As promised, the week I skipped over.

This was my post journal entry of sorts while I was sitting in the Korean Airport waiting to board. Please keep in mind I was extremely tired from traveling and seemingly the only non Asian in that section of the airport.

Sept 11/12
I've been traveling for the past 17 hrs. I am finally realizing that I am on my way to China-a country with millions, if not billions of people-virtually alone. Last week Friday at this time, I was maneuvering construction in Rockford to pick up Genevieve for a weekend with John B. at Knox. The, Genevieve spent the past three days up in WI with me. I haven't been alone for quite some time. This is borderline Italian Summer alone. At least I spoke the language.
I surprised myself at the lack of nerves I had before leaving. My biggest stresser turned out to be packing, followed by lack of sleep. Once I was in the car, which provided both an end to my packing and a chance for a nap, I wasn't going to have the same breakdown I did while leaving for my summer job in Italy. Because dad didn't want to encounter the same chaos as air India, we arrived in ample time, walked right up to the check in counter, and after saying goodbye to mom and dad, had no problem getting through security. Now all I had to do was wait. Literally. I didn't even have a long distance to walk to the gate.
So, I set my alaram and napped. I was one of the later to board and was detained slightly when I had to check my second of two carry-ons. Apparently two carry-ons and my pillow was too much. I'm okay with that piece being checked. I wasn't charged and it was one less thing for me to carry. Only down side is now I have no clean clothes to change into. Oh well.
I boarded the small verison of a 747 one carry-on lighter and ended up seated next to a couple of Chicagonians in their late 20's. Pretty good company although we didn't have any of those tell all strangers conversatoins that can sometimes fill the time void.
However, the flight seemed to go by more quickly than past trpis to Europe, even though it was twice as long.
Asiana Air is awesome to travel with! Lots of good foor and pleanty of complimentary water and juice without needing to ask. Good deal!
When we landed in Korea it was too dark to see any of the landscape. Now that it is brighter, a few small mountains in the distance, but otherwise it's pretty non-discript.
Because our gates were in the same area, I stuck around Lucy and Jaime, my seatmates from Chicago. We waited for one of Jaime's buddies to come in from Denver and once we met up with him, went to find breakfast. Turns out McCafe was the place we ended up at after a few futile attempts at a more cultural place. All McDonald's had was egg based or included eggs. I'm still not sure which foods have egg and which don't. Turns out I'm EXTREMELY allergic to eggs. Might explain a lot of weird weight loss/gain I've been dealing with. So, couldn't get anything there. Not a big deal since I have snacks along. Lucy, Jamie, (and Matt) took off at 8:45 a.m., leaving me two hours by myself. As I walked to my gate, i passed a Korean soccer team of 10 year-olds... if that. One of them realized I'm not from around here and decided to try his English on for size. The conversation was only in passing, but after that, I felt the wear and tear of travel start to set in, along with the lack of company. I hate being alone. So, now that I've finished this and touched bass with mom, dad and alex, I'm going to take another nap. One of many today.

That was before I was even in China. The next posts will consist of China!