Coming to Korea

So this is my first time being out of the USA (besides Canada)

I got some things to give as gifts from the made in Oregon store. Also had some stuff from Nick's parents to bring him. So, mostly hardly packed anything. I got some clothes but figured I'd just buy clothing here as it'd be cheaper and I'd have more suitcase space coming back.

Anyway, Michael dropped me off at the max station (Thank you so much!) I took the max to the airport. The lady there was nice enough to reroute me through LAX so I didn't have to spend the night in San Francisco. There was free wifi in PDX so I emailed nick to tell him I'd get there early. As a native oregonian I felt out of place in the heart of california. However, it was nothing compared to arriving in Korea.

My flight left LAX at 12:30 am (just barely wednesday) and we flew up along the coast, past portland, past seatle, past anchorage, past mount McKinney, past japan, then landed in Seoul at 7am about. The airport was a cold empty place with no shops, hardly any people and next to no place to sit. Worse, most everything as written in korean so I felt way more out of place then I did in cali.

By the time I had arrived I'd been awake more the 24 hours with only a few naps here and there (Couldn't really sleep on the plane) So, I had to fill out some paperwork as to why I was there and information about myself. It took me a while fumbling through stuff to get all the information. But I made it out and into Korea proper.

After I got my baggage (took me a while to figure out where to look) I went out to look for a bus and a ticket. There were all kinds of little pay phones that I couldn't read with touch screens and little shops that I had no idea what were about too. I found and bought a bus ticket, and wanted to take out some money exchanged for korea money. They had a global ATM but I had no idea what it said. All the buttons were in korean... I tried to access the internets to tell nick that I had arrived. However, all the wifi was locked that I found.

Next, I walked outside and several guys approached me saying 'Taxi?' but I just replied 'Bus' which thankfully worked. I stood by the bus stop and some guy in a yellow vest came up to me talking stuff I couldn't understand. I said 'Bus' and showed him my bus ticket. He said more stuff I couldn't understand and pointed where I should stand. So I stood there, one bus came and passed, I waited, the next bus came at about 8:10am and the guy who I showed my ticket to urged me to go on, holding his hand out and saying 'go go' encouragingly. Until I was on.

So the bus ride was LOOOOONG, I couldn't believe it. Seoul apparently is a massive city. Much to my surprise, there were lots of places that had familar names, we passed a 7 eleven, a pizza hut and a KFC. I got to Suyu Station at around 10:30 am. Luckily for me, Nick was there. I was a little worried about boarding a bus without telling anyone that I was there but guess I lucked out. I was very glad to see a familiar face.