The longest day

It seemed like a long night at the hotel. I cried in the silence with no activity to distract me, missing my friends. The fire alarm had a green strobe light that did not encourage sleep. Then I noticed a growing headache which got really bad and then I tossed my cookies. I cleaned it up somewhat and felt a little better after that but then it was time to get up. I did not feel like eating anything. I showered, dressed, and checked e-mail. We left the coconut oil, coconut water, and fermented coconut milk behind. I was going to consume them, but did not feel like it was a good idea. I strapped my carry-on to a suitcase 'cause I had two big suitcases to roll. One wheel broke and now matches the other wheel that broke last year. We stood in line to check our baggage. The lady did not want to approve my ticket because I did not have a visa, but somehow it worked out. We went to security. I was fine, but they stopped Chris. The nuts and berries that I had left fell out of their container in his bag, all over his spare outfit. We waited to board and I tried not to watch the TV because of all the violent images. Then we got on the plane.
Our carry-ons had to go several seats back. The plane got colder and colder. I wore a long sleeve shirt, plus a jacket and still needed a blanket. I got a second one from Chris who had no one sitting in the seat beside him. I watched the sun rise from the window. I used the lavatory and wondered why they make a point of explaining on every flight how to buckle your seatbelt, but not a word about how to operate the lavatory. It was a two hour flight to Dallas. My left ear was not happy even though I used the Earplanes. While Chris was looking for the departure gate display, I ate some of the nuts and cranberries. We took the train to terminal D, going around our elbow to get to our noses. As we sat at our gate, Chris bought me water and I made up a breakfast and ate it and took my supplements. I checked e-mail and took a walk. I went to the bathroom and took notes for my blog. Then we went through priority boarding and switched tickets right after the passport check. I went to first class and he went to business class. The extra room was really amazing. And the chair did all sorts of things. I had a fold out tray and monitor, and a work desk and a place for company to sit. The stewardess brought me a glass of champagne. She also brought me band-aids since I pricked my finger on a pin stuck in my neck pouch. I was going to make the glass last for the flight but they took it away before take-off. The head steward was Alan who introduced himself and showed me how to operate the seat controls. He also brought me a pair of pajamas. I put in my Earplanes and read a quilt magazine while waiting for take-off. Alan came to take my order for after take-off. During take-off I watched the landscape disappear. Then Alan set my tray table up. The stewardess handed out documents for entering Korea. I wrote down the answers that I knew. She put a tablecloth on my tray and a small dish of toasted cashews and glass of mineral water. I was going to give some nuts to Chris but she took them away before I could think of something to put them in. From Dallas, the plane flew NW, over Alaska and Siberia. I wondered why the flights from Atlanta were shorter. After the appetizer of shrimp and salmon, and the soup (hot and sour) and the salad, I was full so I asked to have the entree later. I watched Jurassic World and another movie called “Magic n the Moonlight”, followed by a few episodes of Big Bang Theory. I laid down for a long nap. It was like sleeping on a flying carpet – at 36000 feet going 500 mph. I don't know how long I slept, and I did some mental programming too. After another BBT episode, I had my entree – bibimbap (rice, vegetables and beef). I watched the rest of the BBT episodes and then part of a movie called Transcendence. I paused it to take a nap, but it reset itself, so when I woke up, I had to find my place again. After I finished it, I visited Chris for the answer to the last question. Then I repacked my carry-on and pulled out my purse. I tried to eat all the remaining nuts and berries since they wouldn't go through customs. I looked at the last two quilt magazines, and took notes for my blog. We deplaned pretty quickly, but since we had to catch a train along with everyone else, we were no longer near the front of the line. We took turns standing by the baggage carousel and using the restroom. I threw out the rest of the nuts. Chris came back with a luggage cart and we loaded it up and went through customs with no problem. Then we went to the train counter to get tickets to Changwon, but amazingly all the seats were sold on all the trains going today. So Chris had to buy bus tickets and we had to wait an hour and a half. While we were waiting, he plugged his phone into a wall to charge. We tried to keep it in sight. Chris bought me a bottle of water while I tried to post to my blog using airport wifi. That did not work even though the lower right hand screen showed I was connected. At 5:30 local time, we went outside to catch the bus. It was cold. Chris gave me his airplane pajama top to wear under my jacket and that helped. When the bus arrived, we put our 4 big suitcases under the bus and our 4 carry-ons went inside with us. It was a 5 hour ride to Changwon with stops, one of which was for a potty break. I tried to sleep on the bus, but had little luck before the break. During the break I got out the neck pillow and eyeshades and airplane socks. So I did sleep some after that. We got to the bus terminal about 11pm. Two young men came up to greet us. They had driven in a sedan. Fitting 4 oversized suitcases was interesting. Chris and I were up close and personal sitting in the back seat with two of the suitcases. It was a 15 minute ride to post. It took a while to get me in the gate because I did not have my ID yet and something was closed. They took us to the duplex and helped carry in all the luggage. Then Chris gave me a partial tour of the house before plugging in the router. Then he showed me the bedrooms and bathrooms. Neither bathroom will accommodate my shower filter. Also, the bed looked like a full, not a queen, which is what I packed bedding for. Tired, I posted to my blog and went to bed.
* This is my new 'home'. *