Day 0: Welcome to Korea

My amazing parents dropped me off at SeaTac airport on Wednesday, July 20th to catch my plane to San Francisco. From San Francisco, I would catch a flight to Seoul/Incheon Airport. Overall, things went really smooth at SeaTac.  It was a little slow to get checked luggage checked and secured. Because my connecting flight was through Singapore Airlines, the Alaska Airlines attendant needed to charge me for my luggage using an old school, handwritten, carbon copy paper system. As you can imagine, this took some time.

Traveling Tip: Okay, this is a pretty slick tip. I got this from a fellow coworker. If you're planning on moving overseas, use cardboard boxes instead of suitcases. Once you get to your final destination, you simply recycle your cardboard box. This saves you from having pesky oversized luggage. Also, according to my mom who works at FedEx, it's super important to tape all the sides and corners really well. I thought I did a good job, but my boxes probably could use a couple more strips of tape around the sides.

I checked my four bags (actually boxes) filled mostly with clothing, shoes, and children's books with the Alaska attendant, and I prayed that they'd all make it to Incheon - which they did. Phew! This is the first of many things that I worried about. Here are some other events that gave me the "OH NOs!!!" I had while trying to get from point a (Seattle) to point b (Seoul):

1. The slow, yet expected, crawl through security at SeaTac
2. Being detained on the plane for an extra 45 minutes in San Francisco, because the moving tunnel/hall that connects to the plane wasn't working
3. Realizing that you had to leave the gates/terminal and reenter security to get to my Singapore Airlines flight.
4. Getting a boarding pass that says that the plane started boarding 10 minutes ago... and I still have to reenter through security.

Now that I made myself sound like a giant worry wart, I'm going to switch gears and tell you the "YAYS" of my flying experience:

1. My parents drove me from Camano Island to SeaTac, and they stayed with me till I got into the security line.
2. I didn't have a lot of waiting to do, because of all the strange delays listed above.
3. My flight to Seoul was delayed by an hour, so I had just enough time to order a beer and tacos!
4. I watched a bunch of movies on my international flight: My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, Zootopia, Brooklyn, & Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. All movies had strong female leads - of course. I strongly recommend Zootopia!
5. I met a coworker while boarding the tram to customs. Creepily, I saw her luggage tag and recognized her name from work emails, so I introduced myself.

I arrived at 7:30pm-ish Seoul time. By the time I got to my apartment, it was 9:00pm-ish. The apartment was fully furnished, and a support staff team member showed me the ropes. I'll post pictures of my cute little place soon!