4:00 was wake-up time for me... on Tuesday... (so... early...oh gosh) We left at about 5AM to make sure we got there because the weather report said there was going to be snow... (which there wasn't) so we got there with PLENTY of time to spare. Jen from ILP met us at the airport at 6:30 to give us all our paperwork and everything and we were off. My bags each weighed EXACTLY 50 lbs... though one of them lost a pound between us weighing them and me getting them to the counter... which was amazing... haha. OH! and I didn't have to pay for the bags! I was so happy! Saving money is my favorite! So we got down to the gate and waited for about an hour or so and hopped on the plane... at this point... there was TONZ of snow! it was everywhere! Our plane waited in line for about 30 or so minutes to be de-iced... which was a cool experience in and of itself...
And then... the 13 hour flight began... I had so many plans for that flight... and I ended up sitting next to Jake (or Jackie Chan as his new nickname has now become) and we had just two people on our row with an empty seat between us... it was beautiful! so much ROOM! But as for my plans... out the window... they had FREE KOREAN MOVIES WITH SUBTITLES!!! I was in Heaven guys... HEAVEN!! and they had Big Hero 6... and... yeah... I slept and watched movies the whole flight... haha. There was a baby on our flight... and I didn't even realize that he was there until his dad stood up with him because he was getting slightly fussy... he was SO CUUUTE!!! I COULDN'T HANDLE IT!!! He kept sneaking and looking over and bowing and playing peek-a-boo... I was in titters over the adorableness.
Jake and Kevin were so funny with the Stewardesses, they were saying kamsamnida and ippo yo to them and making them giggle... so funny the flirts...
We landed in Seoul... with only 30 min until our next flight... I was so disappointed I wanted to cry... seriously... the airport is HUUUGE and there were so many Kpop Idol cut outs that I could have taken pictures with... but we were literally running to our gate and made it just in time before they closed it... Then we hopped on a second Korean air flight... for 2 hours down to Shanghai and they fed us... AGAIN!! This meal I think had intestines in it... and I wasn't sure... but I just gritted my teeth and chewed... but I will say... The texture... was *shudder* no good...
We finally got to Shanghai... and there we met Mr Li... he first of all saw us while we were waiting for our luggage, and it was funny because it was just this random man looking through the glass door and waving at us and pointing and we were like 'Umm... us? what?' Then Bethany our head teacher figured out who it was and we went to meet him... One of the girls in our group Brooke... one of her pieces of luggage never made it... the one with most of her clothes in it... so all of us have been kind of just tossing extra clothes her way... I can't really help... because you know... shes like... itty bitty... and my clothes are not... but I've offered what help I can!
So we stayed in Shanghai for the night and that was AWESOME! Then drove into our little township... we're just outside of Quanzhou actually... called Julong... the school is a large part of it... there is a gym and a movie theater and a hospital (took a picture of the hospital just for my mom to let her know... its within a 10 min walking distance of the school...
The kids all went home yesterday for the weekend... and its kind of sad... because I've been getting use to waving at everyone like a celebrity... haha. But yes... that was flying here..
I'll never take for granted the fact that I was able to get here in like... 24 hours... when only like... 100 years ago... if you wanted to travel this far? you had to travel for months at sea... and never plan on coming back... this is an amazing experience and I'm so pleased that I'm here safe and sound and that I get to experience this! Yaaay! I'll have pictures up soon of my fellow teachers and our adventures with the students and more stories of cleaning out the supply room!
