Sorry for the lack
of updates! I had a few busy months where I did a few things and just didn't
have the energy to write about them. So, the next few posts will probably be a
little out of order, since I'll try and go back and write about what I did over
the summer :) But let's live in the present for a while and I'll tell you about
this week ;)
Well! It's been a
year since leaving home for Korea!! I finished my contract at my school in
Daegu and it was overall an enjoyable year :) So good, in fact, that I decided
to find a new teaching contract! I did, however decide on going to a different
school. I've signed a contract with a smaller private academy in Busan, the
coastal city to the South East of Daegu. I spent a lot of time there on
weekends this year and I'm looking forward to calling it home :) My school and
apartment are within walking distance of the ocean (not the beach,
unfortunately) and I'm looking forward to having access to nicer and more
natural places to walk in my free time!
Before I start that
job, though, I negotiated 2.5 weeks off to come finish the homeland! I'm
currently sitting in Dallas airport. It's 5am.
I left Daegu about 30 hours ago ( that might be a lie. I'm too tired to
figure out the time changes) and I'm waiting for my 5 hour flight to Toronto…
This trip was supposed to be much shorter. But… Life happens. Delays happen…
layovers happen… …
So I
caught a 9am bus from Daegu to Incheon Airport Wednesday morning. 3 hours into
the 4 hour drive, I am informed by my mother (and later the airline) that my
flight from Seoul has been delayed by 3 hours. I was already going to be 4
hours early for my original flight, so I found myself with 7 hours to kill in
the airport (it's a nice airport, but it is greatly lacking in entertainment
facilities). I played solitaire, phone
scrabble, aimlessly walked around, sat and charged my phone… the usual.
When I finally
boarded the plane, I found myself in a window seat with an middle aged
gentleman beside me and an empty aisle seat. 'Perfect', I thought to myself.
'He can move over and we can both have some personal bubble room.' NOPE. He
quite stubbornly sat right beside me, both legs crossed, knees sticking out and
taking up as much room as possible. Mer. At least he didn't attempt to make
awkward broken English conversation with me.
Now. I'm not quite
sure if the following is a true story, but I honestly can't rationalize it in
any other way… So, 6 hours into the flight, I decided to take a nap. So I begin
the usual pre-nap rituals; ear plugs, neck pillow, shoes off, chair reclined,
half-hearted apologies to the guy sitting directly behind me as a kill all of
his hopes and dreams of having space in front of him, blindfold on, turn in a
circle three times, bum wiggle into a 'comfortable' position, snuggle into
questionable airplane blanket. You are
now ready to pretend to sleep on a plane.
At the time, I
thought everything had gone well. No mishaps in my nap preparations… It was not
until 6 hours later that I realized that MY blanket with tucked under my elbow,
still nicely folded, unused. I then realize that the gentleman beside me seems to
have inexplicably lost his blanket that he had, at one point, been using. Soooo
there's a very good chance that I stole a blanket from my neighbour while he was
using it and 100% did not realize it at the time. I guess I should have
snuggled into the blanket BEFORE putting on my blindfold. The next time he got
up to go to the washroom, I casually put my clean blanket on the empty chair
for him to use. Haha…
I would feel bad
about this incident, but I call us even since he intermittently would send a
methane gas attack in my general direction.
Luckily my blindfold was easily turned into an air filtering mask for
these lovely occasions.
Due to the delays in
Seoul, I missed my flight to Toronto and ended up with an overnight layover in
Dallas. The airline provided a hotel room for the night (the bed was suuuper
soft. I felt like I was sleeping on a cloud) and I had to be back to check in
for my flight at 4am in the morning. Up-side to jet-lag: this was not as
horrible of a wake-up experience as it first sounded. Much easier to get up at
3am when it feels like 5pm.
The flight into
Toronto was blissfully short and uneventful :) I was greeted at the arrival
gate by my mom and brother. We had lunch and then I climbed into my brother's
car and drove to Cornwall (near Ottawa), where he had recently moved. It was a long few days but I made it through
in good condition and decently high spirits!
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