The First Week...

It's official...

this blog has finally changed into a travel, experiences, foreign life, joys and sorrows and photo blog.

I flew over the arctic and made the big move to Seoul, Korea with only 4 bags! I've traveled and flown plenty of times, even overseas before, so the 14 hour flight wasn't daunting in the least bit. However, if I knew ahead of time what was coming for me, I may not have even gotten on the plane.

I took a flight from Bloomington, IL to Chicago which was everything I expected; 25 min in a cramped seat, not really all that bad.

Waiting in the O'Hare International Airport, I took time to settle my thoughts because, I was, in an instant, a minority. Now, I wasn't scared and that wasn't unexpected, but for the first time in my life, I didn't look like anyone else. In the scheme of things I don't believe race matters and I'm not a racist person, but when you are on the other side, your perspective changes. I've since gotten used to the stares, waves, and goofy 'hello's'. It really only took a week, because it makes me feel famous!

Walking on the huge Korea Air Boeing 747 I immediately passed first class: large teal chairs, some even with tables. Next was a little more simple but still had pretty teal comfy looking seats. I thought to myself '14 hours will be a piece of cake in these seats.' Guess I didn't realize that after the first class seats come business class....then I stumbled upon row 33; ECONOMY!

I hoped and hoped that I either had a window to lay my head on and sleep or an aisle to get in and out easily. Of course I was smack-dab in the middle though. And aside from my big bookbag not fitting all the way under the seat in front of me, I swear Korean economy class is smaller than American economy class...and I'm taller than the average Korean!

The first half of the flight really was fine, but after about 7 or 8 hours, everything went down hill. We had just eaten dinner and although I wasn't very hungry, I decided to eat anyways because I had NO idea what/how I would eat once I got to Korea. About 20 minutes into my movie after I had finished eating, I started to feel really sick. I though maybe it was just a stomach ache from eating too much but it got worse and worse. Luckily I got up and went to the bathroom because almost immediately, I threw up everything that was in my stomach and there surely was a lot. After getting sick I felt a little better and thought the worst had passed, but I didn't get better. I proceeded to throw up two more times and spend the rest of the flight feeling awful and getting absolutely no sleep.

Needless to say, I didn't have the most positive thoughts about living a whole year in Korea after that traveling experience.

Of course I will write more about my first week experience but I want to keep my posts semi-short so people can actually find time to read them. Annyung for now...