A valid question from our cab driver who had just picked us up with 8 pieces of luggage for a transfer to Seoul's Gimpo airport. It was a hot, our domestic flight to Jeju island was leaving in under an hour, and we were struggling to lug around heavy suitcases, a bike box, guitar and set of golf clubs. As much as I like traveling to new places, I dislike moving. The unsettling process of going to a foreign country to work can take all the fun out of travel.
First, there is the exhausting process of applying for a work visa. Even though I am technically retired, I am still required to go through the process with Jon. There are endless forms to be filled out, documents to be notarized, and photos to be mailed. Then there is a lot of nervous waiting before you can make plans or buy plane tickets. Once we got the go ahead, we found there were no through flights to Jeju, which meant buying a separate ticket from Seoul on a flight from a different airport. I did plenty of online research as to how we could make this happen, but this is where AI fails. Most posts are made for Koreans going on holiday to the island of Jeju. There is no mention of the language difficulties or limited luggage size.
We arrived in Seoul after a 14 hour flight with our various pieces of oversized luggage, too many to fit on two luggage carts. I had images of adventurers from the golden years of exploration arriving in bustling ports and having their shipping crates and trunks ferried off by charming locals. Seoul airport is certainly bustling, but you are on your own. Most of the signage is in Korean, and the elevators are too small to fit more than a couple of regular size suitcases. My online research had told me to head for the airport bus, they 'limo', and buy tickets from a electronic kiosk. I had to ask for information three times before finding the bus station, and no one could tell us whether we could take a bike box. It turns out we couldn't. The bus driver refused to let us board with our bags and boxes. He told us to take a 'car van'.
Fortunately we went outside to the taxi rank and found a driver with a van. He didn't speak much English but communicated the price and converted it into dollars so we could understand. In hind sight we should have gone directly to the taxi cabs, and not tried to navigate the elevators down to the bus station. We arrived in time to make our connecting flight to Jeju and no pieces of luggage were damaged or lost in the process.
Now if we were joining the other holiday makers here, we would have booked a nice hotel not far from the airport for our first night. But in our case we were picked up by our employer and taken to our new residence, picked out by them as conveniently close to work, but far from shops and restaurants. Also, it turned out we were on the second floor of a building with only one elevator. After hauling up the bags, I was ready for a shower and bed, but of course, there were no sheets on the bed or toiletries in the bathroom. We spent most of the night unpacking and making the beds.
Today we explored the neighborhood without the use of Google Maps. Apparently there are regulations in Korea that prevent Maps from showing you different routes to drive or walk. So we found a Starbucks the old fashioned way, because we also don't have access to the app for delivery. We did meet another teacher and her family at lunch who told us that things get better: she started out the same way but now lives in a house on the beach just 20 minutes away from school. When you are traveling to live, then you have time on your side, and we will have time to shop for all those things we didn't bring... (like clothes hangers and wineglasses).
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