And then there was one

I just got back from dropping my mom off at Incheon airport for her flight home. We had a really great week together and I'm sad to see her go. After that debacle last week everything went smoothly at the airport today. The people at Asiana were super nice and even made sure that when she lands in SFO she'll have enough time between then and her flight on to Boston. Ahem, note to American Airlines that if they had taken the extra minute to do this when she'd checked in at Boston last week that they could have caught the mistake and put her on an earlier flight to JFK, of which there were many. Just saying.

I have lots of pictures and things to put up from her trip here but since we kept pretty busy during the week there wasn't too much time to post them along the way. Plus I don't want to talk about all her adventures before she can share them with people back home herself. Besides, she will tell the story of the fridge in the bathroom at 3:30am much better than me.

After successfully hosting one visitor I'm already itching to do it again. My boyfriend will be here in less than two months (:D) and an awesome friend is considering a trip for the fall. So if you're looking to get out of the country for a bit, come visit me! I miss everyone from home and once you get past the plane ticket price Korea is cheap, I promise!

Trivia of the Day: Ciné de Chef is a combined luxury movie theatre and gourmet restaurant, located in Apgujeong, southern Seoul. It is operated by CJ CGV, South Korea's largest multiplex movie theatre chain, and opened on 3 May 2007, drawing over 2000 viewers in its first few months. The theatre seats just thirty people in deluxe chairs costing ₩8 million each ($8,000), and is equipped with 11.1 channel speakers which surround the entire theatre, including the floor and ceiling. In the restaurant, Le Cordon Bleu-certified chefs serve modern Asian cuisine. Other services provided by Ciné de Chef include valet parking, a private elevator, an escort service and English-speaking staff. Tickets cost in the region of ₩60,000–100,000 ($60-100).

In which a non-departure is detailed

Let's reminisce a little, shall we?

Remember that time that you were living in a foreign country and your mom decided to come visit you and you were both crazy excited and then her flight from Boston to New York was delayed for an hour and a half and so she missed her connecting flight to Korea and no one at the airport was helping her book a new flight and her cell phone was dying and she couldn't get to her luggage because the counter was already closed and everyone was freaking out?

Yeah. GOOD TIMES.

Basically the past 24 hours have been a nightmare. My mom has had her visit planned for a few weeks and was supposed to arrive in Incheon this afternoon around 4pm on a direct flight from JFK in New York. She left for Logan in Boston nice and early on Wednesday morning but then her flight on American Airlines to JFK was seriously delayed and so she ended up missing her connecting flight. 

From there everything sort of fell apart. She was at the American Airlines counter for an hour but they ended up saying that because there wasn't a two hour window between the landing and take-off of her two flights, that essentially it wasn't their fault so it shouldn't fall on them to deal with it. She booked through AAA and since there weren't any red flags regarding the time between her flights when she booked them, it didn't seem like an issue. Since I wasn't actually there I can't speak for what the customer service was actually like at the American Airlines counter but I don't care too much to hear about an airline that won't work to help out a stranded passenger. Since all the flights directly to Korea were done for the day she was pretty much stuck and obviously upset about it. 

In the meantime, my dad and I were talking over Skype while he was trying to help her figure things out. One big problem was that her luggage was with Asiana Air, the carrier for her second flight, and their counter was already closed for the day so there was no way she could get to it. When I finally went to bed at 6:30am she was still at the airport deciding where to spend the night, my dad was on the phone with American Airlines to verify the whereabouts of her baggage, and her best shot at a flight out was to get on standby for the same flight on Asiana leaving the following day, Thursday, and just hope she wouldn't get bumped until the Friday departure. Basically all my fears regarding my own flight to Korea came true for my poor mom. Like I said, nightmare.

