The adventure begins

The view from Kyndra's house!
Seoul at night from the plane!

I'm still a bit jet lagged, but the 20 hour plane ride really wasn't that bad. I got to catch up on my sleep and also watch a few movies that I had been wanting to see. The worst part of the plane trip was switching planes in Atlanta, which has the most confusing layout for an airport and hardly any information desks help you to be directed correctly... Ah-noy-ing! From Atlanta we flew across the United States, over Alaska & Russia. Not too much down there but a whole lot of snow. Before landing in Seoul the first thing I noticed was this huge bridge, I can't remember the name of it but it is a 7 mile huge bridge. Myself & Marcus were looking at pictures of the bridge the day before, so that was a pretty neat thing to see from the sky. When I arrived in Seoul I asked for help with my luggage from an Army man, he obliged and showed me how to get a cart. From there I went through customs and got my first stamp in my passport. :) Once I got outside the airport, I was waiting for the buss which costs 4,000 wan to take me to the next airport. Looking lost I guess I accidentally got a cab which cost me 100,000 wan. AHhHhH well that was a learning experience. Swindling cab drivers are everywhere. When I arrived at Gimpo airport I was starving so I took a look around the food mart. They had a various assortment of meat on a stick, think hot dog form meats. And lots of brown quail eggs in a basket. I passed on the "hot dogs" & eggs & got a vitamin water & a chicken and herb sandwich instead.. not too bad actually. After a 2 hour nap on the bench, I was awoken by a flight attendant to board the plane to Jeju, my new home. Exhausted as I was I fell right back to sleep on the plane, lucky me I had a whole aisle to myself and stretched out. It was a short trip only about an hour. But the nap was much needed.

Jimmy, from my recruiting agency picked me up from the airport and brought me to Kyndra's house. Not wanting to carry my heavy luggage up 3 flights of steps he went to make sure that we were in the right place first, leaving me downstairs. Well we were in the right place and Kyndra screamed and about jumped Jimmy when she opened the door. I'm not sure who was scarred more, Kyndra that it wasn't me at the front door or Jimmy being scared by Kyndra! After toting my luggage upstairs, I quickly called my mom & Marcus to let them know I was safe! Both were very worried & pleased that I had called.

After finishing up my calls, Kyndra & myself walked down to catch a cab. We got a ride to downtown, near where I will be living. Our cab was only 2,200 wan. From there we went searching for a place to eat. I noticed several American places, such as Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robins & Krispy Kreme. It appears that Koreans love their donuts. The streets at night are all lit up with neon signs and kinda reminded me of what I would think China town to look like. I will take some pictures tonight. There are a lot of street vendors here. Selling all sorts of things from "hot dogs" which there was a long line for, to waffles and even dragon shapped waffles, dumplings and noodles. Korean men all dress/look like Jonas brothers. They wear boots, skinny jeans, t-shirt with blazers and big hair. The girls here wear a lot of tights and boots and short skirts. Very fashionable. Kyndra and I ended up eating mexican food. Yes, mexican food! We ordered nachos & guac, I got a soft taco and found out that the beef here is from Australia. Kyndra got chicken quesadillas. The food was very good and only cost us 18,000 wan. After dinner we walked around a bit more. For a Monday night the streets were all full of Koreans. We saw no other Americans. And I guess neither did the other Koreans because we got stopped and asked if we would have our picture taken. After having our picture taken looking like a mess we went to a quick mart, bought Hershey's chocolate milk and some bananas. The bananas are an odd shade of yellow and I still haven't tried them. The milk was great. Kyndra bought Pringles, milk and a sushi roll for lunch. We then cabbed back home and slept.

This morning a awoke talked to those I love & opened the window to see a full view of Mt. Halla. The largest mountain in South Korea. It is beautiful. Kyndra is gone to work now and I am watching The Hills on MTV & eating. Tonight all of Kyndra's friends are meeting up to take me out to Korean BBQ. I'm exited. Well nap time...