First Post!!! Travelling to KOREA...

Hey everyone. So this is my first attempt at "blogging"...I feel a bit weird about it...first I feel kind of "cool" because I can call myself a "blogger"..."blogger" is a cool title. Anyway, I also feel weird about it because of my 'unique' writing style...oh well...I'm sure you will all forgive me for my incessant "..." and possibly 'different' ways of explaining things. Ok so now we got that out of the way...The main reason why I started this blog: To be able to write down my experience, and be able to share it with the people i care about most...YOU. Yes, I'm really just talking about YOU. :)

So here we go:

I woke up this morning early so I could play the Wii with my sister before she had to leave for work. She left, on the verge of tears, and I admit I was a little sad myself...I pray and hope that this will be a rather "un-drama" filled semester for her. I played my video game one last time, and then headed into my room to finalize packing. I have 2 huge suitcases, a carry-on roll-on suitcase, and my olympics duffel bag that I've had since '96 I believe. I pretty much packed everything...to this moment I only really KNOW I forgot my cologne, moshi dice pillow, and thats it i believe. I drove out to Bank of America to cancel my account (I ended up keeping it, as they made it so I wouldn't receive finance charges for 12 months), and then went to TD Banknorth and withdrew a good amount of money so I can survive in Korea for the next month (plus the trip to Malaysia mid-Sept). I made a quick trip to the post office, then drove home...took the rest of my stuff out of the van, and completed packing everything.

After a quick lunch, and catching up on the latest episode of Big Brother (free on On Demand...woooo!), it was time to leave with Dad. On the drive there, I spoke to my mom who is in RI, and that was nice to talk to her before I left. I called Lauren as well, and then called my aunts, who obviously were upset that I was leaving. Quick side note: I woke up with my cell phone service discontinued because I told them I was leaving at the end of the month and the end of the month in ATT world is Aug 28...so to anyone I didn't call, I applogize profusely!

I got to the airport with no problem...left Dad who also was sad (but probably happy now there's one kid gone...one left lol), and then ran into the one BIG issue of the day...check-in. My 1st bag was 57lbs...bag #2: 67. Weight limit is 50lbs. What to do? Charge me $375 per bag of course. NO WAY. I told them that's simply unacceptable. They said to go downstairs and find baggage services and "see if I can have an old bag from them to be able to put the excess weight in"...and of course pay $130.00 for an extra bag charge...oh well...better than $700+. I found JetBlue...after a no-go with United...JetBlue gave me a really small carry-on size bag, which worked...BARELY. I went back upstairs, and grit my teeth as I ROLLED UP ALL of my soon to be non non-wrinkled dress shirts into the new bag. $130.00 and a lot of sweat later, I was all set.

The wait for the flight was long. I was depressed because I was alone and I just left my family and friends behind...thankfully I found a woman who talked to me for a while, who ended up having the seat next to me. The flight felt really short, because I slept for over half of it.

I arrived here in LAX, walked to the International Terminal, checked in with Korean Air, went upstairs, had 2 Midori Sours, and then went to security...and here I am now at the gate, at 2:56AM Boston-time, exhausted, anxious, nervous, but hopeful.

To all of you reading this, I miss you all already, and can't wait to relay my experiences in Korea; from the job, to the people I meet, to the places I will go.

~Greg :)