The day of traveling was a long one, primarily because I was nervous about all of my luggage. I had 2 large suitcases checked and a roll on plus an over-packed backpack and pillow as my carry-ons... My carry-on suitcase was so full that it wouldn't fit in the overhead bin on the Delta TPA-ALT flight, so the lady gave me a bag to put stuff in. I also couldn't fit my backpack under the seat in front of me, so I had to remove some stuff from that too... But in the end, I made it to ATL, just with one shopping bag more...
When I got to ATL, I had to change terminals via the train, which was simple, then headed to the ticket counter at my gate to print off my boarding pass. I was assigned an aisle seat, which at first I considered changing to a window seat, but I had decided that I kind of didn't want to sleep much on the plane, so I kept the aisle. I ventured up to Starbucks, struggled getting everything back to the gate with one of my hands being dedicated to my coffee, then waited to board.
The plane wasn't as big as I had expected, but much roomier. The overhead bins were much bigger than the ones on the Delta plane (so I took up an entire one with all of my belongings), and pushed up into the ceiling of the plane, leaving A TON of overhead space. I was quite impressed by how nice the plane was, though I quickly realized that it was HOT, and there was no AC vent, so I was uncomfortable for most of the flight.
I ended up not sleeping very much, which was the plan. I napped probably for about 3-4 hours, on and off. Watched movies (Pitch Perfect, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Hope Springs), played games and listened to music. I also wrote in my journal and read the lovely cards and letters I was given for the plane ride, and scoffed at the two that I'm not yet allowed to read... why, just why would you do that to me!?
The food was OK. I had beef with noodles, mozzarella balls in pesto, a roll and brownie as my first meal almost immediately after departure (had requested chicken, but they were out). They gave us a snack about 5 hours in (choice of brownie, roll with meat inside and a bag of chip looking things), then our second meal (I had chicken with rice, a roll, a cake-like thing and some sort of pasta/potatoe/fruit salad thing) about 8 hours in, which was started with a hot, damp washcloth (very nice and refreshing). Then we had another little serving of juice (and maybe a snack, I can't remember) about an hour before we landed.
When I arrived at the airport, I gathered my belongings and headed through Immigration where the lines were extremely long, but I got through in about 20-30 minutes. They didn't ask me any questions, which I thought they always do, they just took my fingerprints, my picture, and stamped my passport.
Once I then moved on to baggage claim, where I finally found a cart to help with my bags, picked my checked luggage up from next to the conveyor belt (it had already stopped), then went right through customs with no problem! YAY for all of my stuff making it to Seoul! Once I got out to the waiting area, I started hunting down HaylieRae, who was supposed to have arrived about half an hour before me, but we finally connected through Facebook and realized that her plane was late, mine was early, and she hadn't come through customs yet. We then hung around for a while to wait for 3 other girls to arrive, then put some of their luggage in storage and exchanged money. Once we were all ready to go, we headed outside, grabbed a taxi bus (instead of the public bus), had an hour and a half ride to our hostel, struggled with all of our luggage (thankfully I'm only on the second floor), then checked in and met all of the people that were already waiting for us!
After getting settled and taking showers, we all decided we were too pumped to go to bed, so Adam (a guy that has lived and taught here before) took us out to Hongdae, a district in Seoul with foreigner-friendly bars. Since HaylieRae and I hadn't eaten yet, we stopped at a kebab place and grabbed food before going to the bars. The first place (Gold bar?) was a no-go. Very loud, packed, and full of drunk, pompous military guys. So we decided to relocate to Hollywood, which was a pub on the second floor of the same building. I immediately realized this was much more my style, laid back, tables and chairs everywhere, and DART BOARDS. We spent the night having a few drinks, playing a few rounds of darts, and hanging out while getting to know one another. A few girls left around 1, then Kerri and I decided we were ready to turn in as well around 2 or 2:30, so we grabbed some street food (a few roasted potatoes that were delicious, though not what I thought I was ordering) before we grabbed a cab (that totally ripped us off) and headed back to the hostel.
It was a wonderful first night.
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