my flight across the pond

I made it!! I am in Korea!!! The title is actually a bit of a misnomer because we didn't fly across the Pacific Ocean, we kind of skirted around it:

Wow almost there!!!!!!

 All in all my flight wasn't too bad. It could have gone more smoothly but it definitely could have also been much worse. Basically, this is what happened: we were taking off in Detroit and there was a violent pop! from the left side of the plane, but we kept going and nothing else seemed wrong so everyone dismissed it. Everything was business as usual, and  the captain even came on the speakers and said that lunch would be served once we passed some turbulence. However about ten minutes later, he said that the Detroit airport had checked out the runway after we'd left and found a piece of metal. It was believed we had blown a tire during take off, so we'd have to turn around and head back.

Since Seoul was my final destination and I didn't have any connections I had to catch it wasn't that big of a deal for me (those who did had to spend the night in Incheon Airport), but I just wonder why it took them an hour to decide that we had to go back. I also don't really understand why we didn't just head on to Seoul, since we'd have to make a landing either way... oh well. They gave us an $18 meal voucher for inside the airport and $100 to use on any future Delta flight, which is really nice because I'm planning on flying out to visit my brother this fall and that ticket is now taken care of!

Anyhow, we waited around for two or three hours and then finally got back underway. I actually fell asleep before we left the docking platform thingy and completely missed take off, haha. Waking up from that was a little disorienting. Luckily for me, dinner was being served just then!

Well... "luckily" depending on how you look at it. If you enjoy tummy aches and really weird wiggly inexplicable stomach dancing after meals, then yes, it was lucky. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure that no matter what I eat here in Korea, nothing will frighten me more than airline food.

Since this was the first airline meal I'd eaten since flying to Germany in 2010, I gave it the benefit of the doubt and ate most of what was on my plate. Except for the orange slices, the fruit was fine, and the veggies and the pasta weren't bad, and I even hazarded a few bites of the meat (beef...? Not sure!) but then I ate that thing you see in the top left, and regretted it almost immediately. I will not be putting that stuff in my mouth again. I really appreciated the Tillamook cheese, however! I love Tillamook. After eating I got up and went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth and walked around for a bit.

There was a plethora of movies to watch, so I fast-forwarded through many of the ones I'd been wise enough not to see in theaters from the past few months. (Beautiful Creatures, I'm looking at you.) Then I settled down to sleep for a while. This was the part of the flight I felt most well-prepared for! I had two blankets (the plane was freezing), an eye mask, ear plugs, and an inflatable neck pillow. I actually didn't need the neck pillow because the headrest on my seat could fold up on both sides of your head to support it, and combined with all of the other supplies I was armed with, I actually was able to sleep very comfortably for a few hours at a time. With those earplugs in, I was blissfully unaware of the screaming babies surround me. :) The flip side of that coin is that I slept so well that it is now 4am and I'm really not very tired at all. :(

About halfway through the flight they passed out a snack consisting of a banana, some Milano cookies (!) and... a bread roll, I think? I actually have already forgotten, ha. And about an hour before we landed they gave us breakfast, which looked like this:

The grapes, which were mostly frozen, were delicious. I ate everything except the omelet, which had some sort of cheese in the middle of it (I think?), and, remembering my previous experience with Unknown Dairy-based Foods at dinner, I had little desire to repeat that episode so soon ever.

Soon after, we landed (finally!!!) and I became acquainted with another American who had been sitting in the row in front of me while we followed to crowd to baggage claim and customs, both of which were blessedly easy to maneuver. At this point I actually felt very lucky that our arrival had been so delayed, because it meant that my dad was awake (whereas if I had landed at 3:30pm as originally planned and it had been 2:30am in Cincinnati he may not have been) and could help me figure out why my phone couldn't find any service (it was because Voice Roaming was off) and also it meant that I could ride home in my friend's car instead of on the subway. I'm not sure I'm ready to take on the subway with this baby:

Really, really big baby

Since it was after 11pm, the drive back was pretty dark and I couldn't really see anything, but I can tell you with reasonable certainty that I hope I never have to drive in Seoul, ever. Partially because I can't read the signs very well but also because I'm positive that my reflexes are nowhere near as fast as they would need to be for me to handle the way people drive here.

Up next will be about my new digs!