Day 1 - Flight and Arrival

So, I flew on Korean Airlines Flight 36 nonstop from Atlanta to Seoul.  ( The plane was a double decker... my first one)

The flight was 15 and a half hours long and by far was the most brutal flight I ever have had to sit through.  I thought beforehand the flight would fly west from Atlanta across the pacific, but I was wrong.  We actually flew over the "North Pole" to get to Seoul.  Something funny I noticed about our path was the straight line path was to cross through North Korea, but as we approached North Korea the plane did a huge half circle to bypass North Korea.  It added an hour to the flight, but I guess it beats getting shot down by North Korea.  One of the bright spots of the flight was the entertainment screen.  It had 25 newly release movie, music, TV, and games.  On the flight I watched Gone Girl, Maze Runner, The Giver, and This IS Where I Leave You all back to back to back.  Then, I watched the two episodes of the Big Bang Theory the flight had.  After all this I still had 5 hours left on the flight.  I tried to get some sleep after this but to no avail.  After a couple hours just sitting there with my eyes closed, I played games on the entertainment system the rest of the time.  The controller on the system actually had a full gaming pad on the back and played actual full games.  I spent most of my time playing an adaption of FIFA Soccer 2012.  

The plane was more spacious than any plane I had ever rode on before.  I still flew coach, but this was the first time on a plane in a long time that I had enough space to stretch my legs out while sitting in the seat. (It also helped that I had a aisle seat and the seat next to me was empty).  The flight attendant were very nice and spoke some English.  The service was great with juice being served every hours, lunch and dinner, and two snacks of peanuts and brownies. 

After landing in Seoul, I went through customs and baggage claim with no problems.  Even though at customs, I had to get my finger prints scanned and put into a database. (I asked someone later who said that they do that to deter crime in Korea).  I met up with the welcoming group from Korea university at the airport, and they shuttles me to where I was staying, the Allive Goshital.  My room is not the biggest, but it gets the job done.  I met all of my floormates before heading to bed.  The are 6 others guys on my floor.  

1. Roberto is the other student from the University of Kentucky going on the program with me.  

2. Lei is from China but goes to school in Milan, Italy. 

3. Frank is from New York and goes to school in New Hampshire.
4. Stuart is from Atlanta and goes to school at Georgia State.
5. Eugeno (Eugene in English) is from Florence, Italy and goes to school in Milan, Italy.
6. Johannes is from Germany and goes to school in the Netherlands.