Day 5

Day 5, a quiet day. We all pretty much hung out at the hotel today. Angie and I walked over to a palace nearby, looked around there for a bit, but didn't feel like paying for the tour. Then we decided to just hang out here, nap, read, be totally boring. My legs are SO sore from walking that it was nice to just rest them. I regret missing out on doing the touristy stuff, but the rest of my week is going to be very hectic, so just resting today was probably a good thing.

Ordered Indian food to be delivered for dinner tonight. Excellent food, so spicy it burned all of my taste buds off. Definitely more authentic than the little Indian buffet at the mall! I'm thinking ice cream might be a good idea for dessert. Stay tuned for more adventures!

Day 4 Continued

It's now the end of Day 4. We spent most of the morning and early afternoon shopping in an area known as Insadong. A very narrow street with shops on each side. The street is really only used by pedestrians and scooters now. Lots of knick-knacks, tourist stuff, food stands with guys yelling to draw customers. Pretty cool, actually. Ate in a typical noodle restaurant, although I had dumpling soup since I can't eat noodles. I ate the soup and the filling in the dumplings. Very tasty!

The day didn't start off well, though. While walking to Insadong we were accosted by a man who seemed to have serious issues with 3 white women and a Korean child walking the streets. He walked up behind us while we were waiting at a cross walk and started yelling, ran over to Naomi, age 9, and slapped her face. I grabbed her and shoved her into mom's arms, then he started yelling at Angie and I, too.

A very nice couple stepped up behind us and every time the guy tried to get closer to Pat & Naomi, the husband would quietly move between them. As we started to cross the street they guy kicked Angie in the butt. Fortunately she was walking fast enough he didn't do any serious damage. The nice couple continued to run interference until the guy wandered off, both asking if Naomi were alright. We don't speak Korean, and they had very limited English, but sign language worked. Pretty upsetting way for a little girl to start off the day!

Everybody is ok, took awhile to convince Naomi that it was going to be alright, but we eventually had a good day of it. The man was obviously mentally ill, possibly homeless, although there are very few obviously homeless in Seoul.

On the bright side, Seoul is a very pretty, very clean city. Angie and I are going to be heading off in a different direction tomorrow to see what appears to be a very large palace nearby. Should be very interesting!

Day 4

Um... What happened to Day 3? I got up on Friday morning (Day 2), got on a plane just after noon, sat on the plane (mostly in the dark) for 11+ hours, got off the plane and it was 5pm Saturday. Got to the hotel, went to bed between 8 and 9pm, and woke up at 8am on Sunday (Day 4). Very strange feeling.

The day is beautiful, and the view from my hotel room is great. Seoul seems as pretty as it looks in the tourist books. The ride from the airport was a bit unnerving. The nice little old man who picked us up didn't speak English, grabbed one of our bags, and took off to the other end of the airport. I couldn't keep up. I can walk, just not fast. I thought I was going to die by the time we got to the van. It was still light out, then went to full dark by the end of the hour and a half ride to Seoul. Traffic is crazy, but that didn't bother me nearly as much as the fact that our driver still had on his dark sunglasses -- at night.

Today should be interesting. We're going shopping. I know this is going to be an interesting day. I don't walk fast, and my traveling companions do. But, we're centrally located, and I can always take a taxi back to the hotel and do a little sight-seeing close by. I'm good. Ok, I'm excited. I'm thrilled. I'm tired... LOL

I'll take some pictures today and try to post them later. Bye!

Day 2

I don't know why anyone would say that I'm dependent on technology! When I checked into the hotel last night (San Francisco) I realized I had the chance to recharge my "stuff" before I headed off for Korea. The PDA is recharging in the kitchen-ette, the cell phone by the bed, the laptop on the desk, the mp3 player plugs into the laptop to charge, and the electric shaver in the bathroom. What's so funny?

Went to bed at 10pm, after dozing off a couple of times, then woke up every 2 hours trying to get comfortable. My legs hurt, I have shin splints, my neck hurts (I just pulled it a little), and my lower back is killing me. I was up from 3am to 4am, probably because I normally only sleep for 6-7 hours, so my body may have thought it was time to get up. Oddly enough, I feel fairly well rested this morning. Of course, I've only been up for an hour and a half. We'll see how I feel in 6 hours!

Need to finish packing... again. We're going to get to the airport REALLY early. And wouldn't you know, San Fran airport has almost no fog this morning. Why couldn't it have been that way yesterday?

Talk to you soon....

Korea, here I come...

or not....

I made it 451 air miles. Then came to a screeching halt. Our flight out of Eugene was delayed almost 3 hours, arriving in San Fran with less than 25 minutes to board our connecting flight to Inchon, S Korea - at the other end of the airport. One of my companions, Pat, and her daughter made the flight. Angie waited for me, I couldn't walk as fast, and they literally closed the doors on our noses. Angie got there about 30 seconds before I did, and watched the woman close the door at the entrance to the ramp. They refused to let us on!

So, we're staying in San Fran tonight to catch the flight out tomorrow. United only has 1 flight from San Fran to Korea daily. Although I appreciate the chance to shower and rest up, I'm losing a day of sight-seeing in Seoul! We were able to claim our luggage here, so at least we can change clothes and relax a bit. Pat's luggage didn't make the flight so it's arrive when we do on Saturday. I plan on telling her that we decided to escort her luggage for her, make sure it got to Korea, that's why we missed the flight.

I feel bad that Angie had to wait for me and missed the flight, but then she told me of her flight to Bulgaria last year. She was traveling with another novice traveler, like me, and had separated in the Amsterdam airport to do some shopping, agreeing to meet at the gate. Angie fell asleep in the waiting area and missed her flight. Her companion went on without her, thinking she was already on the plane. I feel a little better now. I also feel very fortunate to be traveling with Angie, she's really nice, and has a good sense of humor.

Well, these are the events that make for good stories. So, on to Korea! (tomorrow)

And I'm OFF!....

But you already knew that, didn't you?

I leave for Seoul, Korea, on Thursday. I've never been overseas; in fact, I haven't flown in 24 years. I'm not really nervous about flying, although I am a bit claustrophobic. It's just very strange knowing that I'm going to another country, another continent, another hemisphere.

Wish me luck, a smooth flight, and decent weather. I'll try to blog while I'm over there, including photos. If I'm not too exhausted, that is!

I wish I'd known you better

Today I attended the memorial service for one of my co-workers, John Aeby. He devoted the last 30 years of his life to serving children through his countless videos, publications, and stories for Holt International. He died too soon, too young, and I regret not having known him better. He was a quiet, kind, talented, gentle man, who always greeted me by name with a smile. He lived for his family, he worked for the children, he celebrated life every single day, often times in some of the worst places on this Earth. He never lost his faith or his love for everyone he knew.

Four years wasn't long enough, I wish I'd known you better, John. You are missed.