In the motherland!

  

Farewell, Boston!

Sun rising...

Somewhere over Midwest USA

Beautiful

San Francisco - see the Golden Gate?

San Fran Bay

The fries were awesome - San Fran

Ben eating woodong!

Yummy... I really liked the colorful snack balls.

This is how Ben does it...

Cheers!

Reunion

The view from Ben's window - dreary day today (2/7/09)

We are here!!  And, it was not without drama...of course. We get to Logan around 5am for a 6am flight; yes, we were running behind. The check-in counter at United Air proceeded to tell us that we cannot enter Korea because we purchased a one-way ticket and do not have proof that we are leaving the country within three months (the maximum amount of stay without having a visa). This might have only applied to Chris since I have a work visa, but I'm not sure.  Anyway, we purchased two one-way tickets from Seoul to Tokyo to show that we're leaving the country. United Air assured us that once we get to Incheon Airport in Korea, we can find the United Air desk and ask for a refund on the tickets. Then, we had to bolt to security since it was already 5:30am.

Everything's pretty much peachy keen until our layover in San Francisco.  We went to Singapore Air to acquire our boarding passes before grabbing lunch. As we walked away after obtaining our passes, the guy from the ticket counter called us back to check my ticket. On Orbitz, I had signed up as "Jacqueline" but my passport says "Jackie" so they needed to prove that I was the same person as this Jacqueline person. I showed my driver's license because that says "Jackie", too. My name was changed on to the boarding pass to "Jackie", printed, and given to me. I used to dislike my given name "Jacqueline", so I would write "Jackie" when filling out forms. Now I see that this has caused a lot of problems (for everyone) and headaches (for me). After this little incident, Chris and I got lunch at a brewery: the last time we will have decent burgers and fries. The garlic fries were so delicious.

Next is our 12-hour flight to Seoul. I'm so happy that we, at least, got to ride on Singapore Air, one of the best airlines. Impeccable service, decent food, better seats and comfort, and personal tv's. We read, listened to music, slept on and off, watched movies (Chris watched "Burn After Reading" and I watched "Rachel Getting Married" and "Romeo and Juliet" -1968 version), and played Tetris and Trivia. We land, claim our luggage, go through customs, and attempt to look for the United Air desk. I finally ask an employee and am directed to the Information Desk. The employee here informs me that United Air office is closed right now and that it's at the other end of the airport so I can try going there to see if anyone may be there. She also writes down their number so I can call them the next day if they're closed. I have Chris sit with our luggage because mine are really heavy, and I run around the airport looking for the office. It's closed. I grit my teeth and run to look for United Air check-in. After consulting a map, I located the K terminal to find that no screens display United Air. I ask someone at a different airlines and they say that United Air isn't expecting any flights so they are closed. Wow. At this point, I'm overheated and parched so I purchase two bottles of water for Chris and me. Defeated, I make my way back to Chris. I call up my friends to let them know I've landed, and then we purchase tickets at a bus stop to get my friend Ben's place. It's only 9,000 won which is about $9 US dollars and it's going to take more than an hour to get to his place - Seoul is so huge. I fall in and out of sleep on the bus, and after we get off we wait 5 minute for Ben to show up with a futon mattress for us. After settling in his place, washing up and changing, we actually go out! I'm rather surprised at myself. I thought I'd just pass out once I arrived at Ben's apartment but Chris and I figured "why not?" We're in Korea; might as well live it up. We meet up with about eight of Ben's friends, and eat and drink at a soju bar. I only did one shot - I really abhor soju with a passion - though I did have beer and apple and grape soju. We went to bed around 2am - Chris and I have been up since 3:15am on Thursday - and I woke up at 8:15am. 

Ben was told to come into work today for a few hours, so Chris and I are going to just relax until he gets out at 3. I brought 4 boxes worth of Kashi oatmeal to Korea so I'm going to make myself one in a few minutes. But not before I call United Air - ugh, what a pain... I hope everything works out.

*Sorry about the picture layout. I'm new to blogging so I'm not sure how to move them around. I wanted to put them at the end of the post.. any tips?