Hello again! I told you I would go back and recap our actual trip here...so I will try to do that as briefly as possible...and then I will jump to today and tell you what all we've done today.

Here goes (we'll see how brief I can keep this!):

We left Tuscaloosa on Thursday morning at 5:30 a.m. and were accompanied by my sister, Sarah & her friend, Matt. They dropped us off at the airport, and we went straight to the Korean Air counter and took care of the ticket exchange (remember this was a change in plans for us, so we had to go get our paper tickets changed to reflect our new plan).

We went straight through security with no problems and boarded the plane at about 12:30.

While we were still waiting for the plane to take off, I got my camera out and took one of those "point-the-camera-back-at-yourself" pictures of us (I actually had taken one of my older SLR lenses that fits my new digital camera, because the old lens will let you take those backward pictures of yourself while my new lens won't let us do that. anyway...). When I put the camera back in my bag, I felt a little strange about the way it had gone in the bag. I took it out and realized the lens looked a little funny; that's when I realized that the sunshade on the camera must've gotten caught as it was going back in the bag - and the lens was messed up . I can't really explain it well, but the part that zooms out was actually stuck out and would not go back in. It was also loose, like it had come unattached. When we tried to focus the camera, it wouldn't focus. So the trip had not even officially started, but when that lens broke, I literally could not hold myself together. I didn't wail or anything, but I couldn't stop the tears, and there's no telling what people (who happened to see me) thought was wrong. Maybe they thought that I was sad to be leaving...but really, my camera, the camera that had been a gift from my father-in-law to take good pictures of our baby....the only camera we had brought for good still shots, was broken. I felt horrible. So I sat on that plane, just before takeoff and cried. And cried. And cried.

And then it dawned on me that I had a fellow blogger friend who has been to South Korea before.... and it also dawned on me that I had her phone numbers programmed into my cell phone. So I turned my phone on and called Elle. Just 2 minutes before takeoff, she assured me that there were some shops in the airport in Seoul that sold lenses that would fit my digital camera. So I felt better and could at least enjoy my flight.

In all of this, Nathan was right beside me, trying to console and tell me it was going to be okay. You know, I am so thankful for the gift of my husband...when everything else seems to fall down (and yes, I have been known to get tunnel vision when one thing goes wrong), he remains the optimist and can see the bigger picture. So in good times and in bad, he really is the best thing that has ever happened to me!

But back to our flight. We found out that the flight would be 14 hrs. & 20 minutes. That is a LONG time to be on a plane! The next few paragraphs are going to be entries from a rough 'journal' I kept through the flight:

1:41 p.m. (CST) -- We have this cool feature on the plane. Of course there are in-flight movies, etc (quite a few of them, in fact!), but there is also this feature that lets you track the flight. You can see where you've been & where you're going. We've only been in the air just over an hour and we are already 3/4 through Ohio!

2:45 p.m. (CST) -- We just ate a meal (we are crossing Lake Superior in Canada, by the way) and I have decided that I will gladly fly Korean Air anytime I can! The service is great and the food is delicious. In fact, everything is very similar to the way Terri, Dawn, & I were treated when we flew business class from Germany (space is the biggest noticeable difference between Economy Class in Korean Air and Business Class on United). Anyway, another thing I determined is that I am not a fan of Bimimbap (as our flight attendant described, a 'famous' Korean meal - Nathan traded his beef & rice for my Bimimbap) or of green tea. But I tried both

4:35 p.m. (CST) -- I hope my feet don't swell anymore!! I am quite certain I have gone up a whole shoe size because I have to literally squeeze my feet into my shoes when I get up to walk around! According to the travel map, we are nearing Hudson Bay and that we have 11 more hours of travel left. I can't wait for my feet to deflate!

5:30 p.m. (CST) -- Just woke up from a short nap. I tried watching Night at the Museum but couldn't hold my eyes open. Then I had trouble getting comfortable so I could fall asleep. The best thing I've brought so far? My sleeping mask and a pair of ear plugs. With those two things I could block out al lthe background sensory experiences and fall asleep. According to the travel map, we are now somewhere over the NW Territories & have 5118 miles/9 hrs. & 15 minutes left to go! Can't wait to get to Seoul so that we can look for a camera lens!

*~*~*~*

That was the last entry I really had. After that, I finished watching my movie, slept another half hour, and read a book I had brought with me. When we arrived in Seoul, we checked in w/ Korean Airlines and got our boarding passes for the next day. Then we went through passport/immigration and through customs (if you are traveling to Seoul and even if you have nothing to claim, find that English form and fill it out anyway - they require it). I make all that sound easy...and I guess it was...but it took quite a while and was tiring to get to the point where we found our way downstairs at the Korean Air Customer Service desk. They gave us a hotel voucher and had us wait for the shuttle.

