(no subject)
The trip here was fine, even if I had to put up with some minor annoyances part of the way. Some middle-aged dude behind me in the line to check-in was apparently completely out of patience. He kept bumping me with his cart, which was annoying. It's not like he'd get to the head of the line any faster by making me move forward, especially not when the rest of the line wasn't moving.
I got stuck in a middle seat on the flight to Istanbul, so not much in the way of photo opportunity. I snuck one picture while the girl in the window seat was sleeping, but it was kind of difficult to manage just that one. While she was awake, she was unfortunately blocking the view most of the time. What little view I did manage to sneak a glance at was magnificent, though. At night the city lights look like a million fire flies caught in some intricate spider's web.
The one picture:
The smoking lounge on the roof that Atatürk airport brags turned out to be more like a big chicken coop on the roof. Suddenly, the Helsinki airport smoking lounges seem pretty good. And ironically enough, they also seem very conveniently located in comparison.
I was stuck in an isle seat for the long flight, which would suck in it's own right as it meant no window to snap shots from. The situation wasn't made better by sitting next to a woman with an infant for 9 long hours. I was mostly worried about the noise, but the kid was amazingly quiet. I did however have to put up with constant kicking. Also, the woman holding the infant spread out something remarkable for someone so small. I managed to sleep through most of the flight, but it wasn't easy. All that practice sleeping on the subway in Seoul paid off, it seems.
Food was pretty good, though. Turkish air has managed to hit both food and entertainment. It's still air plane food which is never that great, but it's the best I've had in the air. I'd even eat some of it on the ground.
I ended up being stuck in the immigration line at Incheon airport for what felt like forever. Maybe it was just the lady processing my queue that was working slower than everyone else, or perhaps it was that my line was filled with people whose papers weren't quite in order, but I ended up standing there for half an hour watching as the other lines trickled by at a slow but steady pace. And, it was quite toasty in there. I was suitably annoyed by the time it was my turn to be fingerprinted and have my picture taken. I managed to not scowl too horribly into the camera (hello, mugshot!) but that was about it.
Seoul still doesn't have a smell. ^__^ And, the Seattle Latte tastes perfect. I was worried that I'd get used to the weird Swedish version to the extent that the Korean one would taste strange, but it didn't. My raisons tasted surprisingly minty at first, though.
I saw Jini later that same day, but only for about an hour, and no dinner. She didn't get home from work until after 10, and I could tell she was sleepy so I bailed pretty early. She offered me room for the time in-between guest house and living in my own place, so that was nice. She will, however, be unable to help me get my own place, which sucks arse. I was kinda counting on that, since she had said she would help me, but she's always working, so... I get that it's inconvenient for her to help me when she's so busy, but it's also kind of inconvenient for me to not have a place to live... O__o She's banking on Bo-chan helping me with this stuff.
Bo-chan, unfortunately, has gone AWOL. She isn't answering my emails, nor is she picking up her phone. Anki seems to like inspecting places where I'm staying to make sure they really are good enough for me, so I suppose he might have been perfect for this, but he's working in Japan right now.
Had lunch with some of the people from the embassy today. I was planning to ask Joonhee for help with finding a place to live since my other Korean friends fell through, but she's on vacation (as are a bunch of other people). So, I went with my last viable option and asked Hyeonguk. He usually enjoys helping people. I could tell from his face that he didn't want to do it the moment I asked, so I quickly amended and told him that I wanted him to look over my list since my Korean is so poor that it's hard for me to understand the information on the homepages, and that it would probably be best if Joonhee could come with me to look at the places. It seem that he really likes helping me, as long as he doesn't really need to do anything. Kinda like most people, I guess. So, I borrowed a phone at the embassy (don't have my own yet) and called Joonhee. I didn't really want to bother her when she's on vacation, but it was either that or start asking people I barely know. Luckily, she sounded really happy to help. I'm so buying her a mountain of meat (she doesn't like sweets, or I'd give her chocolate).
The embassy smells quite clearly of cardboard. I can't remember if it always smelled like that and I just forgot, or if this is new. There are a lot of new people at the embassy, at any rate. It's a little strange, but they all seem quite nice. Especially "temporary Anette" and this one new Korean guy (I think his name was Patric, but I can't quite remember) seem very friendly. I had my first Korean food today, which was nice. I settled for burger king last night, which I haven't had for 3 years. It didn't take long to realize that it'll probably be another 3 years before I have it again. Ah, well. Maybe I'll have some pizza school tomorrow. Tonight I'm just going to snack, I've decided. I seem to be suffering jet-lag worse than usual; not only am I having trouble adjusting to the time difference, but I'm experiencing some severe mood swings. I think the emotional turbulence has been exacerbated by the uncertainty of not having a place to live and finding myself without help from all the people that were telling me they would help out. So, I'm going to spend tonight snacking and trying to figure out something fun to do with my time tomorrow. I was thinking about going to Seoul Grand Park, but it feels kind of far away. Once I have a place near SNU, Seoul Grand Park will be a much more convenient excursion. I'm trying to look through my usual go-to-page for inspiration, and so far I found some temples I haven't yet been to that seem nice. One of them is not too far from Seokgye, so I think I'll save that one for after I move to Jini's place. The other temple is at the other end of the city, meaning it'll be closer to go to once I've moved to the area around SNU. It'll still be far, though, but since I've never been there the trip suddenly doesn't seem as inconvenient as going to Seoul Grand Park which is actually closer. I guess we'll see how I feel about it in the morning.
I got emails from Anki and Dean today. ^__^ Anki will be visiting his family for a little bit this month, so while he's here he's squeezing me in as well. It's strange to be in Korea and not see Anki. I hope he's moving back soon.
I wasn't sure if I'd hear back from Dean; I know him through SM, who is now Jini's ex-boyfriend. Not that it should matter that Jini and SM are no longer together, but you never know... Anyway, it seems Jini and SM broke up because Jini was too busy with work. She's happy though, which is good. She seems to really like her job. ^__^ I was a little worried that she wouldn't, since she often dislikes her jobs so much that she ends up firing her bosses (a polite way of saying that she has a history of quitting her jobs).
It's kind of a pain in the arse to not have a phone, since it makes it hard to communicate with people here. I'm hoping that Joonhee will help me out with that too... It would make it a lot easier to schedule lunch with Dean, for one thing. And I think Patric wanted my number, too.
Oh, and Paris Baguette is now a cellphone store.