The West Commences: Korea begins

I’m in the Kelowna airport waiting for the plane, which is on the board as being on time. The support staff at the Vancouver airport has decided not to strike, and I haven’t been bumped by Air Canada. Yahoo!!!! Mo and John came to pick me up early; I was still in my underwear when Mo knocked on the door. Thank the lord it was she and not John because I was naked in the living room, having left my traveling clothes hanging on a chair there last night. After the drive, I treated them to breakfast at Tim’s in the airport, the last of the big spenders, and now I’m through the baggage check having promised the woman who examined my carry-on that I would jettison 1/3 of my new toothpaste tube before I went through the check in Vancouver. What a detail, but I did it in the washroom here. I don’t want to tempt fate, which has been on my side so far. I’ve even had a minor miracle. Last night I decided that I would finally read Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf, which Jim read while he was sick and I kept because I also wanted to read it. I put it in my carry-on, and this morning I heard on the news that Seamus Heaney had died yesterday, perhaps more of a coincidence than a miracle, but I took it as a good omen and so far it has been, for me at least if not for Seamus. They’ve just announced that my plane has been delayed out of Calgary; we will be boarding about 5 min. late. More anon.

It’s 7:20am Tuesday, Sept. 3 in Incheon, Korea. I’m the first up, but I just heard the girls’ door open. The flight went without a hitch. Soon after takeoff from Vancouver airport, I was enjoying a glass of wine and some sweet and salty peanuts. I was in the middle seat, but the 2 young men on either side of me were polite, moderately-sized Koreans; we shared a greeting and proceeded to read and not encroach on each other’s limited space. Dinner was soon served; I chose the fish and rice, very nice, and white wine. This was followed by almost 2 hours of reading and then, slowly, the reality of a 10 ½ hour flight began to set in. Too dull-headed to continue reading and unable to sleep, I turned on the tv and searched for a movie in the ‘Classics’ section. Nothing really appealed to me, but I chose ‘The Paper Chase’ from 1973, Timothy Bottoms as a Harvard Law student with long curly hair like Jim’s when my mom first met him and was unimpressed. It was fine. Then I watched ‘The Company You Keep’ about former members of the Weather Underground, with Robert Redford, Susan Sarandon, Julie Christie and Nick Nolte, another blast from the past. By that time I was feeling blasted myself and still unable to sleep, restless and breathless in the clammy air that moves over damp skin and on to the next person until it has circulated over hundreds of uncomfortable people and back to you. After hours of this, the artificial night was ended by the turning on of lights and the rolling of food trays. We were served another dinner, this time without wine. I chose a beef stew, which was good in spite of the fact that I would never have thought of eating such a thing at such a time myself. I happily drank the coffee, and about an hour later we arrived early in Incheon. I was 5:15pm there, and we had already had dinner. It was about an hour later that I finally pushed my cart into the arrival area and saw Jay. What a joy. He was equally happy because he and Gin Hee had been waiting about an hour, and as I hadn’t given him my flight number, he had had a nagging doubt that I was even on that plane. We caught a taxi home to their new apartment, and the visit began with hugs and talk, some white wine and smoked salmon from BC that I had bought in the duty free, a fresh crunchy salad May had made, which was exactly what I felt like after all the stale air on the plane and rice with ‘giniling’ a meat dish from the Philippines that the girls love. By the time we had eaten, talked and Jay and I had gone for a walk in a nearby park, we were all ready for bed. I slept through to the morning. So far, I’ve managed to get lost in the park, but Jay had given me his i-Phone so I was able to call him to come and get me, bodes ill for my future travels around on my own, but I went with Jay to his school yesterday and got the same ‘burner’ cell phone I had last year, so I will always be able to call for help if I’m lost. Jay and I are going to lunch today with the gang from his school. My time in Korea is moving along.