the other side of the world

well, not too far from it, anyway. i arrived an hour ahead of schedule last night, which places me in Korea just before 6pm localtime, and just before 2am in PDT time.

 

let me say, singapore airline is the BEST airline i’ve ever flown. the seats were roomier than others i’ve flown internationally, the in-flight service was a never-ending medley of snacks and treats and actually palatable fare, and the in-flight entertainment included 60 movies that I could start at any time, as well as rewind and fast forward. As a result, I watched three movies I hadn’t seen yet: Win a Date with Tad Hamilton, 50 First Dates, and Au Revoir! UFO. I have to say, all three were quite a bit better than I had expected them to be.

 

strange moment at the airport: while waiting to go through immigration, i glanced over to see what ad was playing on the flatscreen panel between the individual immigration officers’ stations. i saw the interior of a cargo plane with a woman standing by the door. the door ripped open and the plane was going out of control. the woman fell out of the plane and barely hung on to her life by grabbing something hanging out of the plane, as cargo items were sucked out and plummetting to the ground around her. then the shot pulled back to show that it was a man watching a movie on his flatpanel tv. given that i had experienced the worst and most extended bout of turbulence of my life while onboard on this trip, the ad seemed inappropriate for an airport. heh.

 

seriously, the turbulence was terrifying. sometime in the first 3 hours, they had to shut down in-flight service for an hour before it was close enough to being stable to recommence. you could hear all the carry-on items banging around, and people couldn’t even get up to go to the bathroom without getting thrown around. i got so afraid that i assumed that i would never see my new niece or be able to get back to seppo. i prayed and gripped my armrests. there was another bout of turbulence later in the flight that probably competed with my previous worst experience, but was nothing compared to the first one.

 

i bought a bunch of presents at the duty-free. i think my mom and sis are pleased. unsure about the others. my little bro is just glad to have a charger to use for his gameboy sp. hahah.