Day 1 - We are here!

Well, the plane ride didn't feel like 14 hours after a handful of movies, some sleep, some food, potty breaks, and the lack of a clock. Don't get me wrong, it was a long plane ride but not being able to count the hours made it much more manageable.

Ethan loved it up until about the last 5 hours of the trip. There was plenty of room and we all sat in the same row, actually it was the last row in our section right in front of the restrooms. Very convenient. Thank goodness for the Nintendo DS which paid for itself in the first 4 hours of the trip.

I was very miserable on the plane because my left ear was clogged and I had sinus congestion. I am kicking myself in the butt for not having gone to the doctor before the trip. When we were coming down preparing for the landing, I felt the worst pain in my ear and the left side of my head. Poor Ethan, was trying to console me. I have such a sweet boy.

The Koreans have a very efficient customs and immigration system which made everything much smoother for us. We didn't have to wait in line for an hour like we did in England. KIS came through with every word. Once we had claimed our baggage, which by the way, tying ribbon on our luggage made it a hundred times easier to spot, we exited the airport. We assumed that we would be looking for a person holding our name on a piece of white posterboard- WRONG! A young looking Korean man wearing stylish ripped pants, a purple Mickey Mouse shirt, sleek black tennies, and talking on a cell phone waved at us and said follow me. Apparently he already knew our faces and that was great. No problems! His name is Keith Ki Won Choi. He was super friendly and has been here 9 years. He went to high school and college in the U.S.

Now, it is rush hour on a Friday AND it was raining which meant that instead of a short ride through Seoul to Bundang, it was going to be an 1 and 1/2. This allowed us to really look around. Highways are well maintained. The majority of vehicles on the road are Hyundai but we also saw a Chevy, BMW, Mercedes, and Mini Cooper. All the vehicles are either black, gray, white, brown or somewhere in there. I never saw a anything outside of those colors. Oh, I take that back. I did see tiny car that was lime green. There were several others that we didn't recognize. Did you know that Samsung makes vehicles? Me neither.

I think it was near 7 pm here when we arrived at our apartment. There are 3 floors in our building: Basement, 1st, & 2nd. Can you guess which one we are on? Nope, guess again! 2nd floor for us! Nice building. The apartments here don't use keys, they have codes on the door. I like not having to carry a key! The apartment is completely furnished. Downside - only 1 small bathroom, no clothes dryer, and no dishwasher. We are dealing.

Keith showed us around our apartment, explained how to work everything, gave us our relocation money and tried to order delivered McDonalds! Unfortunately McDonald's has temporarily stopped delivering. :( Keith had stocked our apartment with some food like, bread, crunchy peanut butter, strawberry preserves, chips, cookies, milk, and some fruit soda.

That was day one in Korea!