So I finally went to bed and a little before 11am this morning my phone suddenly rang. By some weird twist of fate, my co-worker Jim, who just so happens to have an obsessive passion for the airline industry, decided to randomly call me and ask how my mom's take off went. I told him what was happening and he immediately told me to come over. By the time I got there he was explaining that Asiana was completely booked into the following week and so we started looking for alternatives for her. Long story short, we ended up spending five hours on the phone with everyone from AAA to American Airlines to Asiana to my mom (thank you Skype credit!), who at this point was spending the night in a dumpy love motel by the airport (not even in Korea yet and she's already covered one Korean experience).

It wasn't a pleasant five hours and a lot of times the people we talked to were no help. AAA told us to wait and then hung up on us and the folks we spoke to at American Airlines were pretty nice but useless. We asked if they had my mom's luggage and they swore up and down that yes, it was at the American Airlines counter which we learned later was a complete lie. One of them, I don't even remember who, re-booked her but the flight was ridiculous. She would have had to fly from JFK to LAX, spend the night there, then fly from LAX to Narita in Tokyo, and then go from Narita to Incheon. Her arrival would be 9:15pm on Saturday night. That was not even an option in my opinion. We considered just totally booking her a brand new flight on another airline but couldn't get anyone to give us a refund. AAA told us it was American Airline's problem, American claimed it was up to Asiana, and Asiana said to talk to AAA. Might as well have been a damn Marx Brother's movie it was so absurd. 

We tease Jim a lot when he starts talking about airlines but after what he managed to pull off today I promise I won't ever make fun of his Korean Air phone charm and matching fridge magnets. I was pretty useless and had no idea what to say to anyone but he just kept calling and pushing. Around 1pm he got on the phone with Asiana, explained the situation, and asked if there was any way they could get my mom on their Thursday afternoon direct flight to Incheon. They said they would call back within the hour so it was a waiting game. I got ready for work then went down to Jim's and around 2:45 we called Asiana again and they said to give them ten more minutes. I was pacing, I swear. We also had to leave for work by 3:15 so I was stressing. If they said no to the flight, I was about to just charge $1600 to my credit card to get her here in one piece by Friday. We could fight for a partial refund later. 

Jim must be some kind of magician because Asiana called back and said that they had a seat for her on their Thursday plane flying directly to Incheon at 1pm. This flight had been fully booked and I was so sure we were screwed and then voilà, there they were confirming that my mom had a seat on essentially the exact same flight she was supposed to take, only a day later. I kept waiting for the catch. Asiana told us that she'd have to hit up the American Airlines ticketing counter to have them reissue her ticket and then after that she would be all set.

By now we were cutting it close for work so I didn't have time to call my mom on Skype to let her know about all this. We literally ran around our neighborhood into convenience stores looking for international calling cards so I could call her from work. When we got there, Jim called American just to double check it all on their end and then we called my mom and filled her in. By then it was almost 3am her time and since the ticketing counter opens early she got there by 4am to take care of things. I called her when I got out of work at 7:30pm and she said everything went smoothly and that she was just waiting now for Asiana to open up at 9:30am. Turns out Asiana did have her luggage which made everything that much more convenient.

Then my dad emailed me to say that my mom has her Asiana boarding flight in hand. She departs at 1pm so I'm waiting up just to watch that little online plane tracker actually take off and then I think I can rest easy. I know I'm saying I was pretty stressed out but I know it's nothing compared to how my mom felt. This is her first time flying internationally and I'm bummed for her that it started out badly. How frustrating to be stuck without help and without luggage. I'm hoping today though that she can just press the rewind button and put yesterday behind her. She has 14 hours ahead of her on one of the, if not the, best airlines in the world. When I kept bugging Jim about whether or not Asiana would call back he assured me they would. He made the point that if you want to retain your five star status that you can't just brush people off or tell them to deal with their own problems. I already liked Asiana from my own flight here and now I appreciate their service so much more. If you're flying to Asia and you can find a reasonably priced deal, fly with them, they're great.

