Ah...the flight

First of all, I have to cover the flight...my cousin dropped us off at the airport, and Eric's mom met us at the drop off point with a Sky Cab and a huge cart for our luggage. In one trip we were able to bring all of our bags in and he brought us right up to the counter to get them checked in. Soon we had 9 bags checked (8 of which were free, the 9th was $110!) and we were back to 3 carry ons plus our personal items (1 each). We've finally got security down, so that was uneventful, and we even had time for some lunch while we waited at the gate. Soon it was time to board! We had been told that we were going to like international air travel, but we had no idea how nice it would be! There were more flight attendants than I could count, there was more leg room than I've ever seen on a plane, we each had a personal tv screen with all of the free movies we could watch in 12 hours, and we had two meals! The kids took naps at the beginning and end of the flight, and in between, they watched more tv than they'd watched in their entire lives up to that point! They both did a really great job, but we are very glad that we are not making that flight for another year!

When we arrived in Seoul, we were first surprised by how many people do speak English. And all of the signs are written in English as well as Korean, so that makes things very easy! We made it through Immigration easily and got our first stamps in our passports! Then we made it to baggage claim where we were able to get all of our bags easily (though the baggage carts--while free-- are smaller than the ones in the States, so we loaded up two this time!). Customs was no problem...you hand them your card that says you don't have plants or weapons and they say enjoy your stay! Then our HR director, our headmaster, and our tour guide met us outside customs just like they said they would! They had a truck bring the majority of our bags directly to our apartment, and we took the same 5 bags we've been living out of since June 12th to our hotel with us. We then took the bus with our "escorts" into the city to our hotel for the night. We had left my aunt's house at 10 am Wednesday, July 20th, and arrived at our hotel at about 9 pm Thursday 21st after about 17 hours of travel...we were exhausted!