Across the Ocean

This past Monday was the longest Monday of my life.  Literally.  I spent the morning with Johnnie and Dulce before Johnnie and I caught a bus to the airport.  Luckily we gave ourselves extra time because the line to check in was painfully long.  We always fly on Delta Airlines when possible but for this trip I bought a United Airlines ticket because Delta had temporary pet restrictions.  Since I ended up leaving Dulce in Korea, it didn’t matter anyway.  This will be the last trans-Pacific flight I take on United.

I got my tickets, checked my bags, and said good-bye to Johnnie 🙁  It’s really hard being apart but we’ve learned to handle it well since it’s an inevitable part of our military lifestyle.

My flight left Seoul, South Korea at 5:00PM on Monday.  I flew “backwards in time” landing in San Francisco, CA at 11:40AM on Monday.  I had almost a 10 hour flight to stare at the back of the seat in front of me.

Okay, maybe I didn’t stare at the seat the whole time.  There was a flatscreen monitor in my view (luckily I had an aisle seat) and some small monitors hanging from the ceiling on which scheduled movies and TV shows played during the flight.  I’m sorry United, but this is a huge deal breaker for me!  Delta jets have individual monitors on the back of every seat on which you can watch movies, TV shows, and play games of your choice.  I watched all of United’s scheduled shows only because I had nothing else to do.  Kung Fu Panda 2 wasn’t too bad but the others, in my opinion, are not worth watching.

Getting through customs in San Francisco was quick and easy.  However, collecting and rechecking my luggage, and getting through security took well over an hour because it was ridiculously crowded.  I had a 3.5 hour layover before getting on another plane to Pittsburgh, PA.  This was also a United flight and I was again disappointed with the TINY ceiling monitors that played a movie and I was also disappointed with the flight attendants’ attitudes.  Maybe I’ve simply grown accustomed to the amazingly friendly and helpful flight attendants on the various Asian airlines.  You can bet that I’ll be flying Delta on the way back to Korea next month.

I landed in Pittsburgh at 11:50PM (still Monday) which is “technically” only 7 hours after I left Korea.  In actuality, the trip from Seoul to Pittsburgh took 20 hours.

I’ll be spending the next two and a half weeks in western Pennsylvania.  PA is responsible for a lot of great things including the Pittsburgh Steelers (pronounced “Stillers” here), Yuengling Lager (the oldest brewery in America), Heinz Ketchup (world famous ketchup), and Hershey Chocolate (which is now made in Mexico).  PA has many attractions such as the Liberty Bell, the town of Gettysburg (a famous Civil War battle site), Amish Country, the King of Prussia Shopping Mall, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater just to name a few.

There are many interesting attractions close to where I’m staying such as the world’s steepest vehicular incline plane, America’s oldest gas station, and the Flight 93 memorial.   I will try to do as many blog posts as I can about some of the attractions and life in general here in the Pennsylvania countryside.  It’s good to be back in the States 🙂