Travel Day

Why is this blog entitled "Adventures in Time and Space?"  For one, it's more interesting than "Wil's Trip to Korea!" but really its because of the temporal shifting that is involved when traveling in the East/West direction at several hundred miles an hour.

Wake Up:            3:30 Monday
Leave the house:  4:15 Monday
First Flight:          6:51 Monday
Land in Korea:    17:25 Tuesday

Personal Elapsed Time:  23 Hours
Actual Elapsed Time:     38 Hours

2/21/2011
   I woke up at 3:45 to head down to Kansas City and catch my first plane of the day.  There was a bit of trouble with my visa at check in, but I can't remember what it was if they actually told me.  Something about the number I think.  I was told that I wouldn't have any trouble when it came time to enter the country.   My bags were underweight by a few pounds each, thanks to extensive weighing the night before.

   After boarding the captian informed the passengers that the aircraft was too heavy and they needed some volunteers to travel through LA in exchange for a 400$ travel voucher.  One woman moved on the deal immediately, but some coaxing was required before anyone else came forward.  I found that strange since we were informed that some of the passengers had a final destination of LA.  I would think that they would jump at the chance to avoid the extra stop in San Francisco regardless of the voucher.  In the end, I think that the problem was rectified by moving smaller luggage from the hold below the aircraft to the overhead bins.  I found this to be slightly alarming since the reason we were overweight was because we had to take on extra fuel in case San Francisco was too foggy to land.  If I remember my physics correctly, the 15 foot difference in altitude does not change the weight of luggage in any significant way.

   "Banking around after takeoff allowed an impressive, albeit drab, view of the countryside surrounding the airport.  Grey skies and brown fields don't do much to lessen my interest in watching cars shrink and subdivisions reveal their labyrinthine streets.  A double row of bright yellow school buses, parked for the day, lend a splash of color to the landscape.

   I feel a bit sad, thinking that this is the last of the Midwest I'll be seeing for several months.  As we climb through the clouds my view fades to grey and is suddenly, brilliantly replaced by sunlight.  The change of scenery lifts my mood somewhat and we leave the clouds behind in favor of river streaked plains and snowcapped mountains."  -The last two paragraphs were written while half asleep on the plane.

   Despite the FAA's irrational fears about fog being present in The City by the Bay we landed safely in San Francisco only one hour later than scheduled.  I easily found my way to the international departures terminal with about 20 minutes to spare.  It would be too much to ask to avoid a delay on a flight that already lasts twelve and a half hours, so we trundled off towards a runway only to have the wind shift and have to taxi around to the other side, adding about 30 minutes to the the time spent in cramped seats.

Large plane, itty bitty living space

I had an aisle seat and my neighbor wasn't particularly talkative.  I gathered that he was in the National Guard, retired from Federal law enforcement, and had traveled the world quite extensively.  He had one story about being in a village in Afghanistan and having to deal with one tribe trying to convince them that another was Taliban to increase their amount of grazing land.  He was a pretty tight lipped guy and my assumption is that he is some sort of special agent.  I did learn one helpful bit of information from him, which was that all of the train stations here have a unique number.  This wound up being helpful knowledge later.

I spent my time on the flight alternately reading, dozing and watching Megamind and The Social Network, minus the first 20 minutes of so of each. 
 
Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean...
2/22/2011

The last movie was Wall Street, which made the decision to go to sleep for a good three hours an easy one.  I imagine the conversation went something like this:
"Steve, how can we make a transcontinental flight worse?"
"How about we show a movie about high finance with lots of big numbers and important dialogue that are imperative to the plot that they won't be able to hear over the engines!"
"I think you've got something there, I'll notify corporate."

   Upon landing I got through customs and got my luggage without event, although I was a little nervous due to the problem I had before taking off.  I found the university representative who had been sent to meet us easily and made a couple of friends with those in my cohort.  Hugo from France and Amanda from Texas were as travel weary as I was.  We took two buses and a taxi to our final destination, finally arriving at 10:30 PM local time.  I decided to unpack despite my weariness and the late hour and had a shower before falling asleep and into bed.

Sorry I didn't get this up sooner, I've been pretty busy.  I should be able to get another post up soon describing the last couple of days since I have some free time this afternoon.  I imagine most of you won't see that one till "tomorrow," as abstract as that idea seems to me now.