i'm here!

I am here. Lying in my dorm bed writing this. Orientation doesn’t start until the 23rd so I have tomorrow off to laze about and settle in. since we will be here for 2 weeks, I think I’ll unpack as much as possible, but right now I’ve only just unpacked enough to have taken a shower and change into some clean duds.

Traveling was long, but not as horrible as it could have been. Starting in Montreal at 4:20 am, Cherry drove me to the airport where I had to give up my bathrobe, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and extra pillow because my luggage was too heavy. I didn’t even think (until too late) to just put the stuff back in after I left the gate, since I could very easily have done – now I have no bath robe and the towels in Korea are the size of a North American dishcloth. I’ll have to see about getting a robe of some kind in the very near future. Maybe tomorrow I can venture into town and see what I can find. Anyway, back to Montreal. A very tearful goodbye with Cherry and I was on my way to security where I was chosen for a random check – yay! Just my luck. I didn’t have anything to hide, so it didn’t really matter, it was just so damn early in the morning and it was already looking like it would be a horrible day. I got through it all right though and was off to wait for my flight to leave. No liquids or gels. I did have lip balm in my carry-on, but no one noticed it, so I guess that it was all right.

The flight to Chicago was quick and painless – I slept through most of it. Navigating through Chicago O’Hare International Airport was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I had to switch terminals and everything but it was no problem. After I got through security I bought myself a little veggies’n’dip plate and some Orangina and waited for my flight. I had a four-hour layover, but after transferring and finding my way I only had to wait about half of that. I took a little nap and read a trashy gossip zine that I picked up at pharmaprix before I left. Then I boarded my Korean Air (really Delta but operated by Korean) flight.

The first thing I noticed was how well put-together the flight attendants were. It was incredible – I wanted to take a photo of them, but never got the chance. They had really nice matching outfits – blue and white – with ribbons in their hair, perfect skin and beautiful smiles. Maybe that was the biggest difference between them and Air Canada – the smiles. They seemed happy to be doing their job, and stayed that way throughout the 14-hour flight.

I was happy when I was assigned a window seat – it’s always good to have something to lean on – but when I got to my seat in the furthest reaches of the Boeing 747 there was no leaning possible. I have never seen this on an airplane before but the “window” seat was at least a foot away from the window. There were only about 4-5 rows of seats that didn’t touch the wall I go one of them. I have never been happier to have a travel pillow. There was a nice Korean man sitting in the seat next to me, he smiled and said hello.

We taxied out to the runway, but ended up waiting there for, well I’m not sure because I was asleep in seconds; we were probably there for about half an hour waiting for takeoff. Finally we were in the air, and I explored the entertainment system – movies, music, games, map, shopping – I’ve never seen one like it. Each person had their own remote as well as the ability to touch the screen for selections. I started to watch a movie – Ice Age, I think – but fell asleep almost right away, and that is how I spent most of the flight – in and out of sleep. Fourteen hours went by almost like nothing. It was long, of course, but it could have been worse.


Finally we landed at Seoul, Incheon International Airport at around 5 PM local time (4 AM in Montreal). After getting through immigration – which felt like it took longer than the flight – I found my luggage (intact) and made my way to the EPIK counter. I was greeted with smiles and broken English, was offered water or juice and given a place to stow my bags until we left at 9.

I was brought to a Korean restaurant where they fed us Korean food – I had spicy beef soup, and yes, it was hot! But very tasty, and I didn’t even have to pay for it. I also met a few of my fellow EPIKs and have since gotten to know them a little better.

At nine we got on the bus to come to KNUE (Korean National University of Education) where we are spending the next 10 days in orientation. After a three-hour bus ride from the airport I finally got to my dorm room at around 12:30 – my roommate has yet to arrive.


my first view of Korea (above) and the inside of the "techni-colour dream bus" that took us from the airport to the university.