Two cars, three planes, 4 subways, and a Bus

So we are ALIVEEEEEEEEEEE

The last seven days have been absolutely insane but we need to start from the beginning: the great trek.

(I'm sure I could make a joke about the one bag missing from the photo but then Joanna would beat me up)

We sleepily drove to the Vancouver airport at 5:30AM with my father and his girlfriend Dawn and after saying our goodbyes we left Canada for the wonderland known as American Customs. After a brief stay (I will save the story about Uncle Sam and his latex gloves until we are back in Canada) in customs we found our seats and waited to fly to Seattle. If any of you have ever been to the Sea Tac International Airport you would know that its like landing on the Moon. YES, THE MOON. The Airport even has its own subway system. As well, it manages to operate as a major flight system without the use of any staff at all. In fact, we spent fifty minutes just circling on the B line until a kindly homeless man directed us to our proper line. I will never even know if people spoke English at the Airport as the only person who would talk to us was a homeless man who grunted and gestured with his hands.

Having usually only flown Air Canada I was dreading the thought of a 12 hour flight. If you have ever been unfortunate enough to utilize the services of Air Canada you would know that they are able to duplicate the prison experience rather well. There are only ever enough pillows and blankets for a quarter of the population and if you ask for more food you are more likely to get shanked than get service.

However, flying with Air Korea changed my mind completely about flying. First, when we arrived at our seats we were greeted with not only pillows and blankets but complimentary bags that included sleeping masks, toothbrushes, and strangely, socks. As well, every seat came equipped with personal monitors. I don’t mean the crappy ones that West Jet uses either. These babies were loaded with dozens of movies, hundreds of songs and albums, cartoons, video games, and even shopping options. I cannot say enough about the food either. It was great and it came with all you can drink wine and beer as well. I didn’t partake but Jo filled up her purse with wine to save for later.

The man beside us was nice enough to teach us the ropes. He had flown with the airline numerous times and knew what to expect. He had them bring a bamboo mat for his feet and they not only put one down for him but the pilot actually came and washed his feet and cut his toenails too (okay that didn’t happen but it was pretty close).

Upon landing in Seoul we had about 5 minutes to marvel at our new country before we had to navigate our way to another airport in a different city for the last flight of our journey. Somehow using our own unique brand of Konglish we made it to Gimpo airport and flew to our new home of Ulsan. In all it took over 24 hours but after our first taste of Kimchi we knew it was all worth it.

(Air Korea, or as we Koreans say: The Big Blue God of the Sky)