South Korea: Arrival

After a grueling ten hour, fifteen minute flight, we finally touched down in the Incheon International Airport in South Korea. My first impressions were how foreign the place was. Everything seemed different and futuristic - their drinking fountains use automatic sensors and even their urinals seem almost artistic in their model and shape. To add to the surreal feeling, we had left on Thursday at 2:40 pm PST, and arrived in Korea at 5:00 pm Korea time - on Friday.

At the airport, I entertained a little Korean girl named Hannah, whose father is a family friend of ours and happened to be on the same flight. It helped in jogging my memory to remember rudimentary Korean vocabulary, such as "ee-dun-ah" ("get up off the ground!").

The city itself seems to throb with activity, even when it is nighttime. There are lights everywhere, a symphony of neon across a canvas of steel and concrete. We finally arrived at our relatives' apartment around 9 pm, but the city was very much still alive, and most likely will stay that way as the night continues. The architecture is modern, which makes sense, since most of the city was ravaged only sixty years ago by two wars.

The grandmother we're visiting is stereotypically Korean; upon finding out that we couldn't speak the native tongue, she told my brother and sister to not speak at all unless it was Korean. This instilled a healthy fear in us towards our ancient ancestor. Such is the plight of the Americanized Korean, and I can tell that I will soon grow tired of the constant harping and criticism directed towards me. I will probably end up adopting the role of a mute, so that I avoid any disturbances as much as possible.

It's been a brand new, alien experience, and we haven't even been in the country for more than six hours. We shall see what the next two weeks will entail.