My first overseas flight

My flights to Jeju brought me through Chicago, Seoul, and Busan. As I waited for each flight the ratio of Korean people to white people quickly changed, and while this was to be expected, I thought it would make me more uneasy than it did.

Asiana Airlines is incredible - I've never had a more joyful flight, and my 14 hour journey from Chicago to Seoul ended up being quite a fun experience. As we boarded the plane I felt that I was momentarily teleported to Disney World as stewardesses seemed to be everywhere, happy music rang from the speakers, and everyone around me was smiling. I found my seat (which fortunately for my broken leg was an aisle seat!) and after we were in the air the activities began - while it was nearly two in the morning, apparently this was hardly appeared and, with a bow and a smile, handed out hot towels. As soon as I had finished with it they were back through the cabin collecting the used towels and handing out a package with slippers (which didn't fit), toothbrushes, and sleeping masks. Some people took this as their cue to sleep, but they had forgotten about the " heavy snack ". An enthusiastic gentleman asked me if I would like " Western style beef steak " or Bi bim bap, I choose the latter and thus had my first Korean meal. They served red wine with the meal and I woke up 9 hours later... The person sitting in seat 18-G was having a birthday and so out came the 13 stewardesses (all in costume) to wish the young lady a happy birthday with champagne.

Twelve hours had passed before any of my fellow passengers said hello. The adorable six year old in the group of seats next to mine had stood up from her seat. Standing beside me she smiled and loudly said, "goodbye!". Several people who I had made eye contact with, including her parents, began to talk to me and they were all thrilled to hear that I would be teaching.

Once we had arrived in Seoul, I made my way through customs and withdrew Korean Won for the first time. I then went to Dunkin Donuts in order to combat the fierce jet lag and started my long journey through the airport to the domestic departure gates. This turned out to be much more difficult than I had expected, and with my bum leg I hobbled about for about an hour and a half as I pushed my luggage to the correct Asiana check-in counter.

As I was waiting for my flight to Busan I met Chris. He was the first American I had seen in a day and he was en-route to Busan to teach English. We took turns asking the same questions each of us has been asked for the last couple of months, and he seemed very excited to know somebody in Jeju who he could use to couch surf ( I think I will make a lot of friends this way ). We flew over mainland Korea... wow! But the beauty from high above didn't prepare me for our landing in Busan; a coastal city built at the foothills of gorgeous mountains. And then it was off to Jeju!!!

Landing in Jeju gave me visual proof that I would be living on an island for a year, however, two weeks later, this hasn’t really sunk in.