Well, look around for a sea of black hair. I know I'm on the right flight for sure now as I sit and wait for the other passengers to join me in the waiting area. Lol, it just struck me as funny.
Slight delay at the Erie airport again. Part heavy plane (kind of feel partly responsible for that one)and part fog. Arrived in Detroit with no problem. Saying my 2nd goodbyes quickly and getting ready to call Verizon to suspend my phone. Trying to give myself a good 30 minutes for that because I've recently learned they are an incompetent cellular service and I expect I'll have to go over the whole 'I'm leaving the country for work' issue with them one last time. Anyway, everything seems to be on track with no issues :)
I will let everyone know when I arrive in Seoul via email/facebook if I can.
Bonus - I found that I may have wifi on the plane so that will make the trip easier!
Some interesting information: there are no street names or house numbers clearly marked in South Korea. Yeah, so this should make it very interesting right?
Read this http://www.teachkoreanz.com/living/address.htm
In Korea addresses seems to exist in name only. Over most of Korea, there are almost no signs labeling of street names, in fact, most streets do not have names at all. Nor do houses have numbers on the outside, though every house does in fact have an official number. Unfortunately, even these 'secret numbers' mean little - numbers are assigned to houses when they are built, so house No 27 could be next to house No 324, and so on.
Even Koreans find it close to impossible to locate an address. Pity the poor postal workers who must actually track down these buildings! On the other hand, the system (or lack of a system) provides a form of job security for letter carriers - no-one dares to fire them since only they can interpret the otherwise meaningless addresses which appear on envelopes.
How about that. Life is going to be really interesting for the next 72 hours :)
Trying to learn Te Korean language will be a must. So I will start out slow: 안녕히 계세요.
That is goodbye. And that looks to be extremely complicated as well. Yikes :/
Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
"Your flight will be delayed for approximately 15-30 minutes..."
What they really meant to say was "We don't know what we are doing here at the Erie International Airport. Please be patient while we attempt to locate our heads out of our behinds. We aren't 'understaffed' per se, but we only have 5 flights a day so we don't really require a full team of flight associates to help you out. WE don't really know what is going on or why your flight is delayed OR how long it will be delayed for. Please be patient in our tiny little airport that has no Cinnabon, Starbucks or Einstein Bagel..."
It's 5am - Where is Jamie? She is waiting patiently at the Erie Airport with her sweet looking compression stockings and her knee brace (it was too big for her suitcase so she opted to wear it under her awesome velvet track suit) while she awaits her new adventure.
It's 6a - She should be boarding her plane. Instead she was advised of a 15-30 minute delay.
7a? Still sitting down with her over-packed carry on & "laptop" bag & purse, waiting on some info about her delayed flight.
8a? She's hungry but there is only 1 vending machine and Doritos just don't feel appropriate at the given time.
9a? Still waiting to board her flight that was supposed to take off at 6a. The 'starter' just won't catch so they can't start the plane. However, an announcement was made that in the event the plane was able to be started, they needed us to board ASAP so they could hurry up and take off without the plane stalling. That sounds really promising, not to mention SAFE.
10a? Standing in line since 9a to find out if we are going to make the connecting flight to Korea. An announcement was made that an announcement would be made. Great. Thanks for letting us know.
1015a? The announcement: We canceled the flight to Detroit, they can't get the plane started and could perhaps find us a cab, or bus, or make another travel arrangement for us.
So where do I go from here? Well, I stand in line at the Delta kiosk for another hour or so until Doug picks me up with tea & a bagel (slight mini-meltdown via phone whilst calling to say 'pick me up') and we take my extremely heavy luggage back home. While standing in line to make alternative travel arrangements, I was given a phone number to call because they said "this will be much quicker than waiting here." I called, the first thing the recording told me was that it would be a 26-37 minute wait. So we went to breakfast and I called when I got home. Let me just make this quick and tell you how the flight story ends. New flight information: Leaving on MONDAY now (same time) and taking a DIRECT FLIGHT TO KOREA rather than a detour to Tokyo. Plus - no more temporary housing! I go right to my apartment so I can unload my 1000lb bags and layout all of my wrinkled up clothing.
