I'm off

The coast of California just disappeared out of view from seat 50A and the realization that I won't see U.S. soil again for over a year is starting to settle in.  Today has already been such a wild ride of emotions and thanks to Singapore Airlines (more on them later, trust me) I'm able to have my laptop and all my electronic toys plugged in during the flight so I figured this would be an ideal time to start my Korea blog.

I really want this blog to serve as a written account of all of my experiences in Korea, both the good and the bad.  I am sure this year will be full of wonderful highs and devastating lows and I hope to be able to capture and document some of those moments mainly so that I have something to look back and reflect upon, but also so my friends and family in the U.S. have some idea of how I'm doing and what I've been up to.

So far, if I had to describe the experience of becoming an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher in one word: stressful.  The process of getting ready to come, finding a school, gathering the documents, getting a visa, packing, uprooting, and moving around the world is a lot more complicated and involved that I originally would have guessed.  Looking back I was incredibly naive to assume it would be any simpler, but God damn it was an involved and busy process.  The flight to Korea so far has been no exception.

So, my good friend Phil was kind enough to drop me off at O'Hare this morning where I waited in the curbside line to check my bags.  Keep in mind I had to pack my entire life for a year into 2 suitcases so needless to say one of my bags was over the 50 lb. weight limit.  No biggie, I'll pay whatever it cost because I don't really see any other option.  Oh no.  The "Skycap" (which is a fancy term for baggage handler) informs me that I can't check in at the curb and I may not be able to check overweight bags at all.  Oh goodie.

So I go inside to wait in another line.  At this point my flight was scheduled to leave in just over an hour and I had about 30 people in front of me who seemingly were not moving.  So I stood there semi-panicing for awhile and finally got up to the counter, bent over and paid the baggage fees, and got my boarding passes.  Ok, stress over right?  Oh no.

I get to the gate and just as I'm about to take a seat I glance up at the board showing all departures.  Out of atleast 100 flights mine is the only one delayed.  Mechanic problems.  Oh goodie.  So, again, I enter into a semi-panic mode knowing I will probably miss my connection in San Fran and thus when my new boss shows up to pick me up in Seoul I won't be there nor will I have any means of contacting him in the meantime to let him know plans have changed.  This is where my story takes its first really good turn and I strike up a conversation with a girl named Ellie who has the same semi-panic face that I've been wearing for the last 10 minutes.  Turns out we're both on the same flight to Seoul and instantly bond over our mutual anxiety.  Enter Ara who is going to Korea with his wife for his 4th year of teaching.  He heard us talking, came over, and let us know that he too was on the flight from San Fran to Seoul.  Ellie and I instantly cling to this man like grim death and begin blindly following him to the customer service desk to try and get us all re-booked together.  I cannot begin to tell you how much relief Ellie and I were feeling knowing that we weren't alone and we had an experienced traveler/teacher basically holding our hands now.  If I had to deal with what happens next alone I certainly would have broken down emotionally and hated everything to do with flying.

Enter Singapore Airlines.  For some ridiculous reason they couldn't "release" our tickets for rebooking so unless we could make it to San Fran. in time for our regularly scheduled flight we would all be stranded in Chicago for at least 24 hours.  United has a non-stop flight to Seoul in 3 hours but that would be too easy, right?  I mean, why wait 3 hours when you can wait an entire day?  The customer service rep sort of loses his cool on the phone with SA and goes and talks to his boss.  They come back, stare at the monitor with grim looks on their faces, and basically say nothing for a few minutes.  At this point I'm pretty much positive I'm not going to Korea today.  Then by some miracle at the very last minute 4 seats on another United flight to San. Fran. opened up.  We literally ran across the terminal with the customer service rep and we were the last four on the plane.  Just when I thought flying could be any more of a pain in my ass we are now on a flight and back on schedule.  Whew.  Our luggage won't get to Seoul until a day late but at this point I could not care less.  I'm on my scheduled flight and I am able to relax.

Ok, the rest of this blog is going to be shameless promotion for Singapore Airlines.  Now I've never flown SA but I have to say this is by far the nicest airline I've ever flow.  First, the flight is about 1/3 full so I have an entire row to myself.  I'm greeted by the absolute most attractive crew of flight attendants imaginable (note to self: check out Singapore) handing out hot towels.   Now if it weren't for the Family Guy episode I don't think I would have known what was expected with the hot towel.  Luckily I learned from Stewie's mistake.  Then I find my seat and I'm wowed again.   I have this mini-computer at my seat that has games and movies and TV shows and if I had an ethernet cable I could actually surf the net.  It has a full QWERTY keyboard and a bunch of new releases.  Let me recap: hot flight attendants, lots of room, super computer at each station, electrical/USB plugs; I feel like I'm in 1st class.

Ok, as I'm typing this they just handed out ANOTHER hot towel and a pair of socks.  Socks.  United couldn't so much as give us peanuts, SA is handing out clothing.  I also just got the menu for lunch and dinner.  I have about 5 options and I'm going to go out on a limb and say the food will be good as well, which is a nice change from the typical, non-edible airline food I've experienced in the past.  Ok, now I'm editing this because they just brought out lunch and it is fantastic.  I'm having a pesto pasta with chicken and garlic bread and it honestly is delicious.  Brave SA, bravo.  In short, if you're going to come visit me (which I hope you do!) you should try and book on Singapore Airlines because this is the bomb.

I'm going to try and write a blog within a few hours of landing in Seoul because I want to document my first impressions so I have something to reflect upon in a year.  If the worst thing that happens today is my flight was cancelled and my luggage is a day late I think I'd be doing pretty damn well.  That's all for now, thanks for reading.

Take it easy, but take it.