here we are!

After months of telling people I was moving to Korea, the day actually arrived. Ken and I arrived at the Houston airport with 4 pieces of overweight luggage to check, along with four more pieces of carry on luggage. Everything went smoothly and we went to the Continental lounge to wait for our flight. I usually don't have all of these niceties, but since Ken travels so much we have access. He checked his email while I drank coffee and mentally prepared myself for the long flight to Japan.

The flight ended up not being as awful as I would have thought. I was in business/first class with Ken and it is like night and day from coach. The seats almost fold out flat so that you can lie down. I did sleep some, in between food service and watching a movie - "Little Miss Sunshine". At one point I could see snow covered mountains in Alaska.

Our flight was late in arriving to Narita Airport in Japan, so we had just enough time to get to our flight. Ken got stopped as we were getting onto the airplane for searching, which he wasn't too pleased with. They even put some things under some kind of light! They barely searched my bags and asked if I had any liquids. I said no except for some eye and nose drops. However, while I was standing there waiting for Ken another guard noticed I had a bottle of water sticking out of my backpack. I forgot Ken had stuck it there when we got off the plane. I was a bit embarressed.

We had just been served breakfast on our last flight and then we were served dinner on this flight to Pusan. I was starting to feel nauseated from all the travel, lack of sleep, etc. I was also hoping to see the skyline of Tokyo when we took off but I guess I was on the wrong side of the plane. The airport is a ways from Tokyo center. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narita_International_Airport

After getting our bags and going through customs, we were met by a driver and the agent for Ken's company. He is Korean and the one who helps them with apartments, cars, etc. He had a huge bouquet of flowers for me. Considering that I was feeling quite awful at that time, I hope I looked halfway decent. We got into a van with another man from the states (Gary - he was on the flight from Tokyo with us) and took the 2 hour drive to our apartment in Okpo. It was nighttime, but my first impression was the abundance of highrise apartments everywhere. I guess since there isn't much flat land, they have to build upwards when they can!

Our apartment is nice and clean and we quickly went to sleep with no difficulty after essentially being up for over 24 hours.