Souless in Seoul

Alright I take it all back. The Koreans are not all happy . . . well maybe the stewardesses but certainly not the ppl if you aren't paying them for a service. Over a ten minute span, I think I was cut in front of at least three times in one line or another. No apologies, no acknowledgment of rude behavior. Just people A LITTLE too rushed at the airport for my taste. Ugh. And for some reason, don't know why, everyone keeps staring at me and Ryann. Ha. We do stick out pretty bad, but it could be worse. We decided to respect their customs and put on pants and not just shorts, which is what we were planning on doing for the plane. Ugh. Can't wait til we get to Sydney for some beer and friendly Aussies!

Two Lost Souls in Seoul

Yay, we started our adventure off with a delayed plane flight to Seoul, South Korea! Well, atually it wasn't that bad, just made our trip more entertaining. We arrived at the Incheon, S. Korean International Airport a little outside of Seoul right at the same time that our connecting flight to Sydney was taking off. The plane flight wasn't that bad at all, Ryann and I attribute most of the great flight to the ultra attentive Korean stewardesses. Those girls had freaking smiles plastered across their faces for the entire 15 hour flight (I am assuming they were on some uppers of some sort, bc it boggles my mind that ppl can be so friendly - but maybe that's just bc I am American and/or I'm a huge cynic when it comes to believing ppl can be genuinely happy). So anyways, Ryann tried one mean on the plane - aside from the seaweed soup she claims that her vegetables and rice were very good. I on the other hand brought my own food from the airport Einsteins's to sustain me.

Ok, arrival in Incheon, S. Korea . . . we walk off the plane and we are accosted by a woman with a Sydney sign. Obviously we missed our flight so we had to go thru customs and were directed to a Korean Air Kiosk for further details. Ry and I, along with a few other foreigners were given vouchers for a free night stay in the Hyatt Regency and three free meals. Wow we lucked out with this place! Dinner was fairly good, spaghetti, and although the beds were pretty rock hard, the soft duvet made it quite lovely. We met a guy from Fiji at dinner who chatty chat chatted with us. At one point during the convo he asked us "So how is America?" - ha, we said it was pretty good. He went on to tell us how he was planning in the future to move to the Us - we asked where . . . he said Missouri. Hmmmmm, odd? Turns out he has a gf up in Tokyo, where he lives, that is from Missouri which helped us to understand the randomness of his answer. Actually I'm not even sure if i have been to Missouri, oh well. Moving on . . .

We passed out round 930 pm Korean time, and of course Ryann woke up at 3am and couldn't go back to sleep. I woke up round 730 and heard her rumbling in the bathroom which was odd bc i could have sworn I had also heard her an hour before in the bathroom. Hmmm. So i proceed to changed the channels on the tv and she emerges from the bathroom, book in hand. She had been reading in the bathroom for the past hour or two trying not to disturb me by turning on the lights in the main room.

I talked to me madre right bf we headed out to breakfast and she asked what sort of attire we had been sporting when we got off the plane in S. Korea. The question seemed highly relevant since the temperature was 32F when we got off the plane, but more importantly she brought up the fact that Asian countries aren't exactly "cool" with the whole "wear whatever the hell you want" mentality that Ryann and I usually maintain. This point was illustrated when we went down to breakfast wearing wind shorts and the matre'd politely asked us to change. Ryann and I look at each other a little frightened. . . shit, we didn't have any other clothes. Then I remember I had some sweat pants and Ryann some capri pants that we wore on the plane. We quickly changed and returned, the guy was pretty cool about it - and we did explain to him that we had missed our plane and were actually supposed to be in 80F weather in Sydney.

Now we're just hanging out in the hotel room watching - can you believe it - Without a Trace on one of the many English speaking tv stations. Ryann even watched Good Morning American early this morning and has fully described the goings of the elections. Apparently Hilary teared up at some breakfast in New Hampshire after some woman asked her how she was doing, and now she has freaking won the state. Ugh. Oh well, it's not like a Democrat is gonna be elected into the Presidency anyways so I shall not fret too much!