“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.”

The flight to the motherland
So, in the end, after all the planning that all the girls would wake up early and take me to the airport, only my parents ended up dropping me off at San Diego Airport.  And right from the beginning, this was an easy trip. We got to the airport with no traffic to impede us, and I made it to the counter just in time to catch an even earlier flight. Can I just say that it pays to dress smartly at the airport and mind your p's and q's? The lady at the counter was so nice, and gave me a nicer seat than the one I originally had.
Because I had to get to the gate immediately, I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to dad, who was parked outside in the car. So at the end, I only got to say goodbye to mom. Mom started crying a bit, and I had a moment of momentary panic. I am actually doing this. But I pushed it back and got in line to board. At SFO, my plane landed early and I had time to explore the international terminal. Did you know that SFO has an aviation museum? It's true. While I was there, I read Lonely Planet's Guide Book on Korea (thanks Jane!). Did you know that Koreans don't have sweat glands? I felt as though I'd discovered a rare species of bird when I learned that.
The take-off from SFO was smooth. I always think that that's the most nerve-wracking part of any flight, the part that makes you realize just how fast a speed you're traveling at and wondering if they really left enough room on the tarmac for the plane to get in the air. It still seems incredible to me that we can get something so big up in the air. But the pilots were wonderful and take-offs and landings were the smoothest I've ever encountered. Anyways, as we took off, I looked out of my window, watching the dark green coast recede behind me to be replaced by the Pacific Ocean. All of the don't go's and Are you  sure's that I heard from all of my friends over that last few weeks crowded into my mind at that moment, and it hit me that I was on my way to the other side of the world. Not that our minds can ever fully comprehend what "thousands of miles" really means, but I realized that there was an ocean between my and my family and friends, and that meant that weekend visits are, at least temporarily, not an option. I may have breathed a little more shallowly at that point, but knowing that they're only an airplane ride away helped to calm me down.
The flight on Singapore Airlines was so nice, and I don't know how I'm ever going to fly domestic with any kid of satisfaction after this. And I just kept getting lucky. My seat neighbor, Afshin, was a linguistics major at UC Santa Cruz and had flown on Singapore A. before, so he was incredibly helpful during and after the flight. He was not Korean but read Korean and helped me navigate through the airport when we landed.
The landing
Our flight was about 45 minutes early, but it was good to get in early, to get an earlier bus to Cheongju, which I'm about 15 or 20 minutes from by car. I have to say that I was so surprised by the weather (sorry, I don't have an iPhone. That's right, I said it.) I kept wondering the whole way down why it was so warm in the gangway, until I realized that even my scarf, which had barely kept me warm on the plane, was one too many layers at Incheon. So my first few minutes in Korea were quite sticky.
 The bus from Incheon Airport was one of the most pleasant I've ever had when traveling outside the U.S. Koreans seem to be an orderly people, and the bus ride was quiet and the roads were not bumpy (sorry, Costa Rica). Incheon, which is a beach city second in size to Seoul, is all sleek modern buildings and light displays, kind of like a cleaner, more spaced-out version of downtown LA.
Cheongju is kind of like a spaced out, cleaner, smaller version of the old Strip of Las Vegas, or a K-Town on 'roids. There are some buildings that are built like castles (it's a chain of hotels, according to Lonely Planet), and they light up at night (not kidding!). I wish I'd been able to take pictures, but my director's husband, who picked me up at the bus station, drove like he was qualifying for the Indy 500. Except with a lot of stop and go, since other drivers kept getting in his way (so inconsiderate of them, right?). 

The Expats
The other English teacher here, Dawn, whom I'd been in touch with before I came out, has been amazing! She's a godsend to me, all helpful information, warm Carolinian friendliness, and good old-fashioned American practicality and sturdiness. Jet lag wasn't so bad this weekend, even though I lost a day, and she helped me to navigate Home Plus (the Korean Target), meet the expats, and organized a "Meet the New Face" dinner. Jon and LeAnn are a lovely couple from South Africa who've just re-newed for a fourth year (!). They'll be teaching acting lessons in English on an island from which they can see North Korea (by the way, I've since learned you can travel and arrange for [highly regulated] tours in NK). They're quite artsy, both of them writer/actors, and remind me of Scott and Tracy. Lauren is a Brit, who works for a different school just a few minutes away. Erica is Canadian, Paul and Amber are both from San Diego, and Amber happens to know a mutual friend! I feel like the more I travel, the smaller this world gets.
We all met for coffee in the afternoon, and Jon laid it out pretty clearly. "Just the simple fact that we're all here together, away from home, makes us family. We're your brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, everything." This group is particularly close-knit, and the expats here say that even teachers who prefer the big cities are envious of how close they all are here. Dawn says it can be a little too close sometimes, but it was one of the things that decided me for Cheongju, this idea of having a good community to ease the transition and share the experience with.
So that was quite a bit of stuff to deal with for the first weekend I was here. I was pretty exhausted by the time it all came to a close.