Day 0: Departing for Seoul
As my trip got closer, I started scouting the weather of Seoul and looking at the average temperatures during the month of October. The historical records suggested the temperatures would be in the high teens and for the most part I packed as such. In the last week of September however, Seoul got a lot of rain and the temperatures dropped dramatically so my Aunt urged to pack for colder weathers which I did also.
As much of a trip this was for me, it also a trip for my mom to return to Korea after 25 years. Over the last decade, there were several times when I asked my mom whether she wanted to visit Korea and see her siblings again. She always replied with an answer that made sense but I never fully understood. She said that since she had been away for so long, it was better to stay away and remember how things were. From her perspective, seeing them again would make the inevitable departure that much more emotional and difficult. Therefore I went to Korea with not only the intention of seeing all the sights and attractions but also with the intention of trying to understand my mom and the native Korean way of thinking and feeling and to experience things like “jung” (정). We packed gifts like make up and tons of instant coffee for my aunts which I didn’t quite understand because I was quite certain that whatever we had here in Canada you could get in Seoul also.
All Korean Air flights from Toronto to Seoul seem to depart only in the wee hours of the morning and my flight was no exception. My flight on Saturday night (technically Sunday morning) was at 1:30AM with an arrival time at Incheon International Airport at 4:30AM local time. This was going to be my first time flying Korean Air. Even though I’m Korean, I hardly knew any Korean people growing up so it was almost like a surreal or neat (or 신기해) experience seeing so many Korean people in one place when I was at the check-in area at Pearson International Airport. In fact, when I think about school all the way through university, it seems like there was really only one Korean person I knew well enough to call a friend.
The flight left on time and during the flight, I found the service on Korean Air to be so excellent that I would choose to fly Korean Air again any time I could in the future. Did I mention that the flight attendants were beautiful also?^^ What was interesting was that I would say half the plane was occupied by non-Koreans. I discovered that the trip to Incheon Airport was a connecting flight to other destinations in Asia such as the Philippines. After flying and sitting at a window seat to and from Tokyo in 2008, I vowed never to get a window seat again. I found windows seats were cold, noisy (plane engine sounds) and as I’m over 6’ tall I had less room to stretch my legs. Therefore, I went with an aisle seat this time to Seoul. It made a huge difference and it was just nice that I didn’t have to bother anyone if I wanted to get up to use the restroom or just to stand and walk down the aisle or stretch. They had a bunch of inflight movies, music, shows and games but I found that they only held my interest about 15 minutes at a time. I watched a bit of the A-Team, Iron Man 2 and listened to some Girls’ Generation, Kara, Jo Sumi and whatever else the plane had to offer. Surprisingly, it was listening to my iPod that helped me pass a lot of the time.
I heard that they offered BiBimBap (비빔밥) on Korean Air and sure enough that’s what was served. It was served with Laver Soup (미역국). The best food items I liked on the plane were the Brown Rice Green Tea (현미녹차) and the Green Tea Rice Porridge (녹차죽). My real camera was in the overhead so I snapped this with my phone.
I have to say that everything I ate on the plane was quite decent and was surprised that I actually could say I liked the airplane food.
While the plane ride had stretches where it got a little restless, overall, it was actually tolerable thank goodness. The plane landed on time and my aunt actually stayed overnight at the airport so that she could meet us at 4:30AM in the morning. I kept picturing all these fans at the airport waiting for me like some kind of Hallyu star but then I realized that it was just me and that I watch too much Korean television. Even though I had not seen my aunt in 22 years, she looked exactly how I remembered…Korean and about half my height ^^. Most of the restaurants at the airport were naturally closed so early in the morning but my aunt insisted I get something to eat before leaving for Seoul so I hit the airport McDonald’s for a Sausage McMuffin combo. Upon leaving the airport, we found taxi stands designated for different places in Korea. We headed towards the stand that had taxis that only went in to Seoul. Our bags barely fit into the cab and we had to put one in the driver's side passender seat but I blame it all on the taxi driver’s oversized golf bag that already took up half of the trunk space. It was unfortunately still pitch black outside so I didn’t get to catch much of Seoul on the taxi ride in.
