Our First Night In Seoul

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Right now it is 3:55am in Seoul, South Korea and it is 11:55am in Oregon...and I can't sleep. On Saturday we flew into Hawaii at 12:00 in the morning, 3:00am, Oregon time. The following day, we took off for Korea. The flight went well, but it felt like we were never going to land. I had the grand idea of sleeping the whole way on both of our flights, but it didn't happen.  We left at 11:30am, Hawaiian time, and arrived in Incheon, Korea the following day at 5:00pm. Here's when our trip gets crazy...

As soon as my husband and I landed I had this rush of confidence that I had been to Korea and I knew how to navigate through the country. I talked to Junggi on Kakao and he told us to get onto an airport limousine to get to the area he was at. As soon as we departed from the baggage claim, a nice looking man said he had a taxi that would take us to Seoul. The last time I was in Korea with my brother and sister in-law we took a 30 minute taxi for 10,000 won, approximately $10.00. So I said, "yes." I was so tired and I didn't care how we got to Junggi and Soo's home. I figured the limousine and taxi were alike. Meanwhile, Reagan was not pleased with me. He did not want to go with the man, but I insisted and so did the taxi driver. The weather was so hot and humid I was glad to get into the air conditioned taxi with a man who said he knew where he was going and knew how to speak a little English. My confidence started to dwindle when we passed by the "airport limousine." It was a bus and we were in a taxi with a man who was driving erratically. He assumed I could speak Korean and I was beginning to think he might be a bit of a con artist. I wanted him to think we knew what we were doing so I tried to play along while he spoke in Korean. I wrote down that we needed to go to Jungleung station. Instead he took us to some random post office that was closed. If you know me well, yes, I was now crying. The taxi cost us 120,000 won which is about $120.00. I knew we had been had. I found wireless Internet while Reagan and the man unloaded our belongings. I called Junggi right away and told him we were lost. The taxi driver could tell we were in the wrong area so he talked to Junggi and got us to the right area. Thankfully, he was nice enough to do that.

When we arrived at Junggi and Soo's home we were greeted by Jenna and Yuna. They have gotten so big. Yuna let me hold her right away. Thank goodness, because I miss Sam so much already, I am going to need some cuteness in my life to hold me at bay. Soo made an amazing dinner. We were so tired that we went to bed shortly after dinner. I was so delirious on our adventure here that I didn't stop to take any pictures.

Lesson learned through all of this is when someone offers to pick you up from the airport, don't refuse the kind gesture. It might cost you, literally. Junggi offered and wanted to, but I thought that it would be too much of a burden. I think I was more of a burden getting us lost. Also, that my husband might be right some of time. Don't tell him that.

We are going to the fertility clinic in about four hours. I will keep you posted on how our meeting goes. Bye, for now.