The Land of the Morning Something

Note: For one of the first times since I turned 18, I'm actually travelling with someone else on this trip. This is why I use "we" and "our" a lot.

Well, I'm now in South Korea. And it was quite an interesting experience getting here. And getting over jet-lag has been... interesting. As have been a lot of other things, so here are some bits from the past five days of our adventure here.

Anyways, the original plan was to leave from Cleveland-Hopkins Airport early (at around 8) on the morning of the 11th, have a reasonable 3-hour layover in Detroit, and then take a thirteen-hour flight from there into Seoul-Incheon, arriving at a reasonable hour on the 12th. We did arrive at a reasonable hour on the 12th, but...

The initial CLE-DTW flight got cancelled. Not cool. And it automatically rebooked us on a flight that would leave from Cleveland at 6 in the evening and put us into Seoul at 4 in the morning on the 13th. Even less cool. After talking with the Delta agent, what we were able to get was a flight that left from Cleveland an hour later than the original flight and went into LaGuardia Airport in New York and, from there, we'd need to take a taxi from LaGuardia to JFK Airport for a flight that would leave for Seoul about 3 hours later. Long story short, the traffic in NYC was reasonably painless and we made it to JFK with plenty of time to spare, got checked in rather quickly, and were through security and waiting on our flight in no time.

The flight was, in fact, long. Thirteen hours on Korean Air. The service seemed somewhat disturbingly attentive, though: two meal services, two snack services, beverage services throughout the flight, and several duty-free carts coming and going through the plane. So we were at least sorta taken care of for when we landed at a very foggy Incheon Airport. Immigration was painless (though it involved being fingerprinted and photographed) and Customs was likewise straightforward and, two hours later, we were at our destination and checked in to the place we'll be staying for the month. It's a very small accommodation: the shower, toilet, and sink are all together in one "cabinet", and there's not much space at all. But it'll work.

Saturday and Sunday were designated for exploring, getting acclimated to Suwon (the city in which we're staying), and popping into Seoul, including a trip to the Money Museum at the Bank of Korea. Now that the week's started as normal, we're starting some of the science; in particular, we're getting to know the people we're working with (all very nice) and the equipment. So hopefully there'll be some good results to be brought back to the US with us.

As for the food... well, I'm quickly learning how to use chopsticks, and that's an adventure... especially since the Koreans like using flat metal chopsticks that are sorta kinda hard to grab things with. At least rice is customarily consumed with a spoon, so that's not too hard. And Koreans love red chilis: practically every main dish is flavored with them in varying quantities. Getting used to that level of spiciness is taking a bit, but it's coming along.

So, yeah, more to come soon. With that, have a good rest of your weeks.