Made It To Seoul Without Inflicting Pain On My Fellow Travelers

Believe me, that is quite an accomplishment. The opportunities and temptations are many when traveling. I had to settle for watching the blue hairs, on their way to Vegas, almost come to blows over who was, or wasn't, getting off the plane fast enough. Canes were on the verge of flying. It would have been more amusing if it hadn't been happening in my row. I was actually waiting for the annoying woman two seats away from me to get smacked. She spent 90% of the 7 hour flight playing her little hand-held poker game and it's little "beep-beep" almost pushed me over the edge. I was ready to rip it out of her hand and throw it out the emergency door and her along with it. If she had gotten smacked around it would have reassured my faith in karma.
I am now trying to get my phone up and running. The woman from T-mobile insisted I would be able to use it here in Seoul. I wasn't sure but went ahead with her. She was totally wrong. I can't use my phone here. So I am sitting and chatting with the tech from T-mobile about inserting a Korean SIM card for the duration.
Now why would a customer service representative lie to me about something like this? Who knows? It is like those airlines that oversell a flight hoping that some people don't show. Annoying? Why, yes indeed.

Anyway, I successfully navigated the airport and the airport shuttle. Thankfully the person next to me on the flight from SF to Seoul never said a word. Read his book, watched the TV and never once tried to engage me in conversation. This pleasant situation was, of course, made up by the screaming child and the group of astrophysics nerds who were on their way to the international astrophysics conference that is currently being held in Seoul. Gee, maybe that is why I had to scramble to get a room. So, my trip away from MIT leaves me sitting in a cabin full of MITers heading to a conference. Yay! Best part was that there was also a reporter from some astrophysics journal who really, really wanted to talk about it to the conference paper-givers! At this point I was getting ready to head over and start pinching that little screaming kid just to get her to drown out the nerd talk. Ultimately I watched Ice Age 3 at least three times and the Proposal twice maybe? I kept losing track as every time I got annoyed I would go back to the TV. Good times? No, not at all.

And I get on the correct shuttle bus. I am pretty sure. There is a map inside the bus with my hotel listed as a stop. I'm all good. Of course I make one little mistake. I know the neighborhood I am in but not the actual stop. Whoops. This will bite me in the ass. The bus ride is about an hour. And I have to say this whole experience is extremely organised. I have never, ever, in all my years of travel, seen an airport run this smoothly. It makes Logan look like Manila International! So, I tell the driver (who doesn't speak English) that I am heading to Mapo (where the hotel is located) and he thinks I am heading to the Mapo subway stop which, while close, is no cigar. So I'm sitting there listening to a bunch of South African engineers from Dubai bitch and moan about random things and then we come to a stop. They all pile out. It is the Mapo stop. I am psyched! One more to go! Yay. Then I realise that we aren't going to be stopping at my stop because this guy thinks I am getting out at Mapo. Damn it. Luckily I realise this as my hotel goes wizzing by. Um, yeah, there it goes. I realise I am going to have to get out at the next stop. How bad can it be? Couple Blocks? I gather my shit and move to the front of the bus. I look at the stop list. See my stop that never was, grumble a little bit and then take a deep breath and move on.
And we are still driving. A little old Korean woman gets up so I have hope that we are stopping soon. I get off at the Seoul main police station stop. I realise that I am at least twelve city blocks from my hotel. Oy! I make it to the hotel, completely sweaty as it is about 70 degrees here and I am wearing my suit. I check in, all goes smoothly. I can't figure out to turn off the overhead lights in my room which immediately drive me crazy. I spend many frantic minutes searching the room until I discover that there is a magical box next to the bed that controls everything in the room. And lo, I am happy.
I proceed to take advantage of the rain shower. And lo...I didn't even know there was this stage of happy out there. I LOVE THIS SHOWER.