All in all, I think it ended up working out in my favor. I get to stay an extra day and a half in Erie, no temporary housing and I didn't die in a plane that won't stay running!
It's 5am - Where is Jamie? She is waiting patiently at the Erie Airport with her sweet looking compression stockings and her knee brace (it was too big for her suitcase so she opted to wear it under her awesome velvet track suit) while she awaits her new adventure.
It's 6a - She should be boarding her plane. Instead she was advised of a 15-30 minute delay.
7a? Still sitting down with her over-packed carry on & "laptop" bag & purse, waiting on some info about her delayed flight.
8a? She's hungry but there is only 1 vending machine and Doritos just don't feel appropriate at the given time.
9a? Still waiting to board her flight that was supposed to take off at 6a. The 'starter' just won't catch so they can't start the plane. However, an announcement was made that in the event the plane was able to be started, they needed us to board ASAP so they could hurry up and take off without the plane stalling. That sounds really promising, not to mention SAFE.
10a? Standing in line since 9a to find out if we are going to make the connecting flight to Korea. An announcement was made that an announcement would be made. Great. Thanks for letting us know.
1015a? The announcement: We canceled the flight to Detroit, they can't get the plane started and could perhaps find us a cab, or bus, or make another travel arrangement for us.
So where do I go from here? Well, I stand in line at the Delta kiosk for another hour or so until Doug picks me up with tea & a bagel (slight mini-meltdown via phone whilst calling to say 'pick me up') and we take my extremely heavy luggage back home. While standing in line to make alternative travel arrangements, I was given a phone number to call because they said "this will be much quicker than waiting here." I called, the first thing the recording told me was that it would be a 26-37 minute wait. So we went to breakfast and I called when I got home. Let me just make this quick and tell you how the flight story ends. New flight information: Leaving on MONDAY now (same time) and taking a DIRECT FLIGHT TO KOREA rather than a detour to Tokyo. Plus - no more temporary housing! I go right to my apartment so I can unload my 1000lb bags and layout all of my wrinkled up clothing.
All in all, I think it ended up working out in my favor. I get to stay an extra day and a half in Erie, no temporary housing and I didn't die in a plane that won't stay running!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
9 more days!
9 more days... Seriously?
Ok, clothes are on the bed waiting to be packed. And then un-packed, re-evaluated and re-packed again. I'm in fear that I'm really waiting until the last possible moment to get everything done. And I suppose that's ok because it's in true Jamie fashion to wait.
I received my travel itinerary a little while back. It's going to be an interesting 24 hours. First I am set to leave Erie Int'l for Detroit, MI at 6a on Saturday morning. Then I get to sit in the Detroit airport for about 5.5 hours. From there I make the 13 hour flight to Tokyo - sounds great if you are able to sleep for some of the trip. However, since my blood clot incident earlier last year I am unable to "sleep" for longer than an hour or so due to having to get up and walk around. So that's fantastic. I will have a short layover in Tokyo and then will make the final 3 hour leg to Seoul. Total flying time is something like 18 hours or so but ends up being a full 24 hour day with the layover. I asked my recruiter who was picking me up from the airport, because at that time it's going to be 11p at night, I'm going to be exhausted and driven through the dark streets of Seoul with no idea where I'm going, etc. She tells me "David". David? Is this English speaking David OR English name David who speaks little English? :) OMG I can't even wait!!!
(Side note: When I finally arrive in my temporary housing on Sunday night, it will actually be Sunday morning for everyone else. Seoul is 14 hours ahead of the EST. I'd say around 1030a, think of me. Chances are I'm going to be sitting in my little 'room' looking at my suitcases, completely exhausted and thinking to myself "WTF did I just do...")
Found out that I'm going to be put up in some "temporary" housing when I first get into Seoul. :) I'm not quite sure what that exactly means. It's going to be awesome, I can just feel it!
This is going to be such an adventure, I can't even stand it...
9 more days...
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