So anyway that's the scoop, especially for those of you family/friends who may be reading who knew my mom was coming out to visit. She'll get here, just a day later than intended. She even agreed that it's one of those stories you can pull out later but in the moment it's awful and frustrating and exhausting. I just can't wait for her to be here so she can relax and we can have an awesome week together. I'm really excited about this visit and I'm excited for her to see Korea.

Oh air travel. Where's a pair of seven-league boots when you need them?

By the pricking of my thumbs, a crummy sequel this way comes

Two weeks of teaching down and I'm feeling pretty good.

Last week was a little more hectic for various reasons. Week two of the term is when we start giving students daily tests, three tests for the first class of the week and one for the second, and even though I'd only had one week under my belt I was already used to how much class time it would take to get everything done. The first couple days I felt rushed grading everything, inputting the scores online, and just in general being properly prepared for classes. I went in extra early all week since I'm still new and not only want to make a good impression but also needed that added hour to be sure I didn't forget to do anything.

By Friday it had all sort of fallen into place so I'm breathing easy again. My other stress had to do with money. When I came over I exchanged a few hundred dollars to won and brought the rest in traveler's cheques, thinking I didn't want to be walking around with huge amounts of money in cash. Only when I went to the bank this week to cash some of the cheques they weren't able to process them because I didn't have my passport. I didn't have my passport though because the school is setting up my bank account and getting my Alien Registration Card which, of course, requires the presence of my passport.

Blergh. So I was in a bit of a pickle. I still had a chunk of cash left but didn't want to have to stretch it over the weekend, especially considering I needed to go grocery shopping, and I wouldn't have my passport back until sometime this coming week. Luckily one of my fellow teachers, Traci, was awesome enough to sign a couple of the checks that I hadn't stamped my John Hancock on yet and accompany me to the bank to cash them. I felt like kind of an idiot for needing someone to help me out but I hadn't counted on the school having my passport for so long and in retrospect I probably should have just exchanged a couple hundred more in cash before coming. Ah well, lesson learned.

So with my wallet successfully fattened up again I was able to do a few things this weekend. Yesterday I tagged along with Traci and another teacher Jason to Juan (Joo-ahn), a small section within Incheon, where their church was screening the first two Narnia movies with the intention of seeing the third right afterwards. It was a pretty cool group of people and the guy organizing the whole thing bought the tickets all together because apparently it's assigned seating at Korean theaters. I've been in this country for three weeks now and assigned seating in a movie theater is thus far the strangest thing to me.

CGV is Korea's biggest movie theater chain.

The theater was really big and we got to our seats just a few minutes before it started so I didn't get a chance to see too much of what they show before their flicks but mostly it was commercials. There was one preview for a kid's movie that's coming out but it was more like an ad than a trailer. This was my first time seeing a movie here though so I'm wondering if this is typical or just at this chain.

So the movie itself. Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Probably tied for my first favorite book in the series. It's silver screen twin however... kind of a mess. I loved The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I own it and watch it often. Prince Caspian I only saw once and actually enjoyed it better seeing it a second time around yesterday. It wasn't held together quite as nicely as its predecessor but I'd watch it again.

This one though, eeshk. You could really tell that Disney did not have a hand in it this time which is too bad because it had a lot of potential to be good. Aside from nit-picky things like Ben Barnes suddenly dropping Caspian's Spanish accent and the voice change for Reepicheep (I like Simon Pegg but I missed Eddie Izzard) it was overall a weak effort. I appreciate that the source material often needs to be changed to translate better onto the big screen but the whole evil-green-people-snatching-mist storyline was laaame and at one point they  totally used the same sound effect that Lost's smoke monster was notorious for.

Mostly it was the special effects that turned me off though. I'm pretty sure Weta Workshop of Lord of the Rings fame worked on this Narnia movie as they did the others but it could not possibly have been in the same capacity because towards the end of the movie there's a battle between the ship and a sea monster that now officially registers are some of the crummiest special effects I've seen. And I say this as someone who frequently watches Sci-Fi original movies. It was bad.

