August 04, 2006
Home
I returned home yesterday from a month-long trip to Korea. So very glad to be back; a month is a long time to be away and it is such a comfort to be again among the familiar. Sleeping in my own bed is a luxury I take for granted way too much of the time.
Our plane on the trip home.
The trip was a long one, but that is to be expected as is roughly the distance of 1/3 of the way round the globe. 11 hours from Incheon to LAX, with enough time zones crossed to result in arrival before departure time. A day with two dawns and two sunsets, two full days on the same day. Despite spending one of those days in an airline seat, it always seems a bit magical.
We (I traveled with my husband) had the hassle of a lot of heavy luggage this trip because it was a business trip and we needed to haul tools and hardware for the work involved. We devised a system of piggybacking the bags that allowed us to move all of it ourselves, but we were both pulling rolling cases with both hands, a very cumbersome feat. Crowds were a real challenge to negotiate, we encountered a (luckily) mellow one in the Seoul Express Bus Station both times we were traveling through there. On the way home we had to pick up our bags to clear customs and then make our way to the check-in counter of our connecting airline in another terminal. We were very fortunate it was within a relatively easy walk, I really didn't want to have to lift those heavy bags on and off the shuttle bus. Everything considered we managed to move all that weight with only a few minor hassles, we were lucky and we had a plan.
We spent a marvelous July in Korea. We worked hard but reasonable hours and got the jobs we went to do done. From a business perspective the trip was a success and will likely result in future opportunities for work, we are of course most pleased about that. We also enjoyed our downtime, which turned out to be about 2 weeks, including weekends, because we have to build in a cushion of time in case we encounter tenatious problems. Problems are expected and we had our share of them this trip, but none took an excessive amount of time to resolve, thankfully. So we had some time to explore a little of what life is like in Seoul and Icheon, a town of 100,000+ people an hour's busride from Seoul. I will post some pictures and commentary of our adventures in the next couple of days. ¶ 9:53 AM
Our plane on the trip home.
The trip was a long one, but that is to be expected as is roughly the distance of 1/3 of the way round the globe. 11 hours from Incheon to LAX, with enough time zones crossed to result in arrival before departure time. A day with two dawns and two sunsets, two full days on the same day. Despite spending one of those days in an airline seat, it always seems a bit magical.
We (I traveled with my husband) had the hassle of a lot of heavy luggage this trip because it was a business trip and we needed to haul tools and hardware for the work involved. We devised a system of piggybacking the bags that allowed us to move all of it ourselves, but we were both pulling rolling cases with both hands, a very cumbersome feat. Crowds were a real challenge to negotiate, we encountered a (luckily) mellow one in the Seoul Express Bus Station both times we were traveling through there. On the way home we had to pick up our bags to clear customs and then make our way to the check-in counter of our connecting airline in another terminal. We were very fortunate it was within a relatively easy walk, I really didn't want to have to lift those heavy bags on and off the shuttle bus. Everything considered we managed to move all that weight with only a few minor hassles, we were lucky and we had a plan.
We spent a marvelous July in Korea. We worked hard but reasonable hours and got the jobs we went to do done. From a business perspective the trip was a success and will likely result in future opportunities for work, we are of course most pleased about that. We also enjoyed our downtime, which turned out to be about 2 weeks, including weekends, because we have to build in a cushion of time in case we encounter tenatious problems. Problems are expected and we had our share of them this trip, but none took an excessive amount of time to resolve, thankfully. So we had some time to explore a little of what life is like in Seoul and Icheon, a town of 100,000+ people an hour's busride from Seoul. I will post some pictures and commentary of our adventures in the next couple of days. ¶ 9:53 AM
