bag was 3lbs overweight so we pulled a pair of pants out and somehow my amazing mother fit those pants into my already exploding Mary Poppins carry on and I was on my way. Through security- oh ps, I was so layered that they had to pat 1 arm down. That is right, I said one arm. I had on everything that wouldn't fit in my suitcase pretty much! After security I met up with my friend Colten and then the journey began. We got lucky enough to sit next to each other the entire 18 hours. I'm not sure when it happened but at one point we lost an entire day so basically as you read this back home I technically haven't even written this yet. Let me explain- I am an entire day ahead of you so basically this will be written tomorrow.
Our first ride was with Delta and they switched our seats to accommodate us and allow us to be near each other. We got lucky enough to have the emergency exit seats and the leg room was indescribably wonderful!! Our next flight was not as lucky with the leg room but let me tell you, it was quite the experience!!
Riding internationally. First off we were in San Francisco and we walked to the International part of the airport. -now I don't know if you have seen this but you know the scene in "Men In Black" the first movie when Will Smith just gets hired and he sees a room of aliens for the first time? Well I'm not saying I felt like the people around me were like aliens- but I am saying I felt like I was in a very different world than what I was used to. Strange thing was- I was in California.
We rode Singapore Airlines. I don't know how many of you have traveled internationally before but if you are ever planning on traveling internationally- GO SINGAPORE AIRLINES!!! They have been rated number one airlines for a reason!!! Oh man, it was the best flight EVER!!! To begin with my carry on weighed twice as much as the allowed weight and they actually- shhh don't tell because I don't want to get the man in trouble- they actually waved the fee for me and checked my bag for free. Then the flight attendants had on the most incredible and beautiful uniforms I have ever seen. I loved it. On top of looking very fancy- the customer service was off the charts fantastic!!! They loaded our HUGE plane in less than 10 minutes. They helped everyone get situated and they put people's luggage up for us to help us load faster and it was just a good experience. As the flight began they gave us a warm towel. I was in economy, not first class. I didn't know I was allowed to have such special treatment. THEN they gave us a pair of socks and a toothbrush with toothpaste in a convenient carry case. FREE!! THEN, they handed us this menu that was unbelievable with options and everything. The food was good- it was Korean food. I was pooped. I slept for about 15 minutes then I watched movies that were free and I think some of them are actually still in theaters in America. Also with the movies we had the option of playing video games or learning languages. I studied some Korean but basically walked away being able to say dog. That was it, just dog. But hey, I learned something! This is being honest, not stereotyping- Koreans drink... a lot!!! I don't drink- never have, don't have a desire to, never will. That's just me. I had begun to develop a migraine from lack of sleep and just everything that was going on around me. Smells really got to me and I thought for sure I would be sick. I tried to sleep but shortly after falling asleep the lady sitting next to Colten pushed her call light and one of the very friendly staff almost got their eardrums blown by my startled reaction to their face so close to mine as I woke up with them leaning in to hear her. Luckily I was able to control myself and held it in. But boy was I scared and my head hurt- but that was a tangent. What I was going to say was that I asked the flight attendant for juice and suddenly he was offering me alcohol. Free. He just was so sure it was what I would want. He was eager to offer it to me and I can only imagine that he was probably trying to calm my nerves after the reaction he got from me waking up the way I did. In America alcohol would never be suggested on a flight, only requested. And it would never be free. It was interesting to start to see little changes.
Moving on... There was the cutest baby on our flight that looked like a mini sumo wrestler that had a head of fluffy Tweety bird hair and her parents decided that it was cute to put Shrek ears on her. Poor kid!!! But she was cute and fun to watch...entertaining might be the better word. Anyway, she made the flight more enjoyable even if my head hurt. Oh and there was a little boy who was trying to get past the flight attendant to go to the bathroom and I told him to just tap the attendant and he would move. MAN, I wish I could have taken a picture of the face that kid gave me. He looked like I had just spoke gibberish. Well I soon put two and two together and realized that to him I did speak gibberish- he doesn't speak English. Oops- I bet I'll get a lot of that. I just want to say once more I highly HIGHLY recommend traveling with Singapore Airlines if you ever get the opportunity!!
Finally got to the airport in Incheon South Korea, met up with people from the TaLK program, and headed to our busses. We stopped and got our currency exchanged then went for a bottled water. I got so excited about the coin I was given in change that I flat out left my water at the counter after paying. The only reason I had it later was because they cashier just yelled  "OOOHH!!" at me until I realized what had happened. Hey, I was tired and I was entertained by my shiny new coin.
Finally after almost another two hours we arrived at the Korean University in Jochiwon South Korea where I will be for the next three weeks. I haven't slept in a while... don't know how long at this point but a while. At 10 pm on Sunday evening here in Korea I finally headed to bed. I woke up Saturday at 5:30 am after to 2 hours of sleep and it is 10pm Sunday and I have maybe had an hour of sleep between then and now. I lost a day. I'm exhausted. Need sleep!! Goodnight all.
PS, After this post my others I promise will be more exciting. This one just was a little less exciting because I didn't move for like 18 hours and I was awake like the whole time too- I feel I adequately portrayed the long day I experienced. Thank heavens for Colten, I might have died without his company. Longest day ever but it was worth it to be here!!