My understanding is that they have plans to adapt more of the books with The Silver Chair up next since there was a blatant shout out to Jill Pole at the very end of the movie which was almost as bad as the, "Here's your veggie platter Stephenie!" line that accompanied Stephenie Meyer's Twilight cameo. If that's the case though I think Voyage of the Dawn Treader really under-utilized Eustace. The little inserts of Susan and Peter in this one showed that they were nervous to have only two of the Pevensie's shouldering the film so I can't really imagine how they're going to handle putting it all on one slightly less annoying Pevensie cousin in the next one.

And so ends my movie review/rant. I promise that this blog will first and foremost be about the goings-on in Korea but I'd be lying if I said it won't be peppered quite often with bits of geekery here and there. If I were sitting at home I'd be writing about the same things. That's not going to change just because I'm here but I will do my best to tailor it accordingly!

So after the movie marathon yesterday I slept in late today then woke up and went to the Arts Center to see:

I'd seen the posters up last weekend and luckily I could get the website in English so I got all the info for the last showing at 3pm today and just showed up around 2pm with the hopes that there would still be tickets left. There were and I ended up sitting in the third row! The theater wasn't packed which I always think is too bad for the performers who've been practicing so hard but it was sweet for me since I scored such a good seat.

It did fill in a lot more than this. This was just the only shot I could get before the usher told me to put my camera away.

It was a pretty good performance. Sometimes when I'm watching something in another language I wonder if actually the acting is terrible but because I can't understand a word of it I don't notice. The only exception is dramas or soap operas because everyone is so dramatic that universally you just know it's bad.

All the actors seemed decent in this though. I bought a program before the show and fortunately my very basic ability to read Korean paired with the fact that the characters names are exactly the same as in English meant I had a chance to figure out before the show started who was who, just in case I got lost. I'd re-read some of the scenes last night and skimmed the summary on Wikipedia because I haven't read Macbeth since high school and this was the first time I saw it performed.

For the most part they went with a traditional interpretation, Elizabethan costumes and such. The set was different but in a good way. Very minimalistic with a big slanted platform (you can see it a little in that last picture up there) that had a couple sets of stairs leading off. The whole thing rotated every few scenes. They had six witches instead of three and those ladies were creepy. Also Fleance was played by a woman which I thought was pretty cool. And Lady Macbeth was a crazy ass ice queen as is to be expected. The actress kept staring off at the same distant point whenever she spoke her lines, it was kind of unnerving actually.

It was strange not having subtitles or anything but it was a pretty cool experience. I'm not sure I would see a show that I was completely unfamiliar with though. Knowing the story made it easy to follow along.

Also these are two of their upcoming shows:

Merry Grease Mas! Oh Korea, never change.

Trivia of the Day: Empress Myeongseong, also known as Queen Min, was the first official wife of King Gojong, the twenty-sixth king of the Joseon dynasty of Korea. The Japanese considered her as an obstacle against its overseas expansion. Efforts to remove her from the political arena compelled the Empress to take a harsher stand against Japanese influence. In the early morning of October 8, 1895, sword-bearing assassins, allegedly under orders from Miura Gorō (the Japanese Minister to Korea at that time and a retired army lieutenant-general), entered Gyeongbok Palace. Upon entering the Queen's Quarters (Okhoru), the assassins "killed three court [women] suspected of being Empress Myeongseong. When they confirmed that one of them was the Empress, they burned the corpse in a pine forest in front of the Okhoru complex, and then dispersed the ashes." She was 43 years-old. In South Korea, there is renewed interest in her life because of recent novels, TV drama and musical. In Korea she is viewed by many as a national heroine, for striving diplomatically and politically to keep Korea independent of foreign influence. She had planned to modernize Korea.

Day-tripperish

Since last weekend was spent settling in and getting acquainted with the area in and around work/my apartment, I decided to use this weekend to explore Incheon a bit more.

