I’ve FINALLY arrived!

by runeatsleep

Greetings from China! Whew, sure glad my blog is accessible here! Let’s rewind a few days…I left Seattle on Monday. My sister and I came up with this awesome idea to go running before my flight, since it wasn’t until 2:25pm. SO, we planned on running about 12 miles starting around 8am. WELL, let’s just say the weather didn’t want to cooperate. I got there at 8, and we headed out around 8:30 with our Road Runner Sports “rainproof” jackets. I say “rainproof” because we got poured on by the rain, and after being outside in them for about a minute, we decided to go back inside and put on our hard core North Face jackets. WELL, let’s just say even after we were fully suited up, we cut back the miles to 9. Yeah, we were definitely soaked after. Here’s what you might look like after a 9 mile run, where mother nature decides to take a big dump on you…

After our run (around 10:15am), I received a text on my cell phone from Orbitz, telling me that my flight had been pushed to 1:20pm! Steff and I managed to shower and get ready in about 15 minutes, and head out the door. After saying goodbye (there were MANY tears), my sister dropped me off and I checked in for my flight. Then, to make things more ridiculous, they tell me my flight has been delayed 4 hours! Meaning I would have to spend about 6 hours in the airport, which was NOT cool. So, I had my sister come pick me up, and we went out to Blue C Sushi for lunch, and a little shopping (my bags were checked, so I couldn’t buy very much). I managed to buy a green hoodie from Old Navy!

After getting dropped off a second time (where there were more tears), I went to the gate. The flight was pretty smooth (about 11 hours total), however because my flight was so delayed, me and about 17 other people missed the connecting flight to Hong Kong. Asiana Airlines was nice enough to comp us a free hotel room, with breakfast, lunch and dinner coupons!

Here’s my room, which I had all to myself…

Two beds? Yes PLEASE…I crashed hard that night. We didn’t get to the hotel until about 10:30pm on Tuesday, and I didn’t wake until about 8 am Wednesday morning. Luckily, I found a marathon of America’s Next Top Model (in english) playing, which I happily watched on this awesome TV, while doing some core development exercises.

A little vanity of my own..

And me, striking a pose…or trying to with a camera in my hands

The shower was AWESOME. It had a steam shower option, which I never used. Downside, the water was running out of the bottom of the shower where the door opens, so when I stepped out, I almost busted my sh#*!

Also, the toilet was HIGHLY entertaining. As you can see, there’s a whole panel just to the right of the toilet, full of interesting options like rear clean, front clean, seat heat levels…p.s. I tried the lowest setting on the toilet seat heater, and that kind of freaked me out, so that was the end of that adventure…

Here’s a view from outside my window. SNOW!

Around 4pm on Wednesday, we were shuttled from the hotel to the airport. Since my flight wasn’t until 8:10pm, I went to this lounge above the gates to hang out. They had they awesome reclined chairs for people to sleep in, but none of them were available. BOO.

Did you know that Seoul/Incheon International Airport was rated #1 in the world in 2009? Hong Kong International Airport was rated #2, and I got to visit them both in one trip!

Here’s some photos of the awesome Seoul Airport.

Before I got on my flight, I HAD to have some Korean food, so I ordered a bowl of Udon noodles with Kimchi. Probably should have gone with something less spicy…I started sweating hard core and my nose started to drip! These 3 Korean guys next to me started to give me some weird looks…

The flight was smooth, but most importantly, ON TIME! We arrived around 11pm. It was a grand total of 4 hours, but it seemed like years! I was SO excited to finally see Ezra! After getting all 3 of my huge bags, I walked through customs and met him and our driver for the 2 hour drive home. I was pretty excited to be in China, and didn’t think I would sleep a wink that night, but after a nice hot shower, I got pretty sleepy, and it was finally bed time around 3:15am!

We didn’t wake up until about 10:30am, which was nice. I’m glad I was able to sleep through the night! Thursday activities included shopping for hangers (at WAL-MART!), random food for snacks, getting money on my phone, and stopping by the bank. All of which I have zero pictures of. However, i’m going to be bringing my camera with me EVERYWHERE, so expect pictures to come. As I post this, it’s currently Friday morning at 9 am! I’m 16 hours ahead of Seattle, so when I post, it’ll most likely be at some random times…

SPECIAL UPDATE!

AWESOME news, my sister is ENGAGED! So excited and happy for them both. I cannot WAIT to come back to the states for an awesome wedding, and of course, I will be the maid of honor which means we will DEFINITELY be doing a lot of partying…CONGRATS STEFF AND JOE! Love you guys….

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