Dominos

The flight was long.  I was seated in the center aisle, one seat in on the right side of the plane.  Although I was able to drift to sleep a few times, it didn't last long and I was awake again.  My legs were cramped because my leg room was all but non-existent due to the presence of my backpack with laptop ensconced inside.  Usually I love flying and I often work through my book of sudoku or cryptograms, but this time I didn't feel into it.  Luckily, although i had seen them before, i liked the movies that were playing and killed a good four hours enjoying them again.  So much for my dreams of learning a few korean phrases on the long flight, working through my thesis statistics or some other resourceful use of the 13+ hours of flying time that faced me - I watched Enchanted and Becoming Jane.  

Stopping in Japan allowed me a small respite from my cramped condition and I was happily bouncing along to my next terminal when I realized that I had left the hats I was wearing (both of them!) in the airplane!  Surrounded largely by people who did not speak english, and having already  gone through customs for Japan, I worried that they were lost forever.  But alas, the lady working at my new terminal spoke english and I reached her in time for her to call the people cleaning my previous plane to retrieve the hats.  Thank goodness!  One of those hats doesn't even belong to me, but to my best friend back home. 

Finally I hear that we are descending into Busan.  I look out of the window, feeling a sudden sense of excitement or panic - I am actually about to be in Korea!  Other than extremely tired, I wasn't sure how I felt at this pivotal moment.  My first impression: Korea, land of dominos!  All I could make out in the night sky from the plane above Busan were dozens of tall, skinny buildings arranged in a flowing fashion around the landscape, winding out with the peninsulas and back in, circling the dark hills and gathering in circled bunches.  The land looked littered with glowing domino's waiting for some giant hand to tip one over and begin the entertainment.  Very interesting.

Once off the airplane and in the car headed toward Ulsan, the city looked more like Las Vegas on crack.  The neon lights glowing absurdly bright for 10pm, many places stacked upon one another, people wandering around as if they weren't nearly as tired as I was.  I slid down in the back seat and tried to fall asleep for the hour long drive - and I would have if the recruiters didn't ask me a question everytime my eyes closed!  Do I think Korean men are handsome?  Honestly, that's the only question I remember now... I'm sure I mumbled odd answers to their other questions!  So much for making a stunning first impression!