One of the great things about my late afternoon work schedule is that if I'm willing to get up reasonably early sometimes throughout the week I can actually do a lot in the hours before my first class. So yesterday when I headed out it was also with the intention of getting comfortable enough with the subway that on workdays I won't have to worry about getting lost and being late for my first class. 

And I think I did pretty good for my first time wandering around a new city and riding a subway solo! I am notoriously awful with directions and have no internal compass whatsoever. I once got lost driving around my hometown at night- a town that is five square miles. It happens. 

But there was no pressure to hurry back when I got turned around so I took my time figuring out what exactly I did wrong and how to get where I needed to be. Plus I was armed with an English subway map and the compass that my boyfriend half jokingly gave me as a going away present (it would have come in handy had I actually known which direction I needed to head in!).

The first place I decided to check out was the Incheon Culture & Arts Center. After loading my T money card with ₩10,000 (about $10) I hopped on the subway at Woninjae and went five stops to the Arts Center. When I came out of the station I was across the street from a park so I wandered over to check it out and it was an Olympic Park!

There are few things I love more than the Olympics, especially the Summer Games. Seoul hosted them in '88 and this little park (the stone simply says "Olympic Park") seems to just be a commemorative one.

 This guy, Hodori the tiger, was the mascot for the Seoul Games.

When I left the park I saw a sign for the Arts Center and wandered around some more in its general direction. I went down some quiet sides streets, passed coffee shops and convenience stores and people going about their everyday business. I spotted another park with a bunch of different sculptures and headed in there.

The most I can make out from this is "Centre Park" and even then I may be butchering it. I looked on a map later for the name but couldn't find it.

These tree scultpures surround what looks to be a zero depth water area. I already made a mental note to come back here in the summertime!

I can't say for certain what exactly this park is but the pieces of art all seemed to be celebrating the relationship between Korea and other Asian countries. This piece with Arabic on it had Korean written on the back.

This piece had both Chinese and Korean writing and other pieces had Korean and Japanese as well as Korean and Vietnamese respectfully.

Lots of Korean parks have exercise equipment and I snapped a couple shots of these ladies getting a morning work out in. It's a pretty great idea actually. Not everyone can afford gym memberships and since so many Koreans live in apartments there isn't exactly room for ellipticals and treadmills.

Every time you walk down the street here you'll see someone wearing one of those paper face masks that people were rocking during the height of Swine flu. Koreans wear these when they have just a common cold to prevent other people from catching it. I feel like everyone has been getting sick lately so maybe some people wear them so they won't catch one to begin with? Anyway most are plain but I've seen kids wearing cartoon character ones.

As I was leaving the park I saw a sign for a library and attempted to find it. I never did but I found myself along a residential street with some pretty cool sidewalk wall art.

The women pictured are Kisaeng (기생), who were trained entertainers.

And their crazy heavy looking hairdo comes from wearing a gache (가체) which basically was just a ginormous fancy wig.

This guy and his horse are my favorite. Look how happy they are, aww bffs!

Just a residential street. It was really quiet, not too many people were out and about yet.

Two old fellas in a park playing what was most likely Janggi (장기). It's a strategy game so I guess sort of like Korean chess.

I strolled some more and finally found the Arts Center!

There's a bunch of theater events and whatnot that go on here but mostly Arts Center refers to the entire surrounding area, like the restaurants and shops.

I saw this on a building nearby. Apparently Incheon has an excellent team. This is why you should visit during baseball season Mom!

These things appeal to me in exactly that order.

Turns out it's a coffee shop, and a really cozy one at that.

I ordered a waffle which looked much more appealing than my camera is giving it credit for. Waffles are really popular here which is a-okay by me.

It took me a minute to figure out both the book and the spa parts of the name. On one wall they had some shelves with books and magazines for the borrowing. Everything was in Korean so I took a copy of Vogue Korea to peruse. Turns out it looks a hell of a lot like American Vogue. Western celebrities and models on four out of five pages. Surprise surprise.

