Airport - Portland
I went to the airport for my first time. We were around 10-15 minutes late in arriving at the airport since we were suppose to arrive at 9:30 a.m. which is exactly 2 hours before the plane was scheduled to take off. But with no problems I got my ticket and went through security. By the time that was over it was time to board the flight.
1st Airplane - Horizon
I sat next to Matt (friend from school) for the 30 minute flight to Seattle. It was slightly small with only 2 rows of 2 seats aligned down each side of the plane.
Lifting off felt exactly like a roller coaster ride heading up a steep hill (except fast). The world below looked like a mere figurine... and then... WHITE! WE were IN the clouds! But that didn't last long and soon enough we were above the clouds. It looked like what heaven would look like. It looked like that the rest of the way to Seattle.
I must say, landing was much scarier than lifting off. It felt as if we were dropping on and off for about 5 minutes until we landed. On the flight we received free water and pretzels (or something like pretzels)... o_O?
Seattle Airport
We waited in the airport for a little over an hour. To get to the Korean section we had to take a train that shot us straight to our section. It was WAY cool... it felt just like the Grey Hound in Portland where you have to stand and hold onto the poles. After that I exchanged most of my money from US dollars to yen, leaving me with about $40 to spend on food. I chose to eat at Burger King rather than the Udon place because I knew I'd be eating Japanese food soon enough once I got there. I felt 10 times better after eating (did I mention I have a huge cold throughout all these flights?!). As I was eating with Matt, I got to meet some of the people who were on the same trip as us. We finally boarded the plane to Korea at 2:00 p.m. ish.
2nd Airplane - Korean
This plane is 2 maybe 3 times bigger than the Horizon one. The flight from Seattle to Korea is 10 hours and 30 minutes. Right now we have 7 hours and 38 minutes left till we reach Korea. They've already gave us our meal which was slightly disgusting (Korean food: SPICY)! But I did try everything on my tray! The only thing I actually enjoyed was the sticky rice and watermelon.
They also offered us wine! Must be the legal age for Koreans. But we all declined the offer (because we can get sent home if we're caught drinking). Instead we had coffee which was really bad! We also get our own TV's that allows us to watch movies, listen to music, play video games, shop, and view all our flight information with a picture of the globe and how far the plane has traveled and how much travel is left.
It's really classy. I've been blowing my nose like crazy (thank god that I've got toilet paper)... although now my nose is completely chaffed. Well, I'm gonna stop writing for now... until something new and imporved happens. Ja ne!
Ok, I'm still on the same plane with only 3 hours and 44 minutes left till we reach Korea. Right now it is 9:30 p.m. at home. It's barely past noon where I am on the plane. I just finished watching 'Taken' which Danielle (my sister) has been telling me how awesome it was... she was right! <3 I loved it... and now I'm going to a be a little more careful after seeing THAT! Hopefully mom and dad don't watch it before I return... ^_^;... they'll be freaking! Well, I'm gonna try and stay awake for another 3 hours by watching some more movies, they got an awesome selection... I'm debating on whether to watch Valkyrie, Bride Wars, Coraline, or 17 Again... I did eeney meeney miney mo and got Coraline. I'll talk again soon! Ja ne (see ya)!
P.S. The whole left side of my head hurts... need aspirin!!!
So... the rest of the 10 hours flight sucked! I got through half of the movie Coraline and started to feel sick to my stomach so I turned it off and fell in and out of sleep the rest of the way. Once we got to Korea, I realized how hot it was... well it wasn't exactly hot, just... muggy. There hasn't been a time yet since I arrived in Korea that there hasn't been a sheen of sweat on me!
Korea to Japan
The flight was an hour and 30 minutes but I slept through most of it and we arrived at the airport at 8:30 p.m. ish which was somewhere around 4-5 a.m. at home the previous day (meaning it's Tuesday there where it's Wednesday here). I've been looking at my Ipod to see what time it is at home. From the Japanese airport we took the bus from Nagoya to Hamamatsu.
This was about another hour or so until we reached Seirei Christopher High School (which is a Christian Japanese school, btw). And I met my host family: Yuki, my host sister, her mother Naomi, and little sister Eri (14 years old). We got in her car and that's when I realized that the drivers side was on the right and that she was driving on the opposite side of the road! That's when I really started even believing that I was actually in Japan! <3
So when we reached their house I was even more surprised at how big it was! Mom and dad always talked about how they lived in honey combs and tubes stacked on top of each other (because of the population). Next to their house is a field of orange tress and sunflowers aligned the drive way.
But anyway, I got into the house, took off my shoes, and headed upstairs to where I would be sleeping. For such a big house, Yuki and Eri still shared a room, albeit a pretty big room, but a room. I slept on a mattress next to Yuki's bed where her mom instantly started making it. Her mother and Eri don't speak a word of English, but Yuki is pretty fluent. She was a transfer student at Onalaska High School in Washington. While they were all helping me to get settled in, I presented their presents to them (Yuki, some chocolates, Eri, jelly beans, and Naomi, a BIG box of chocolates). They all were impressed at what they received, especially mom's homemade gifts for the whole family (table place mats) so I was really happy! And then I changed into pajamas for it had been awhile since I'd gotten any real rest and quickly fell asleep.
I'll start on my first full day in Japan in my next journal entry.
