Saturday, July 18, 2009

Airports, squat toilets and crosses.

Hello! I’ve made it safely to Korea, and have snagged brief access to the internet. So! I’ve got much to say, but now I’ll stick to the flight/arrival so as not to bore/overload anyone :) This is the Korean airport (from online advertisement):

Airport

My experiment had interesting results. I arrived at the Halifax airport around 5:20am, and proceeded to the checked baggage counter. Luckily, my lovely bags weighed in at 49.3 lbs and 49.4 lbs ~ SUCCESS! They were x-rayed and passed inspection. Proceeding onto security, excitement built as I stepped up for my turn at the counter. I smiled at the personnel, trying to appear as normal as possible. Perhaps that was my mistake, because instantly I saw hands waving at each other and a female security officer step forward. *Great* I thought, knowing full well what was to come. At least I wasn’t wearing anything metal – I’d taken great care to avoid metal in any form. I stepped through the gates, ready to pass the inspection with flying colors. The buzzer went off. “What?!!” Confused, I looked to my left, and noticed that my watch was happily resting on my wrist. All that effort wasted! The security man got out his wand thing and waved it all about, eventually allowing me to continue on towards the awaiting female officer. This search took the cake though. Not only was it the full pat-down, it was an in-depth shoe inspection and then a full bag search. Overall, the most thorough search I’ve participated in thus far. This officer seemed friendly enough, smiling as she put my fave stuffed animal back into my carry-on (“My daughter has one of these that she carries everywhere too!” – I never did ask how old her daughter was).

I passed through customs, endured my first and second flights (16 hours), and arrived in Japan around what would be 4am Atlantic Time, 4pm Japanese time. Security lines were huge, but it allowed me time to mentally prepare for the next encounter. I removed the watch, took my laptop out in advance, and stepped confidently up to the counter. The lady waved me through, and I was amused to notice that the guy who was supposed to be watching my gate was rather distracted and staring off into some distant land located to his right. I passed through without any acknowledgement from him at all, picked up my bag, and with a special thrilled feeling in my heart I pranced down to my boarding gate. I had, at last, gone unnoticed at an airport. *Joy!*

Having some time to wander the airport, I headed off in search of the restroom facilities. For those of you who are like me, be prepared for a bit of a shock here: not all toilets look like our toilets. That’s right. TOILETS are different. I experienced genuine shock. I had NO idea what to do with this:

Squat Toilet

While I was standing at the door peering in, the Japanese women found my confusion to be quite amusing, and kept repeating “squat toilets!” I told them I had no idea how to use the things, and they, again, laughed to themselves. Befuddled, I simply left. Ah well.

I made it to Korea around 8pm, managed to get through all the health-checks and somehow was able to prove that I was not infected with swine flu. By-passing the mandatory quarantine for all persons experiencing headaches, runny-noses and sore-throats, I made it through customs, retrieved my bags and met my taxi-driver. As I was making the hour long trip to my new hometown, I was amazed at the amount of crosses displayed Crossesproudly on buildings in the area. Lit with red or white Christmas-type lights, *hundreds* of crosses illuminated the skyline – there was never a time where I could see less than five crosses within eye-range, and usually it was more like 10+. I found out later that each of those crosses were placed on the rooftops of Christian churches, acting as beacons. It’s pretty crazy sweet and comforting.

I arrived at my temporary apartment around 9:30pm, ready for a nice night’s sleep ~lovely!

Well, that was the adventure of the trip over! I’ll write more about the area and my exciting first day in Korea soon (it involves me going to the Korean hospital and, later, being locked out of my apartment for the weekend ~ oops).

As soon as I find camera batteries, I will post pictures! We love to get emails from home (hint hint ;) and thanks to everyone who was praying for safe travels!

~Kate

10 comments:

  1. Hey Kate,

    Nice to read your news! I take it you got into some gluten, resulting in hospital? What did you eat?

    Cool about the crosses...hope you can find one of those buildings!

    Love ya, Mom

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nope, I'm happily gluten-free. Just wait mom, don't assume the worst! :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Katie,

    Great post! I am so happy and excited for you! I'm also glad that you made it there safe and sound :) I was praying for you!

    Wow, What a culture change! Fascinating! I can't wait to hear more :D

    You have me on the edge waiting for your next post!

    Love you!
    Mrs. Lindsay :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Katie,

    Wonderful to hear that you arrived safely!
    Korea sounds like an interesting place to explore.
    We are looking forward to your next blog entry to find out more about your trip to the hospital and being locked out of your apartment.
    Were they testing you for the H1N1 influenza? ( hospital )
    Sounds as if you are already beginning to enjoy yourself.
    Love you honey,
    Nannie & Papa

    ReplyDelete
  6. haha, Katie, I'm loving this! Hope things are going smoothly!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Katie, I died laughing at the toilet! haha! I can just see your face. Don't wait too long to post, we are on pins and nails to hear about the hospital & etc! xoxox Love Rache

    ReplyDelete
  8. I am so glad you arrived okay - I am curious about this weekend long apt. lockout though. I agree with rachel though, don't wait too long to post more - I'm looking forward to hearing more details!

    ReplyDelete
  9. The TOILETS!?!??!! HAHHAA!!! I'm not sure I would have known what to do either!!! But I probably wouldn't have walked away from it...you know how much water I drink! ;)

    ReplyDelete