Still, at that point, all I could think about was getting a lens for my camera, but I was not finding a place. I kept wanting to call Elle, to see if she could give me some direction (because try as I might, I couldn't make all those shops appear before my eyes!) but yeah, I don't think she would've appreciated a call while she was trying to sleep! (I decided to email her once we got to the hotel)

We didn't find the shops we were looking for, and we were both terribly exhausted and hungry. So we caught the shuttle on to the hotel. We got checked in just fine, and they gave us vouchers for dinner and for breakfast the next morning. We went up, got settled into our room and then went outside & down the street, to a place called "E-Mart." The girl at the hotel counter told us they sell cameras there, so that's where we went. Come to find out, they do sell cameras - but not lenses for cameras. So we left and went back to the hotel to eat.

The standard "travelers' meal ticket" meal at the Hyatt in Seoul is pumpkin soup, followed by an entree of beef, rice, and veggies. And I must say, it was DELICIOUS. The dessert was some sort of spice cakee with cranberry sauce. It was good, too!

When we got back to our room, I posted about arriving safely, checked my email (yep, sent one to Elle), and then took a long hot bath while Nathan checked his email. After I got out of the bath, our heads both hit the pillows of our respective twin beds. That's when my 'meltdown' occurred. I was still so upset about my camera accident and worried over what we would do if we couldn't find a lens....I finally cried myself to sleep, and yes, I mentioned in an earlier post about waking Nathan up with my stuffed-up-nose snoring.

We had decided to get up and skip breakfast so that we could head over to the airport to check email and try to find that elusive camera lens. As we were checking out of the hotel, we tried to use our credit/check card to pay for our internet usage and it was denied! I realized that I had forgotten to call our bank before we left and thought that was the reason that the card wouldn't go through. Thankfully, the hotel took our payment in USD and then we were on the shuttle, back to the airport.

I decided to try calling our bank back home, to try to make sure that our card use was authorized while we're gone....we bought an int'l calling card (another thing I forgot to do with all my lists!) because lo and behold, my cell phone had no service either! So we found a payphone (which, interestingly enough, had internet service - little did we know, that would come in handy later) and after a few trial and errors, I got through to the bank. The lady I talked to said that cc transactions are not authorized in South Korea.....which I found very interesting. She also said that if we could find an ATM, then we could do PIN transactions (which we tried later, to no avail)...just no credit card transactions. This worried me because in the back of my mind, I was still worried about finding that camera lens!

We went to the internet cafe (so that I could check to see if Elle emailed me) and found that even the wireless access was not free....and we could not find anyone to buy an internet card from (at 5:45 in the morning? what were we thinking?). So we went to the pay phone/internet and used a few of the won coins we had received in change from the hotel. In exchange for a 100 won coin, I had 3 minutes of internet usage. In that 3 minutes, I found that I did receive an email from Elle - and it described the location of the shops in detail. So we set out in search of the shops.......and we found them!

They opened about 30 minutes after we found them, and the first shop we went into had the point & shoot digitals (would've been over $200 for the ones they had, though!). When I showed them my camera and asked if they had a lens, the girl told me that no one in the airport sells anything like that. Thankfully, she must've misunderstood me or maybe she just didn't know what she was talking about. We walked to the other side of the shops and the first one we went into had the lenses we were looking for. And they actually were completely out of the one I wanted (could afford) but the girl sold me the display. I could've hugged her.

After that, the cloud seemed to lift and we felt infinitely better. My nerves finally allowed me to eat, so N & I went to the McDonalds in the airport and got us some Egg McMuffins before heading through security. We made it through with flying colors and went down to our gate for boarding.

And I think that is pretty much where I left off in yesterday's post. I hope all that didn't bore you to death...Nathan just looked over here at me and said, "are you STILL writing on that ONE post?" He seems to think that no one will read such a long post...and if you don't, that is okay. I probably posted it as much to let you read of our experiences as to help me remember details when we get home! But if you did read it, thanks -- and sorry it took me so long! I guess there's no such thing as "brief" when it comes to me giving an account of something!!

So there....you are caught up, except for knowing what we've done today. To tell you about that, I've gotta download some pictures from my camera (that works beautifully now!). But Nathan is STARVING. I've already put his lunch off by an hour, just so I could finish this post. So I'm going to close for now - and will post again soon.

Good night to most of you - it is almost your bedtimes!!! :)