The spa took me a little longer to work out. But when my waffle order was called I headed to the counter, looked down and saw this:

Feet as fish food! I've read on a bunch of blogs people mention a place in Seoul I think called Dr. Fish where you stick your feet into a pool of fish who nibble at them, thus removing all the dead skin. Apparently it doesn't hurt, just feels a little funny. I think this is awesome and want to do it at some point but I opted not to yesterday just because I didn't really want fish gnawing on my feet right next to the same table I was eating at. It's on my list though!

Back in the spring when I was still in school I had an assignment for one class where I had to interview someone about fairy tales they grew up with. My friend told me some of the Korean stories she'd heard as a kid. One story she related was about the origins of the Sun and the Moon. In a nutshell, a tiger eats a mother on her way to the market, takes on her clothing, and then chases her two children up a tree in an attempt to eat them too. They plead to heaven for help and a rope comes down which they climb up to safety. When the tiger tries to climb the rope it becomes rotten and he falls to his death. In heaven the sister becomes the sun and the brother the moon. I'm pretty sure this sculpture is a depiction of the key scene in this story.

After taking a look around the Arts Center I got back on the Subway and went up to Bupyeong Market.

The subway here is so nice. Very clean and I like the safety of the closed doors to keep anyone from getting on the track. Also all the signs are in Korean, Chinese, and English so it's super easy as a non-native speaker to navigate. My favorite part is the little tune that plays to signal that the upcoming station is where you can transfer lines.

Outdoor market area in Bupyeong. I found a nice little stationary and art supplies shop here where I scooped up a multi-flap folder for the papers I'm accumulating for the classes I teach. Not very exciting, it was really my only purchase of the day besides snacks, but I have a whole year ahead of me to get the fun stuff.

Bupyeong Market is a huge underground shopping mall. Mostly they sell clothes, shoes, handbags, jewelry and beauty supplies. It gets a bit repetitive after a while and it was crazy packed but they had some nice things.

The land of the free, home of the RoboCops.

One of these things is not like the other. At some point I'll probably devote an entire post to just food. Grocery shopping is an adventure in and of itself.

I wandered around Bupyeong after leaving the market and again was reminded why I'm so lucky to be in Yeonsu. I'm sure for some people it's great but it's too crazy in Bupyeong for my liking. Getting back to Yeonsu felt like having someone turn the volume down. I much prefer the quieter scene.

I lost my way trying to get back to the subway and this was when I was thankful I'd saved this first trip out for a weekend and not a work day. Basically I was on the wrong subway line but realized it right away and headed back toward Bupyeong Station to make the transfer back to the Incheon line. From a native's perspective I probably did look like the clueless foreigner but whatever, I am after all, at least for now.

I stashed my camera while I was trying to find my way back but pulled it out one last time once I finally found my neighborhood. It's so colorful here at night. Bright and fun without being garish I think. I really love it.

I spent today just relaxing but next weekend I'm hoping to hit up someplace new again and perhaps during a morning or two this week as well. Though there are loads of pictures here (too many?) I took way more than this and am working on getting a Flickr account up so I can stash them all in one place for people to see.

Also I updated the link list (on the top right) and for those people reading this who are actually in Korea now there are some useful sites to check out for information as well as things to do.

I'm about to attempt cooking sliced rice cakes for dinner with a side of laundry and prepping for tomorrow's classes. Stay tuned!

Trivia of the Day: Baekdu Mountain, also known as Changbai Mountain in China, is a volcanic mountain on the border between North Korea and China. The Korean name, Baekdu-san (백두산) means "white-headed mountain". Koreans consider Mount Baekdu as the place of their ancestral origin and as a sacred mountain, one of the three "spirited" mountains; the one contained in the legendary foundation of Korea. From the beginning of history through the Three Kingdoms period, to the Goryeo and Joseon Dynasties, Koreans have spiritually depended upon the "divine" mountain. Foreign visitors, mostly South Koreans, usually climb the mountain from the Chinese side, although Baekdu Mountain is a common tourist destination for the few foreign tourists in North Korea.