Flying to South Korea – Sometimes life makes you stop to have a s’more

On July 6th I arrived in South Korea (a day later than scheduled). For those of you who don’t know the story, my flights were from Albany -> Dulles -> San Francisco -> Seoul. The first two went perfectly and I arrived in San Francisco with plenty of time. This led to me meandering my way through the airport, stopping to get something to eat (they didn’t feed me anything on the first two flights) while checking the board to see what aisle I would have to check in at. I was hoping to avoid doing security again but realized late that I would have to. I went to the Asiana counters to check-in and get my boarding pass one hour before my flight to be informed by Jet Blue, next door, that Asiana had just closed their counter and left. They said maybe someone from my previous flight could help me so I hightailed it over to Continental where the nice man there said that there was “no way” they weren’t still doing check-in but said the only thing I could do was call them on the courtesy phone. The panic was now setting in with only forty minutes until my flight. I talked to nice woman on the phone who first told me she couldn’t reach anyone from the airline in the airport (reassuring) and then calmly said, like it was no big deal, “you’re going to miss your flight”. Lovely. I made a last ditch attempt, in what I thought was a burst of brilliance, by running to the information desk and asking if they could call the boarding gate and ask them to send an agent back. Apparently you can’t call a gate (I still don’t believe it).

It was a horrible feeling sitting in that airport, with a half hour to go until the flight left, knowing I was going to miss my flight and there was nothing I could do. To top it off it wasn’t like I was going on a vacation, I was reporting for work and I was sure being a day late would make a good first impression. Did I mention with the time difference it was also the middle of the night in Korea? Disregarding that I called my recruiter and although he didn’t answer the first time I was at least rewarded with the comic relief that was his Ke$ha ringback tone. He eventually called me back to say the travel agent would figure things out but I’d have to wait until their work day started.

I sat down in a café area got out my laptop (thank you San Francisco airport for free wi-fi) and by some grace of god Oscar was online, we skyped, and he talked me out of the funk I was in. I was in the airport until 7:00pm or so (the flight was at 1:10pm) when the travel agent called and said to come back the next morning and get on standby. Again luck was with me that I was stranded in a city I just happened to have an uncle living in. I spent the Fourth of July with Mo, Kenny, Max, and Miles shooting off fireworks and eating s’mores. The next morning they dropped me off at the airport early. Fun fact: when Asiana Airlines opens their counters they bring out a boom-box, play an Asian sounding song, and all bow before beginning to check in customers. The put me on standby then the travel agent was able to get me a seat on the plane. For all the stress and worry it really was a nice flight. I watched four and a half movies, had a menu for each meal (you could choose their meal or a “western” meal), and they gave you slippers. I arrived 5:30pm July 6th welcomed by a taxi driver holding a sign with my name. I was finally in South Korea.