July 11th- Interminable Flight

Upon arriving in Airport Terminal 5, I hastily had my boarding pass printed and made for the gate. Three hours later I ascended into the sky and left the United States in a patch of gray cloud. Korean Airlines is lavish and almost grandiloquent. The female stewardess's uniforms were an aqua blue, equipped with matching hair buns and white scarves. Either because of my bumptious stomach, or quite possibly just because it is, but the food on the airplane was rather palatable. Within the twelve hours of air time I managed to read an entire novel and a half- my brain still aches due to this intellectual siege- however, between the constant iced cokes and salted peanuts, the flight literally flew by. What was quite peculiar was the soup onboard the plane. The title actually read, "Seaweed Soup" - after reading this my stomach might have shrunk, and/or expanded in every direction- any direction but towards that slimy green foaming soup- but yet I indulged.

As I opened the opaque oval window and peered peevishly out into the misty ocean swells, I glimpsed the Korean Islands. A beautiful archipelago jutting out of the Yellow Sea like awkward vertebrae. Sticking their green backs out from the deep- blue water like slippery sea turtles, the islands glowed like stars in the pond of salt engulfing them. I allowed myself to quietly ruminate on the fact that we flew over Antarctica and Russia and couple of hours previous- for the first time in my life- saw the blinding sun shimmering off the translucent skin of the frozen waters of Antarctica.

Above: Siberia, Russia- Rolling hills dominated by the churning Lena River

The landing was smooth, but since we had to make our bus connection at the airport within the hour, had to scurry - while Sam scuttled due to her high heels- through the voguish airport. At the customs desk, the officer lethargically stamped my passport with a maroon ink, imprinting the reality of the moment into my mind. After racing around the airport, baby- sitting our transient adoptive mother, and purchasing our bus tickets to JeonJu, Lindsay and myself broke into the Korean sun. The tickets only cost 28,000 won, which, -thank the lord- is only the equivalent to about 17 USD. I have experienced heat before in Port au Prince, Haiti, but Seoul's heat is much, much worse. My lungs felt as though they were imploding, or that the flesh and tissue within my body was sticking together like wet paper. We boarded the bus thirty minutes prematurely and began the four hour bus ride to JeonJu, South Korea.

Quite honestly I cannot recall much of the bus ride due to the stupor I was in. What I do remember is that I bought corn tea because I saw that everyone else was buying it. In my mind I said, "Well if everyone else is doing it, then it probably is ok". I found out that it wasn't just OK, but rather delicious. The aftertaste reminded me of a truffle of some sort, possibly a chocolate or something involving corn. At that particular juncture, I do not regret being a temporary conformist. Four hours later we arrived in JeonJu after parading around Korea's mountain ranges. JeonJu is a city with a populace of 600,000 people. All of the stereotypical Asian settings were in order. Bright, white lighted shops glowed with florescent luminescence. Although it was hesitantly drizzling outside, the entire city glowed like a christmas tree on Christmas day. It was an Asian Las Vegas, complete with, dazzling signs, honking horns, and laughing faces. I was finally in Asia.


Leah picked us up from the last bus stop and then we drove yet another twenty minutes to JeonJu University. The edifice is of a modern complexity, fixed with thick glass windows and chrome railings. The tiles inside the structure were of hard dark dappled granite. I slept with the windows open, and let the South Pacific lull me to sleep.

cheers, your jet lagged writer David