Preemptive Travel

Before making the trek to Asia I spent a week bopping between relatives on the west coast. In less than a week I experienced any and every kind of travel blunder I think possible.

1. Arrival at TUL 28 minutes before flight departure, bags not allowed to be checked, must wait until following morning and try again
2. Left the house especially early to ensure I would make the TSA regulation of time before a flight leaves for a bag to be checked. En route to airport and dad blows at tire, no spare, its 5:20 a.m..
3. Arrive at TUL via cab from gas station 10 minutes before the latest time to check bags, my bag weighs 58 pounds and costs an extra $90 to take to SNA

4. Arrive SNA, spend the afternoon with the grandparents hearing the tales of great adventure during the hay day of TWA, these include Grandpa's VIP turtle neck cocktail hour with Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston, cargo airplanes of pregnant cows and many more.

5. Drop off at wrong terminal at LAX followed by an hour on the runway to be deplaned and put on Boise State's jet to get up to San Jose arriving an hour later than planned. I'll admit, I'd fallen asleep before we moved away from the gate and my confusion was on par with the rest of the plane's when finding out the hour on the runway meant us staying in LA and not getting to San Jose, an hour flight away.

6. Stayed in Menlo Park with Kristen and brother in law and baby Grace. Ate up some of the American dishes I'd be without for a year: Pizza, Mexican food, Girl scout cookies and In n Out. Best few days of eating, ever.
7. First successful flight, arrived in Portland with all the gear I'd been carting around.

8. The few days in Portland provided a break from the travel. Scarfed delicious Lebanese for lunch, the housemade pita bread was beyond impressive, and so was the price for 3 to eat.

Tried to nab a pic of Rick in front of his thai restaurant but had to settle for a tea infused vodka soda, at the whiskey soda lounge. Picked up a few more travel books at the local book store, watched some must needed to watch movied with the broski (Inglorious Bastards, No Country for Old Men, Winter Bone, Blue Valentine). Visited good ol Paul Bunyun for kicks and said hello to some friendly family, the Portland Cruickshanks. Portland, like New Orleans, captivates me more and more each time I visit, beckoning me to stay forever.

9. Arrived at PDX and faced the threat of my moisturizer getting snatched finally, after 3 security checkpoints I wasn't going to let it go that easily. They brought it back to me and I managed to sneak it back into my bag. Farewell phone calls, numerous gate changes and a three hour delay later I departed Portland for LA.
10. Sprinted through LAX to try and make it to my connection, at the time it looked like I was going to be taking  a back pack and a little roller bag to Korea since there was no time to meet my uncle for my suitcase rendez-vous. After four korean flight attendants scrambled to get me on a missed flight, I slinked myself back through the LAX airport to receive me hotel voucher for the evening and to try again the next morning.

11. February 19, 2011. Arrive at Incheon, cabbed it to Gimpo ($120 cab ride, definitely ripped off by the cab driver who was trying to asses my sex life while trying not to kill us going a million miles an hour across a huge bridge), flight to Busan.
12. My school representatives pick me up with a giant laminated sign with my first, middle and last name. I was the only foreigner on the flight, so naturally they spotted me a mile away while I was collecting my luggage. An hour car ride and slightly awkward conversation later I had finally made it, to the hotel room two doors down from the school I'll be spending the majority of my time at for the next 355 days.

Needless to say, the traveling prepared me for the traveling. After each flight delay, plane change, security pat down I began to wonder, maybe this is a sign that I shouldn't be going. But I made it after all, and it was all worth it.