Elle biggers, this one's for you-sorry for my disregard for the blog, I'm back to school-I'll be goin strong.
Have you ever seen the movie "Groundhogs Day"? There is a scene throughout the film where Bill Murray wakes each morning to Sonny and Cher's "I got You babe" and you realize he is reliving the same day over and over again. That is what my experience at Seoul Gimpo airport felt like today. I arrived at the Seoul airport after attending the Spring Leadership conference for AMWAY Korea.* A seemingly nice gesture by my host mom, she invited me to a conference to hear an American businessman-"success story speak."
*essay on findings forthcoming
What I didn't know when invited, is that it conflicted with the Jeju Fire Festival. The fire festival is held after the New Year at a small orum (mountain), which is lit up in flames. I saw images of it on my first day in Korea, and knew I would be in attendance. That is, until I realized there was no cordial way to back out of the Amway Conference without possibly ruining home stay relations. Despite creative strategies to stay home, including pretending to vomit by spitting pizza into my toilet and making heaving noises, I knew the guilt would be too much. And so I took my real mother's advice and sucked it up. I quickly realized that was the wrong advice. Hindsight is always 20-20 but I would honestly say I would endure an awkward home stay situation not to have had to deal with the following:
Almost in tears multiple times this weekend, I realized for the first time, the freedom I gave up when coming to Korea. Somehow, I ended up listening to a morally reprehensible company exploit and lure its employees into the thick of its corporate black hole rather than experience a great cultural and historic Korean event. Tell me how that's ok? I wanted to cry when my host mother told me I had a lot of free time that I could spend in Holly's coffee while the Korean portion of conference took place-mind you we are in Korea, so the Korean part is A SUBSTANTIAL PART. I was kicking myself for doing the unselfish thing, and missing out on a once in a lifetime opportunity. Instead of being at the fire festival, an event I explicitly told my host family I was excited about since day one, I could sit, ALONE, at a coffee shop in Seoul for 3 hours.
6 hours later, post the conference and dinner, we hit up a jimjilbang. Let me tell you, I love the jimjilbang, but even I must admit it's awkward dropping trou. with 15 of your mother's co-workers and scrubbing down. It was a zoo on the level with the saunas, children running around yelling "oma" and "o-ni” mother/sister. But in a country where everyone is your mother, sister, brother-how is anyone supposed to pick out if they are being hollered at? After some pc bang action, I made my way to bed, amidst 35 snoring ajumas (old ladies). I refer to it as the ajuma slumber party. Around 7 am, I awoke suddenly to the television. Apparently that was the wake up call-I've experienced it at the movies-Koreans love their entertainment LOUD. I barely made it back to sleep, but successfully rolled around for the next 2 hours.
My host mom and I washed up and headed to the airport around 10. I saw the rain, and thought of all the delay stories my friends have had recently. I hoped for the best, and could never imagine the light drizzle affecting our flight.
BACK TO THE GROUNDHOG DAY SCENARIO. After quite the debacle of buying our tickets, my host mom and I ate lunch before hitting up the terminal. I had the chance to check out the "free experience space"-free cell phone chargers, Internet and other gadgets-thank you Korean culture-SHARING IS CARING! However when we arrived at our gate it seemed our flight was delayed. Frustrated we waited for a while, only to find out the flight was canceled due to inclement weather. I could not understand how some rain could ground planes, especially since word from the island was it was lightly raining there too. We exited the terminal-round one. Received new tickets and would depart, or so we thought, at 220; it put a damper on my intended afternoon plans-Korean movies, food, and potential dance practice. 220 rolls around and all check-ins for flights are temporarily suspended. We waited patiently for an hour and finally were able to enter the terminal. We sat in similar seats and waited-patiently again. Alas, our flight was canceled so, were sent back out of the terminal. This process happened 3 more times with Korean air. Walking past the baggage carousel over and over, and through security check over and over-had me thinking I was reliving the same situation-OH I was.
At approximately 6 o’clock we realized no Korean air flights were going out and pursued other options. Monopolization of an industry was clearly in play here. You see Korea has basically 3 major airlines operating-Korean Air, Asiana and JAL. In America, no airlines could afford to cancel all flights for a day because their patrons would simply choose another airline to fly. But, here in Korea, there IS NO other option. Interestingly, no one seemed the least bit put out by this scenario. And although in America I find people to be overly hostile and rude when it comes to these situations, I couldn't decide whether I respected my fellow travelers passivity or resented it. I mean after the 5th round of entering and exiting a terminal-it's time to get pissed off!
Asiana was booked, so we sought out Jeju Air. I was already feeling the onset of an anxiety attack. The big airlines aren't flying, how can the budget airlines with a fleet consisting only of propeller planes, fearlessly tackle the "horrible weather conditions" that the announcements spoke of? I could foresee a second "One Two Go" experience-which by the way has service to Jeju- I saw a plane landing prior to take off in Jeju. "Oh my god the plane made it all the way from Thailand" I thought to myself. I wonder if you can buy plane tickets in the Family mart or GS25? Anyhow I digress, my host mom told me she had flown "Jeju air" before. In broken English she said "very noisy" and made hand gestures that clearly depicted HEAVY TURBULENCE. At this point I was near tears, again. I missed the damn fire festival, I have been in an airport for 8 hours, missed plans back on the island and now I was going to die on the little plane that couldn't. For the first time, I wanted the plane to be canceled-and just my luck it was.
We exited and re-entered the terminal with newly issued Korean air tickets for the 6th and final time. And just our luck, I didn't have to miss my first day of teaching due to delays and silly Amway conferences. We arrived back in jeju an hour later-and I now understand the true meaning of one of the three pillars of jeju island's "wind women and rocks." The wind was horrendous and we found out later, our flight was the only one to make it out and tomorrow's are all canceled.
My host mother's partners left early and arrived back on the island in the morning. My host mom did not want to wake up early and arrive home because she never feels rested. Ironically, my host mother's intentions to feel rested and have a leisurely day of travel resulted in the most un-restful day EVER.
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