An yung ha say oh!

The flight over was long, as I expected. I flew on a Korean airline, because it was cheaper than flying directly to Japan. The food was surprisingly good – I had a beef steak with some kind of Korean sauce, and they even gave a custard pastry for dessert. The flight was uneventful except for the Korean lady who sat next to me who kept opening and closing the window, even though I was sitting in the window seat. At first I thought it was rude, but she also handed my finished food tray to the stewardess, so maybe she was just acting motherly.

So after about 13 hours of flying, I arrived safely at my hotel… in Korea! Because of my flight delay, I missed my plane to Osaka, but the airline was nice enough to buy my in Seoul hotel tonight, and a pass for dinner and breakfast at the hotel restaurant.

After I put my stuff in my room, I went to the lobby and met an older lady from my flight who also missed her connection. We ate dinner at the hotel together, and I found out that she also lives in Pasadena, a few blocks from my house! She is a political science professor at a small college in Orange County, and she is going to Cambodia to attend part of the Khmer Rouge trials. I didn’t know a whole lot about the Khmer Rouge incident, but apparently over 5 million people were killed over the course of four years, in the Communist Party’s attempt to demodernize the country.

It was very random meeting someone from Pasadena in Korea.

After dinner, I walked around Seoul for a bit. It looks sort of like how I remembered Japan.

On the bus ride into Seoul, I passed by a KFC, an Outback Steakhouse, and a lot of H&M bus stop ads.

The bidet! This is the coolest part about hotel Asian rooms.

This was on my TV in my hotel room in Korea. Professional Starcraft players and commentators discussing strategy. Oh my.