The ride took about an hour when we got to my aunt’s condo in Seodaemun, one of the districts in Seoul. Wow, I finally arrived in Seoul, Korea!
As much of a trip this was for me, it also a trip for my mom to return to Korea after 25 years. Over the last decade, there were several times when I asked my mom whether she wanted to visit Korea and see her siblings again. She always replied with an answer that made sense but I never fully understood. She said that since she had been away for so long, it was better to stay away and remember how things were. From her perspective, seeing them again would make the inevitable departure that much more emotional and difficult. Therefore I went to Korea with not only the intention of seeing all the sights and attractions but also with the intention of trying to understand my mom and the native Korean way of thinking and feeling and to experience things like “jung” (정). We packed gifts like make up and tons of instant coffee for my aunts which I didn’t quite understand because I was quite certain that whatever we had here in Canada you could get in Seoul also.
All Korean Air flights from Toronto to Seoul seem to depart only in the wee hours of the morning and my flight was no exception. My flight on Saturday night (technically Sunday morning) was at 1:30AM with an arrival time at Incheon International Airport at 4:30AM local time. This was going to be my first time flying Korean Air. Even though I’m Korean, I hardly knew any Korean people growing up so it was almost like a surreal or neat (or 신기해) experience seeing so many Korean people in one place when I was at the check-in area at Pearson International Airport. In fact, when I think about school all the way through university, it seems like there was really only one Korean person I knew well enough to call a friend.
The flight left on time and during the flight, I found the service on Korean Air to be so excellent that I would choose to fly Korean Air again any time I could in the future. Did I mention that the flight attendants were beautiful also?^^ What was interesting was that I would say half the plane was occupied by non-Koreans. I discovered that the trip to Incheon Airport was a connecting flight to other destinations in Asia such as the Philippines. After flying and sitting at a window seat to and from Tokyo in 2008, I vowed never to get a window seat again. I found windows seats were cold, noisy (plane engine sounds) and as I’m over 6’ tall I had less room to stretch my legs. Therefore, I went with an aisle seat this time to Seoul. It made a huge difference and it was just nice that I didn’t have to bother anyone if I wanted to get up to use the restroom or just to stand and walk down the aisle or stretch. They had a bunch of inflight movies, music, shows and games but I found that they only held my interest about 15 minutes at a time. I watched a bit of the A-Team, Iron Man 2 and listened to some Girls’ Generation, Kara, Jo Sumi and whatever else the plane had to offer. Surprisingly, it was listening to my iPod that helped me pass a lot of the time.
I heard that they offered BiBimBap (비빔밥) on Korean Air and sure enough that’s what was served. It was served with Laver Soup (미역국). The best food items I liked on the plane were the Brown Rice Green Tea (현미녹차) and the Green Tea Rice Porridge (녹차죽). My real camera was in the overhead so I snapped this with my phone.
While the plane ride had stretches where it got a little restless, overall, it was actually tolerable thank goodness. The plane landed on time and my aunt actually stayed overnight at the airport so that she could meet us at 4:30AM in the morning. I kept picturing all these fans at the airport waiting for me like some kind of Hallyu star but then I realized that it was just me and that I watch too much Korean television. Even though I had not seen my aunt in 22 years, she looked exactly how I remembered…Korean and about half my height ^^. Most of the restaurants at the airport were naturally closed so early in the morning but my aunt insisted I get something to eat before leaving for Seoul so I hit the airport McDonald’s for a Sausage McMuffin combo. Upon leaving the airport, we found taxi stands designated for different places in Korea. We headed towards the stand that had taxis that only went in to Seoul. Our bags barely fit into the cab and we had to put one in the driver's side passender seat but I blame it all on the taxi driver’s oversized golf bag that already took up half of the trunk space. It was unfortunately still pitch black outside so I didn’t get to catch much of Seoul on the taxi ride in.
The ride took about an hour when we got to my aunt’s condo in Seodaemun, one of the districts in Seoul. Wow, I finally arrived in Seoul, Korea!
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