Adventures in Korea...(fake smile)

Well, Jay promised me Korea would be an adventure, and he hasn't disappointed!



First of all, the plane ride...

12 hours on a plane with a toddler is an ungodly amount of time to spend on a plane with a toddler no matter how comfortable the seats or courteous the flight staff (thank you, Korean Air), or how many DVD's you have on hand, or how many books you have crammed into a back pack, or how many cheerios, grapes, apples, pears, etc... you have stowed away for her to snack on.... 12 hours is an ungodly amount of time to spend with a toddler on a plane.



Seoul...

We arrived in Seoul late in the afternoon (Korean time) which was actually 0100 back home in Utah, so we were all a bit tired. First thing we do is go through customs which was actually really smooth and fast. Especially considering we weren't sure if Mia and I would be able to get into the country since we didn't know if we had to have visas or not since we have no one helping us get all the info and paperwork needed to make this move. Just a part of our "adventure". Luckily we got our passports stamped and we made our way to baggage claim... all very easy, but then we started hearing announcements of how the luggage for our flight was being delayed due to a "mix-up in baggage..."? We were a bit worried wondering if we were going to get our luggage or if the "mix up" pertained to our luggage being on a connecting flight to Mumbai (b/c there were a LOT of Indians on our flight). We were only in jeopardy of losing 6 big ticket items... 4 suitcases, the pack-n-play, and carseat, no biggie, right? During this time we decided to check out our passport stamps and noticed we only got a stamp for a temporary visa for 90 days... Mia and I were going to have to leave by Feb 2009 according to our passports... uh oh... oh thank god! There's a bag (after 40 min of waiting)!



So YAY!!! We have luggage, a over-tired toddler and now we have to go to the "military" baggage customs check, and are lucky enough to be greeted by a retired AF ("Air Force" for those "civilians" out there) guy who likes to talk and made an army guy wait while he chatted us through the baggage claims. (The army guy was there before us... heee heee heee, army sucks!) So I'm feeling more optomistic, so far everyone is very friendly, things are very clean and modern, I feel safe and cared for.... this could be a great place to live.

We make our way to the bus stop for the courtesy bus to Yongsan (an army base in Seoul where our hotel is) and Mia and I sit and play while Jay gets our tickets. Jay came back after less than 5 minutes (wow, he is fast and efficient, I'm thinking) and I'm then informed that the bus leaves in about 10 min, to which I jumped up and started collecting our things, but then Jay finishes with, "but there are no more seats, so we either have to wait until the 9pm bus or take a city bus to one of the hotels downtown in Seoul then get a cab to Yongsan." Well the next bus was a 2.5 hour wait (nope, not gonna do it), or a city bus, which Jay has never taken and we don't even know which hotel to get off on, in a city neither of us are familiar with or speak the language of (we can't even read Korean), but the obvious choice was the city bus b/c who in their right mind would wait 2.5 hours in a airport with a toddler?

(Yay!!! Adventure!!!) So we make it to the bus depot for the city buses, to which there was a long line. It was FREEZING cold and all the signs were in Korean. Right then I had a change of heart and decided 2.5 hours wasn't so long to wait b/c I had benadryl in my purse (a tablet, but I could break it up and crush it into Mia's orange juice), and I had noticed a CoffeeBean in the airport close to where we would have to wait... the long wait in the airport didn't seem so bad with those options compared to the long lines of chaos in the freezing cold night of the city buses. But, no, Jay was now determined that we would figure out these city buses and get to the hotel so we could all sleep. Note to self, don't be so quick to turn down options without fully realizing what the other options are.

So luckily, there are a lot of helpful Korean airport employees at the bus stop who guide us to where we need to be and help us get our luggage on the bus when it arrives. So we board this bus, blindly trusting that these helpful, Korean, gentleman are indeed getting us to where we need to go, and we set off on the first leg of our Korean "adventure" scared of where we were actually going to end up, but too damn tired to do much about it.

After a 2 hour bus ride (b/c traffic is INSANE in Seoul), we finally get off at a hotel, and immediately find a cab willing to take us to Yongsan. Luckily we're only about 5 min away from Yongsan, but quickly learn at the gate to Yongsan that only "base approved" taxi's are allowed on base, and we were not in a "base approved" taxi. Our taxi driver didn't speak English, and there was much confusion between him and the Korean security guard and I began to become very worried. Luckily, both Korean men insisted Mia and I stay in the taxi (b/c it was "too cold" for the baby) while Jay got to freeze his balls off trying to figure out what to do. All I understood was we had 9 pieces of luggage (carry-on's included) and a toddler and only 2 adults to carry it all, to get to the Dragon Hill Lodge which was less than 100 yards on the other side of the gate. Finally, after about 10 min of arguing between these 3 men (Jay included), a "base approved" taxi happened by, and the security guard flagged him to us rather than allowing him into the base. Sweet. So Jay and I stuffed that little taxi full of our monstrous luggage and crammed ourselves in and the taxi drove us the full 2 min ride to the hotel.

It was a nice hotel (surprising, I know, since it was an Army base), but although there was a concierge service, there was no one willing to help us with all our luggage into the hotel. Now I hate the Army again. So I was given one of those luggage carts that I took out to Jay, we loaded it, and made our way into the lobby to check in. The whole time I was giving the bell hop at the concierge desk the evil eye, but I don't know that he noticed between his apathetic gazes through his coke bottle glasses (nerd). We did finally get to our room, and we stayed awake just long enough to set up Mia's pack-n-play and change into PJ's and then we all passed out at 9pm Korean time. I guess it was good to take the adventure rather than wait for the American bus, after all.