Getting to Japan:20-some hours of flight time

My Korean Adventure began Wednesday, January 22nd, 2003

This a scanned page from what started as my trip journal and ended up being my photo album and diary. It helped me record all my memories of Korea. I have always wanted to write a book some day and I knew that I would be too busy and too technically uneducated for several years. So writing my experiences down helped keep them clear in my mind.

I found this map in my trip journal. It shows the route my airplane took to get me to South Korea. I started in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and ended up in Daegu, South Korea some 26 hours of FLIGHT TIME later.
I flew Canjet, United, JAL, and Korean Air. I even spent over-night in Tokoyo-Narita. All in all, it was quite an experience for someone who had not only never been on an airplane before but who had never even been in an airport.

My friend "Mary" sent me a postcard from Korea. She had taught there one year and came home to Halifax, Nova Scotia. She told me a lot about Korea and started me thinking and considering my own plan to teach English overseas.



Here's "Mary". This is a fun picture I took of her using double exposure on the film. I did it while I was taking a night class in photography.



I took this picture looking out the window of the plane. I flew JAL (Japan Airlines) and it was very posh! You can see the JAL logo on the tip of the wing. We had our own TV screen on the back of the seat in front of us and at the back of the airplane there were these large windows that you could see out and take pictures.



I was given a postcard of a Boeing 747 which is the same type of airplane I flew to Korea on.


Here is a postcard the flight attendant gave me showing the cockpit of a Boeing 747 airplane. This was post-9/11 so I wasn't allowed to actually see into the cockpit myself or meet the pilot but at least I got a postcard and the flight attendants were very nice to me.



This is a photo I took of Alaska, USA from the window of the airplane as we flew over.

This was taken January 22nd, 2003.

Above are two more pictures I took from the window of the airplane. The top one is of Mt. Fuji, Japan and the other is as the airplane decended towards Tokoyo, Japan.

The final leg of my trip didn't get underway until Wednesday, January 22nd, 2003 because I had to have a working visa prior to my arrival in Korea. This meant I had to stop in Toronto and go to the Korean Consular Office and get an E-2 working (Conversational English Teacher) Visa for Korea. Finally, on Wednesday the international part of my trip began at 7:07 am at Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

I kept a diary or trip journal of my experience and I found it and saw that I had written this entry. "Actually, my trip began in Halifax on Sunday evening. I left there on Canjet and flew to Toronto. It was the first time I had ever been on an airplane. Actually, it was the first time I had ever been in an airport. So, all in all, it was a new and slightly nerve-wracking experience for me. ... Here in Toronto I had to clear Customs and I was randomly selected for a security check (I guess a thirty-something Canadian woman with no stamps in her passport and a ticket for 3 major airports entailing 26 hours of flight time raises some red flags). As part of the securtity check my bags were all opened. I thought I would be humiliated but actually ALL I cared about was trying to zip my bags closed again. The worst part is that probably I have to get my checked baggage again in Chicago and again in Toyoko."

Of course having never flown before I did everything wrong:

• In Chicago, at O'Hare Airport I went through a gate the wrong way [cause I got lost] and I set off alarms. I was so scared I just dropped my bags and stood spread-eagle and called out to a huge black Chicago policeman who was rapidly approaching me (wearing a gun that looked very large and scarey), "Please don't shoot me. I'm just a stupid Canadian". He immediately got on his walkie-talkie and radioed for someone. I was sweating bullets thinking "Great! He's radioing for back-up. Oh, My God!" I kept running worse-case scenerios through my brain. "Was I going to be detained and strip-searched?" Lucky for me he took pity on me realizing I was just an inexperienced small town girl. So, not only did he let me go but he had someone else take over his post and he walked me to my gate carrying some of my bags for me. I was pleasantly surprised and pleased. [This was post 9/11 so I was expecting the airports in the US to be brutal and actually I had less problem there than I did in Canada - my own country. ]

• The next thing I did wrong and that caused me no end of problems was that I wore a huge brown velor cardigan sweater on the plane. I mainly wore it because it was so nice and warm and I always got cold travelling. But, also, it was so bulkly that I couldn't fit it in my luggage so I decided to wear it. It seemed like a good idea at the time. However, I either didn't notice or didn't realize that it had 8 brass [read metal] buttons running up the front of it. This meant that it set off EVERY metal detector in every airport I passed through. This ensured that I got pulled aside for a full body scan with a hand-held metal detector. Thank god, the JAL Flight Attendants were kind to me and let me change in a little curtained cubbyhole while they stood guard so that no one would see me changing. Boy, was I thankful I had taken a turtleneck shirt in my carry-on bag.

If I learned anything from these experiences it is that I will forever be grateful for the kindness of strangers. I would learn that even more in the days to come....