Wrapping up pt 2

The day of the flight

I took the light rail out of Sasang to Gimhae airport.  It was a fascinating ride, I wish I had taken some pictures.  Once we had gone past the city limits of Busan we came upon large areas of grassland which was being developed and then we rode over an entirely new town that was being built all at once, so the town was yet to exist, yet there were huge unused roads and a vast number of incomplete buildings.

Then came the standard airport stuff.

I flew out from Gimhae to Beijing.  From here came a little bit of 'FUN' basically there were three of us that we coming from Korea and we were transferring to a Seattle flight.  The other two were Americans heading home for the holidays.  We were taken by a member of ground staff to a re-checking in desk.  However we had to go through customs and claim our bags first which sucked.  We did get to our flight with a little time and we talked to one another about our experiences. But it was jusy another one of those annoying bureaucratic things that seem to occurwhenever you fly anywhere.

From Beiging I went to Seattle, this was to be the longest flight by far.  I believe the flight time was something like 10 hours.  It was not terrible and I belive I got some small amount of sleep, which isnot suprising as I was knackered.  On the way down in the the USA, they handed out the necessary forms which one requires to gain enterance to the states, however they did not have the forms which it appeared I would require as a Brit.  However once I was in the airport it became apparent that that would not be an issue as I had completed an ESTA prior to my visit in the USA.

However I was still subject to the customs and immigration section of the airport.  Thankfully I knew I had a fair amont of time before my next flight, so I was not worried. But it still took a fair time non-the-less AND I was really close to the front of the line, since I had hurried to that section.  I passed through without much issue.  The guy behind the desk had a talk with me, more about my experiences more than anything else as he filled in the documentation.

My hurrying however proved to be fruitless, because after I had picked up my bags and checked them back in I was treated to the information that my plane would be 2 hours late.  I ended up sitting at my gate using my laptop to confirm the information that I had been given and it was true.  I spent some time talking to some American troops who were heading home and funnily enough a couple of them had come in from Korea.  Even more funny was that they simply assumed I was in the military until I said otherwise.

The seattle flight was not really any problem at this point as I had already been travelling for a ridiculous amount of time.  However due to the delay I would easily be missing my connection out of Chicago.  However as the delay was due to the airline, they provided us with a place to stay.  The reason for this was that it was 11pm when we finally landed in Chicago and the place was deserted. 

(Before I move on I would like to say that when I landed in Seattle and I had made it through the immigration post I ended up within the airport in a large room with resteraunts and som many people.  At that point I was in utter culture shock.  I was surrounded by people I understood and they were all white.  I have to say it was horrible and I had to go into a little corner and recover before I could continue on.  It took me a week or so before I was actually comfortable).

The hotel that I stayed at in Chicago, was actually pretty decent.  I caught a few hours sleep, although I was pretty hungry.

The next morning I woke up to discover it was snowing!  First though "Bollocks!"  I had hoped to beat the snow to Michigan.  But once I went downstairs to check-out I found out that all the planes were still on time and the amount of snow that had fallen and would fall would likely have no bearing upon the flights out of Chicago.

Then my final flight Chicago to Detroit, it was delayed...Of course. We ended up getting on a fantastically small plane and once we were up it id not take too long and we made up some of the time in the air.  Then finally when I landed in Detroit I had to hunt down my luggae.  Thankfully it was not difficult because I have a very distinct bag.

Next part - Actually in America.