on the morning of friday, february 23, after two years of living in korea, i left and came back to america. i left my apartment around 6:00a, but before i left i had one last look around.

it's funny because it's only now that i realize that while my apartment was a decent size, everything in it was small. it's was as if they just took a tight little place and stretched it out, but left all the smaller amenities just as they were.

moving away is always a weird thing because you're trying to figure out how you feel about it, but it's hard to even focus on that because there are always so many arrangements to worry about. i wanted to spend some time reflecting on my life in korea and looking forward to the changes to come moving back to america, but it was impossible to ignore the heavy suitcases i had to drag down to the airport bus stop.

at the airport i was told that my suitcase was too heavy, and i'd have to move some things into a separate box. luckily they had a station for doing just that in the terminal, and it only cost around ₩6,000 ($6) for the box and the packing. after all that early morning rushing to get packed and to the airport, my flight was delayed about two hours. even worse was the fact that i had booked my flight a bit late and got stuck on a chinese carrier and therefor had to fly over to shanghai and then on to los angeles. i did get a bit of good news as i waited in the crowded terminal for the delayed flight. an airline employee came up to me and said they were bumping me up to business class for the short flight to shanghai.

once in shanghai i went through a slightly strange process in order to connect to my other flight to los angeles. most of the korean passengers from seoul were simply visiting china, so there were only about four of us connecting to another flight. an airport employee personally walked us through this maze of the airport to go through customs and another security check in order to get to the terminal we needed. in all it felt very unofficial, as if they were making special accommodations for these few strange passengers who got the radical new idea they'd connect to another flight.

after that it was a typical journey from shanghai to los angeles. i was disappointed they didn't have a tv monitor in the back of the seat in front of me, but they did have an outlet so i hooked up my laptop and entertained myself that way for much of the trip. i arrived in los angeles around 11:00a and my friend koizu picked me up. from there we went straight to (where else?) koreatown for lunch with his girlfriend natalie at one of my favorite restaurants, 길목 (gil mok, the corner place).

well, for now at least my korean journey is over, but i look forward to chronicling my american adventures here in the future. as always, i want to get caught up so i'm not writing about things that happened three months ago. i'll do my best. in the mean time, thanks for everyone who checked out my site while i was in korea, and i hope you'll still find it interesting now that i'm back in the states.

tagged: apartment korea leaving luggage