Flight and Arrival

We have arrived in THAILAND!!! I dont even know where to start.  

At the Chicago airport

I guess with our flight.  Chicago was a breeze.  All of our bags were under weight and had no problem. It was wonderful. I however forgot about the rules of carry-ons. I thought you could take 4fl oz. of liquid but it was really 3. So I had to throw away my contact solution, which meant that I had none! (I was very nervous for this) But we passed through security just fine.  We had about 2 hours before our flight and were starving. Surprisingly there were little options for us so that was depressing. The ‘food court’ was BEFORE security and there were only little stands passed security. But we made it nonetheless.

Our flight was great. We had adequate space.  We were in second to last row and only 2 seats with 3 seats in front of us which meant we had more leg room than most!! LOVELY! Each seat had screens in the back so we could watch movies.  Moe watched a TON of movies but I only watched 3 I think! (I got to watch Hunger Games and I was very very very excited about that!) Our flight was 12 hours and 55 minutes so less than we thought and honestly it wasn’t that bad.  Korean Air is wonderful. During this flight we had 2 meals which were pretty good: chicken and rice with vegetables and then chicken and pasta with vegetables. (They had pork and beef but we stayed with chicken). We also got offered a drink of juice or water probably 5 times at least. It was beautiful. Overall a great flight.

Sprite can that I had with dinner

It was quite cloudy on the flight. As soon as we passed through the clouds we were on top of the airport literally. It was crazy.  Thank god for great captains! Seoul airport was huge and slightly stuffy. Once we landed in Seoul we had to go through security again with our carry-ons. My bag got checked because I had a bottle of cherry coke in it! But they let me keep it because I was going to Thailand ;) Moes bag however was a different story! He had his desktop computer in pieces in his carry on. They did not like this. He explained what it was and they finally understood. They had to take out pieces; he explained what they were and they scanned it all again. After about 3 scans they finally let him through but his bag was a mess, so we had to take a few minutes to put it all back together again! We then had about 2 hours to wait! Honestly it went a lot faster than we thought it would.

Our next flight was bad for me. It was only 5 hours but still. We were to arrive at 10:50 pm and wanted to be able to go to sleep. So we wanted to not sleep on this flight and get there exhausted…. This plan did NOT work. I was pooped. I was fighting sleeping for an hour or so. I had another meal and barely ate any of it because I was so tired. My tummy was upset because I hadn’t slept in so long. I started watching a movie in hopes that it would keep me awake but it didn’t. Eventually I gave in and slept for probably 2 or 3 hours!! It was wonderful, but not at the same time because I felt like I had failed! Moe only slept about an hour. He is much better than me ;)

Upon arrival the city looked so cool all lit up. We could see all the roads and houses lit. It was beautiful. Customs was fairly easy as well. On the plane we had to fill in these papers explaining why we were there and our visa numbers and everything. We handed that and our passports to the people. They verified everything and let us through. It was as pleasant as customs could be in my opinion! We then got our baggage. THANKFULLY everything was there. I was quite worried about losing our luggage but it was fine! We then had to get our checked bags checked ;) which again was fine. Deyla, the other 4^th grade teacher, and the high school principal picked us up at the airport. They took us to our apartment which in my opinion is a lot like a hotel room. The driver took us on a remote route. They said we would never see these roads again! (honestly that drive made me very nervous. It didn’t look safe or friendly or anything but it got better). But we arrived at our place just fine.

At our place we had a bag of goodies, mostly American things like Lays potato chips, granola bars, juice boxes, etc. Deyla was so so so kind and brought me a box of contact solution!! Our place has a microwave, fridge, beds with sheets, towels, bathroom, and lots of storage.  We haven’t gotten too comfortable by unpacking our stuff yet but we are managing.

So I just realized how long winded I have become. I guess to keep things in line I will do another post about our first day.  Apparently I need to stay on top of this since I have so much to share! If you have ANY questions feel free to ask us.  Also, obviously we have internet and would LOVE to skype with anyone.  If you don’t have it just download skype set up an account and then add us (Brittany.knecthel or matt.knechtel)  Look forward to hearing from you.