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Annyeong haseyo. I have arrived in Korea! It was a long long journey.
I left Brixham at 9am GMT on Tuesday and arrived at my hotel near Seoul Incheon Airport at 10.30pm local time. A journey of approximately 30 hours.
So here's the story of the journey. First we drove to Gatwick but as we used the A303, we managed to stop for lunch at StoneHenge. It costs a lot to go in so didnt do that, but I did get to see some example bronze age huts and read a few information posts about the history. Once back on the road we managed to catch sight of StoneHenge as we drove past.
Arriving at Gatwick I was quite early....and then the flight was delayed. I said goodbye to mum and dad and then went to wait for the flight - the flight was delayed by an hour. But no worries as my connecting flight had a 2 hour gap. We took off around 6.30pm for the three and a half hour flight. The flight was fine and something I wasn't expecting - there were lots of inflight movies to watch...so of course I watched the Hobbit.
Then came the interesting part. Due to our delay at Gatwick, we arrived at Istanbul airport late. That meant there wasn't a slot to land for over an hour. This is not good as my connecting flight would leave before then. And it started snowing (yes Istanbul Airport was covered in snow last night). Thankfully the air flight attendant confirmed the next plane would wait for us so I didn't need to freak out. I had visions of having to demand the turkish put on an extra flight for me. Anyway, after an hour or so circling - almost 3 hours late, we landed. It was a little chilly! I took a shuttle bus to the airport - Istanbul airport is massive and took almost 15 minutes to get from plane to the building :0. I rushed in, saw I had to be at gate 226 and rushed (something between a fast walk and a jog)...for about 10 miles as I didn't realise it was right at the other side of the airport. When I eventually got there, there was one man in the empty room. He shouted "seoul", "yes" I shouted back, "thanks for waiting." He asked where I had flown from and then let out a big "huff". very rude! Anyway, we boarded the plane and then had another 1-2 hour delay as they cleared the runway of snow! Finally, by 3am local time...we were on our way.
After a long 12 hour flight, which thankfully I managed to get some sleep on, we arrived in Korea. After meeting Andrew, who would be my room mate at the hotel, filling in a few forms and changing up some money, I eventually left the airport and took a free shuttle bus to the Grand Hyatt hotel. It is very nice and posh. Reach to Teach recruiters were there to greet us and I got my new sim card which meant I could let people at home know I was here. After settling into the room, Andrew and I went out and found a small food place open. It was very nice food although it has meat in it even though I thought I was ordering vegetarian. One thing my research suggested about Korea - they don't do vegetarian. I have therefore decided to try being pescetarian while I am here and see whether that's possible or not.
And now I'm back at the hotel room writing this. The next 10 days or so will be our orientation and then its down to Ulsan where I will start teaching at the beginning of March. I'm finally starting to feel excited as it all sinks in.
Goodnight.
- comments
karen Hi matt well at least you got there . Now for the big adventure .