We're Here, finally!

Well, we are finally here. It feels like we left years ago. The flights were VERY long and boring. Let me start at the beginning.



When we got to Cincinatti I had to go in this puffer machine and Rusty's carry-on was searched because of his contact solution. But, we got on the plane and it left on-time. Our flight attendant on that leg of the trip was very nice and had adopted her son from Korea in the 70's. So, she was very nice to us and we talked to her quite a bit.



Then, we went to the Minneapolis airport and changed planes. Here is a picture of us before the 12 hour flight. Can you tell we were still pretty excited? Well, that changed by the end of the day.


Now, on to the 12 hour trip to Tokyo. Ah, that was horrible. Mom and I sat together and Rusty sat in the next aisle. We had a guy between us and he wouldn't switch places with us. I watched a movie and ate. They fed us 3 times on that trip. We had a snack, dinner, and breakfast. It seemed like we were eating all of the time.



As tired as we were...we still had a good time in Tokyo. It was neat to see a different culture...even just in the airport. Our first excitement were the toilets...I know what you are thinking. But, I was amazed and EJ will appreciate this since he's been the family bathroom inspector since we were kids. And of course, I took a picture of this...yes, I am wierd. But, I had to share it. The toilet has a bottom washer on it, a deodorizer, and the sound of a toilet flushing. Here is a picture of the directions that were posted on the wall and then a picture of the arm off to the side of the toilet....it cracks me up.

Our next little bit of entertainment came at Rusty's expense, of course. We were all tired and sore after sitting still for so long. So, Rusty and mom decided to sit in the massage chair for 10 minutes. It cost them 200 yen or $2 for 10 minutes. So, Rusty exchanged money for them and they tried it out. Rusty went first and this is where it all started. There was this Japanese family that was sitting close to us. A mother, father, and 3 children. The mother took a picture of Rusty with her cell phone and her and her son were talking and laughing about Rusty. We're not quite sure why. But, it ended up being a family affair. Mom and I just sat and laughed. Rusty was oblivious. He was just enjoying his massage. But, we all got a laugh at his expense.

We finally boarded the plane for our last leg of the trip, or so we thought. It was a 2.5 hour trip to Seoul. I sat by a Korean girl who had just finished studying in Portland and was on her way home. She was very sweet and I talked to her for a little bit about Seoul.

Once we got to the airport we managed to navigate through customs, baggage claim, and money exchange. We feel rich since 1000 won is a dollar...so it looks like we have a lot of money, but not really.

So, our last leg of the trip was really the van that we rode in to the hotel. The hotel was about an hour away from the airport and it was a scary ride. The streets here aren't very wide. It was pretty scary, they cut each other off and run red lights. Oh yea, and almost ran over pedestrians.

Once at the hotel, we checked in and were informed of our upgrade. We were upgraded from a 2 bedroom 1 bath to a 2 bedroom 2 bath. We were very excited...now we won't have to share and we can sleep in a few more minutes. It is as nice as the pictures we saw on their website. We are staying at Fraser Suites. Well, it's 11:54 am Frankfort time and 12:45 a.m. Seoul time and we have our city tour tomorrow morning. We still haven't figured out how we are getting there or what time we need to get up. So, I'd better hop off here. We are having a good time and are glad to be here. I'll update again tomorrow evening. It was a long trip over here, but I'm glad to be here and have this experience. It really is amazing.

Oh yea, we have already met other couples that are adopting. We'll see some of them tomorrow on the city tour and others on the plane headed back home.