Hello Seoul!

Yep, I'm in Seoul, and I have some thoughts to share, but first let me catch you up on the roadtrip.

The end of the trip was AMAZING.  I got to spend over a week with my Aunt Linda, we bonded, realized that we have a LOT of the same taste in movies (yay), discovered a new drink (Cinnamosa: Fireball whiskey, champagne, cranberry juice and a slice of orange), and had a GREAT time at Isleta.  Isleta is a casino outside of Albuquerque.  We stayed there after selling my car (yay).  We had massages, a snack in the form of a MOUNTAIN of chips, beef, beans, cheese, sour cream, salsa, and guac (it was soooo yummy), gambled a bit and then went to dinner at the more posh place upstairs.  I got a great filet mignon (medium rare), with 2 bourbon drinks and wine.  It was so nice to get to know Aunt Linda better, make her cats love me, get a little spoiled, then dropped off at the airport.  The ALB to DFW trip wasn't bad, though I did get felt up by TSA. 

 Meet Mr MacDougall and Mr Holmes

This is Paco

Anna met me at DFW and we went straight to Anamias for dinner.  We told the waiter that we were gonna be there a while and again went a bit crazy with the gastronomic delights.  We had chips with salsa and guac, I got their Poblano a la parilla with brisket and grilled veggies, we ended up having 5 margaritas each, and somehow we were both able to go to the store to get... something she needed.  We stayed at a Motel 6 with her dog, which we couldn't help comparing to some of the hostels we had stayed at in Europe. 

Anna's dog, Cake.

Then she dropped me off at DFW after showing me how to connect my 2 black bags.  The check-in kiosk was nice and easy, then I went to drop off my bags.  I found out that the first 2 checked bags are free, if you take another it's $200.00.  I got those checked in, got thru security (this time without being felt up by TSA), found my gate, and got on the plane.  They changed my seat at the last min, but I still had a window seat, so that made me happy.  What I didn't know was that our route would take us from DFW over OK, CO, WY, MT, parts of Canada, AK, across the Bearing Sea, over Russia and China before swinging us over the Yellow Sea and into Seoul.  I mean, I expected that we wouldn't fly over N Korea, but I also kind of expected to just go over the Pacific, you know?  Anyway, the flight was uneventful and even though I wasn't able to watch movies for some reason, I was able to watch TV shows (I need to finish Killing Eve now). OH, they also fed us 3 friggin' times!!!  First was a more fancy meal with a brownie for dessert, then the other 2 times were a sandwich or noodles.  I guess they figured on keeping us fed and asleep and all would be well.

The Seoul airport was not bad.  I got off the plane and followed the signs for Baggage Claim (being extremely happy to find a bathroom as well).  Got thru immigration (they do ask what hotel you will be at), then got my bags (rather quickly, really), then went thru customs (real uneventful), on the other side of customs I exchanged the cash I had brought with me and then I went thru the last set of doors to find my recruiter dude. 

Korean money - the exchange rate made me feel like a baller ;)

A note - if you decide to do this, I highly recommend going thru English Work.  Michael Kim was amazing through every step of the process and getting through the airport to the place where there was a person waiting for me with a sign and everything was a MASSIVE relief.  Mr Shin was great in helping me with my bags, loading them in the van, and getting me to my hotel.  He also played tour guide a bit, gave me the names of places around here (not that I remember any of them)... he made a great first impression on me.  Did you know that  60% of cars in Korea are Korean made (KIA and Hyundai)?  Then 30% are German and the remaining 10% are from US manufacturers?   He was friendly, engaging, and somehow didn't get into a fender bender, which amazed me cuz Seoul during rush hour did not seem like fun to drive in!!

Check-in at the hotel was also easy and I am happily in my room.  I do have a roomie for the week of training, but it seems like we should get along just fine.

So here I am.  Months of planning, a great road trip, a couple anxious moments and it's all down to this!  I had to laugh when I left my hotel to take a walk around because there is a Starbucks right across the street.  It really doesn't take long to find something familiar in metropolitan areas of globalized countries ;)

 Hotel room - I took the small bed

 

The bathroom - fairly standard, though I have no idea what all those buttons on the toilet are for and I'm not quite adventuresome enough to push any of them.

 I really, really hope we don't need to use this... pretty sure it's in case of fire.

 View to the right from the hotel...

 View to the left

Something here is really familiar.