This is going to be tricky! I have no less than 57 single-spaced pages of “daily notes” written during my 30-day ASIAN ADVENTURE, and a whopping 1489 photos.
For the past few days, I’ve been trying to figure out how to go about compressing, categorizing, or “organizing” my thoughts into some type of coherent grouping of topics, but eventually realized that wasn’t going to work.
So I’ve decided to progressively take my readers through the trip, not as a dull travel log or boring home movie or slide show for a captive audience, but as a genuine personal reflection on the most amazing adventure (thus far) I’ve ever taken.
And it started with one incredibly long airplane ride!
From Portland to San Francisco was easy—just over an hour and a half. But the next leg was SFO to Incheon Airport, in Seoul, Korea, and it took 11 hours—and then some. When we crossed the International Dateline we skipped ahead a day!
“Immigration” was no big deal, although it did startle me a little to be digitally fingerprinted and have my photo taken, along with a scan of my passport. Nevertheless, there were no bells or buzzers or delays, and our baggage arrived at the carousel about the same time we did.
I was traveling with my long-time friend and former teaching colleague, Miriam, and our “home base” for the next month was the apartment of her son and daughter-in-law, Don and Chris, who are working at the Asia Pacific International School in Seoul.
Don was waiting for us at the exit, and we took the hour-long bus ride from the airport into town with him excitedly telling us about the area and pointing things out along the way, and my head swiveling madly to take it all in.
Who would have thought I’d EVER travel to Seoul? Even six months ago it wasn’t on my radar, but nevertheless, here I was, embarking on a 30-day, three-country adventure 6,500 miles from my comfort zone in the Pacific Northwest!
Wowza! Just WOWZA!