Korea - Day 2 - Another Day, Another Airplane

I woke up in Los Angeles to the sound of my cell phone. My sister knew that I'd be spending the night, so she picked me up and brought me to her house for breakfast. My mom met us there, and it was great to see the family for a couple of hours. Camille, my niece, is so verbal and cute in her demeanor and conversation. After breakfast Mom drove me to Target to pick up some shirts. In my haste I left three freshly laundered shirts hanging in the back of my rental car in Arkansas. (Yes, I called Budget and they have the shirts; I'll be picking them up when I return to Arkansas on May 25).

Mom got me back to the airport around 10:30am, two hours before my flight. This is a good thing, since I knew that with the rebooking of my flight there would be a little commotion with finding the record and getting me on board. I was right. After a 15-minute search they were able to pull up my reservation and issue me a boarding pass. A sign that things were starting to get better was that the only aisle seat that was available was the bulkhead seat right behind Business Class. I smiled at the "upgrade", as the seat assignment on my original flight was a window seat on the 747. That means that any stretch breaks would have to be accommodated by two other passengers. With the aisle seat I was free to roam about the cabin without bothering my rowmates.

I cleared security and went up to the lounge until boarding time. Once on the plane, I stowed my gear and waited for the plane to fill up. A little old Korean lady was to be my neighbor for the next 13 hours. I smiled as we shuffled ourselves into our seats. The flight itself was uneventful, unless you count the Bibimbab that was served for lunch. The flight attendant did offer me a choice, but I couldn't resist trying the "traditional" meal. (Why else fly Korean Air?) What amused me most was that after placing my meal tray the flight attendant handed me a card that explained how to "assemble" my Bibimbab. While the Bibimbab was decent, the Seaweed Soup was a bit strong for me. I felt a little tap on my arm as the lady next to me offered me her dinner roll. This was too cute for me - here's a grandma still trying to feed a hungry young man. I suppose that was her way of thanking me for helping her with the headphones. Later, she gave me a piece of gum as an after-dinner cleanser.

I watched several movies on this trip, or started to anyways. The three that I can still remember are Invictus (a moving tribute to the power of forgiveness), Up In The Air (hit a little close to home; speaks to the emptiness of a self-centered life), and It's Complicated (why divorce is such a difficult thing; Meryl Streep was great, Alec Baldwin was a little one-dimensional).

One neat thing about this flight is that we "chased the sun" - 13 hours and we were always in the sun. It was never dark outside, but they did pull the shades so nodding off wouldn't be too hard.