Day 1

After I bought my T Money key chain I took all of my bags and went down to the subway station in the airport. It was little difficult to find at first, I was about to go into the express train station when some lady told me the regular train was on the other side. I went through with my huge luggage and duffel bag stood in an area with a few other people (mostly teenagers) and the train arrived pretty quickly. Once I entered the train I put by duffle bad on the top rack above the seats and sat with my luggage in front of me. The first thing I noticed when I was on the train was how quiet it was O___O Like really there was no noise whatsoever from anyone. I mean the train wasn't packed but with the people in the train no one was making a single sound.



Here are some photos I took during my ride.









Throughout the ride the amount of people who came into the subway increased but luckily not a lot. I ended up using the time to sew up two holes that accumulated in my jacket due to the stupid washer and dryer at school =o=; When I arrived at Gubeundari I was told by Antonia to find a payphone and give her a call. I took the elevator to leave the train station because of a luggage and so I didn't notice there were payphones next to the 7/11 in the station. I assumed there would be payphones outside so I took all my stuff and went outside.



After walking around Home Plus for 5 minutes I went back down into the station and went up to the worker at the 7/11 and asked if she spoke English. She was an older lady so she didn't understand me at all and pointed me to ask the gentlemen behind me. I asked if he spoke English and he nodded to I asked him if he knew where the payphone was. At first he thought I was asking for a phone card but after a minute he finally understood what I was asking and showed me where it was. I called Antonia and it turns out she was right behind me. I then took my stuff and we headed to her house which was not even a minute from the station. After settling my things she took me to eat at a small place in the area. I got tonkatsu and Kimbap! After lunch we went to a small coffee shop called Yoger Presso that she regularly goes to and order Mint Mochas. They were dericious ^^



The shop also sells waffles and toast with whipped cream ^^







After lunch and coffee Antonia had to go to work and so I just stayed in her place and rested as well as skype with my roommate from university because she was preparing for her TOEFL test. After Antonia came home we went to find a restaurant to eat at and decided to eat at a chicken place. (Chicken is like Korea's national meant I swear, you can't turn a corner without seeing a chicken place). When we got inside Antonia order for us what we believed to be seasoned chick....but little did we know we got I swear one of the spiciest things on the menu =o=; Antonia can handle spice but my level of spice is like a 3 out of 10, 10 being spiciest.


Devil Chicken >3<

After eating dinner we went to Coffine Gurunaru to have a toast with whipped cream! It was sooooo good ^^ What got me was the Engrish sign above the counter. Made absolutely no sense whatsoever o___O


I don't understand.......
For those of you who can't read it I will transcribe it here:

CofFine Gurunaru wants to be a tree and a ferry in a river just like a place to rest. A good quality of coffee and the health benefits of wine* will definitely make your body and your mind upgraded and even
your pride in your life. Please take a deserved break at CofFine Gurunaru. CofFine Gurunaru is a resting place for you.

*They sell wine and cocktails here as well O__O along with lunch items.








In the next post I will talk about my adventures in Itaewon and Dongdaemun ^^

To be continued in Day 2......

Flight

My first flight was from PDX to LAX. I left PDX around 5:30p.m. December 10th on Alaska Airlines/Horizon. It was such a small plane; only a 2-hr flight. This was the first time I ever rode on a plane since my family moved to America from Japan. I was only 5 or so then so I don't remember anything from it. Anyway, it was so exciting when the plane speed up really fast in order to take flight and because it was so small I was thrown back against my chair XD My favorite part was looking out the window and seeing the lights from the different cities we flew over. I felt like I was looking at a map of the world.

This is San Francisco!

After landing in LAX my older sister and one of her guy friends took me out for sushi ^^ But before that we drove by on Sunset blvd and I got to see all the lights, walk of fame, and all the Chinese theater! Conclusion: Everything was smaller than what I imagined it to be XD But overall it was exciting seeing famous spots in person that you only see on tv.

Soooo yummy sushi ^^

The sushi place we went to is called Sushi Dan. Highly recommended! The sushi chef was super friendly and the atmosphere was so comfortable.

After dinner my sister took me back to LAX.

My stupid blurry photo of the LAX sign >3<

From there I went checked in, went to my gate and sat amongst the huge number of Korean people waiting for the flight. There were also a few foreigners too ^^ A lot of Filipinos I might add. (Filipinos represent! ^^) Also, there was one Korean guy who was sitting down with his hood on talking on the phone to someone and I could swear he could pass for a young chubby Eli XD. Anyway, at around midnight we boarded the plane (luckily my section was called first) I sat in the middle of the middle section T^T I wish I could have sat by a window and got to see all the cool scenery that we flew by.

The whole flight took about 13 hours and it wasn't bad at all. They fed us twice and you can choose between a Korean meal or Western meal. For the first meal they had either steak or Bibimbap and then for the break they had fish with a sweet and sour orange sauce or pancakes. The staff was super nice. They were so helpful in answer questions and handing out drinks. For entertainment they had those personal sets with a bunch of movies, tv shows, music, and games. As for selection, they had tons of blockbuster movies available to watch. I ended up watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows part 2 again and The Help (a movie I've wanted to watch for ages). They also had movies from other countries such as Korea (obviously), Japan, China, France, and even Russia. Everything you watched though had subtitles >3< They had one episode of the Gag Concert show as well as Happy Together, but unfortunately there were no English subtitles >3< I tried to watch the Gag Concert, but only understood the visual jokes and so I gav up after 15 minutes. Don't bother trying to play the games. The mouse moves by took slow, it's not worth it. What I liked the most was on the home screen they showed you where the plane was in the flight, what time it was in Seoul and in L.A., how much times was left, the altitude, speed, etc. You even got to see on the map where the plane was. We flew all the way up the west coast, to Alaska, to Russia and then down and around Incheon. The flight was long, but it wasn't terrible. Now that I think about it, it went by fast. I watched two movies, took a few naps, and ate yummy food.

When we arrived into Incheon I went through immigration (it was great because the divided it up by Korean passport and Foreign passport and there was virtually no one in the Foregin passport line!), got my luggage, and then went through customs before making it to the front of the airport. The first thing I did when I got into the airport was find the closest food stall and for that it was Dunkin' Donuts XD

So nummy!

They had a picture menu at the cash register so you can just point to what you wanted to eat. When I went up to the case I recognized the cool donuts Simon and Martina reviewed on their video for Dunkin' Donuts. I wanted to try them, but I gave in to something I'm familiar with.

Bavarian Cream and a iced cafe latte

While I was eating I took some photos of the part of the airport I was chilling around.

I sat at the edge of this waterfall fountain thing ^^

After eating I hung out by the waterfall pond and used the wifi to check in on Faceboook and Twitter letting my friends and family know I made it safe to Korea. (My personal twitter is @lunasea08 btw if you haven't followed me yet ^^b) I waited until 9:00 a.m. before I got up and found the convenience store to purchase a T Money card for the subway. I bought a Mickey Mouse key chain T Money card ^^ It was 8,000 won though T^T After buying that and a bottle of water and banana milk I made my way to the subway to Antonia's house..... (To be continued in the next post "Day 1")

Please leave comments on places I should go, foods to eat, etc. I don't have tons and tons of money T^T To be honest I only have money to eat and buy few souvenirs, so if you suggest places to go please let them be cheap places ^^