Flying My Soul to Seoul
I started searching for plane tickets to South Korea around the end of June for my departure towards the end of August. After a couple weeks of scoping around websites like JustFly, iEagle and Student Universe, I finally found the ones I wanted with the best price through Expedia. There were many cheaper flights, but the layover was too long (10+ hours). I was actually really lucky because the flight I was eyeing was usually around $740 USD, but all the prices suddenly dropped and I managed to snatch the one I wanted at $670 USD roundtrip. Now, all I had to do was wait. This was my first time I'm flying alone.
My flight was at 1:45 AM on August 21, 2017 at JFK via China Eastern. The drive to the airport was insane. Usually there's no traffic on Belt Parkway around 10:00 PM, but that day it was suddenly packed. Normally it would take around 30 minutes without traffic however, there was a car accident around 9:00 PM which blocked the first half of the highway. After some panicking and taking the local road, we managed to merge back into the highway. We arrived at JFK at around 11:00 PM. Checking in and going through security was a breeze. I was a bit anxious since I didn't know the procedure very well, but thankfully everything went smoothly. I found my gate immediately, since it was really close to security. Now, I had about 1 hour to kill before boarding.
The seats at the gate were pretty much taken, but luckily I was able to find an unoccupied one. I bought a big bottle of Fiji water which costed about $7 USD. I had a chat with this lady (Christina) sitting next to me, who is currently living in Japan as an English teacher.
I was relieved to find someone that had a lot of flying experience and she was very open to tell me all about it and reassured my worries. We chatted a lot about her life in Japan and my stay in Korea as an exchange student. She shared her adventures and interesting stories with me.
Soon boarding came and I queued first since my seat was in the back. The airplane seats were pretty comfortable and I had some leg room (that's because I am fairly short at 5' 2" or 158 cm). I had a window seat which was a terrible choice for a 14 hour flight. 1 hour into the flight, we were served dinner of 2 choices, shrimp with rice or noodles with beef. I chose the shrimp with rice. The meal looked really sad with a small rectangular plate of rice and shrimp (had a sweet tomato-y sauce), a Dole fruit cup (tasted like fruit punch, decent), bread (warm with butter, tasted the best), and an edamame salad with a slice of roast beef (cold, did not eat).
I tried to sleep my way through the flight but it was difficult. I think it was because I was partially nervous and excited. I decided to just watch some movies to spend the time. I first started watching Sing (animation) but got sleepy halfway through. I slept around 4:00 AM EST (Eastern Time) and woke up at around 7:00 AM EST. Around 10:00 AM EST we were served breakfast with a choice of Western or Chinese style. I chose the Western style which contained a spongy egg with American cheese (not bad), sausage (dry but flavor wasn't bad), a Dole fruit cup (did not eat), and a packaged brownie (dense, super sweet, had a few bites). Then, I decided to watch La La Land (pretty good until the ending...) and then finished the rest of Sing (cute kids' animation). We were also served a quick lunch/snack of a wheat bread sandwich of ham and cheese (cold, unappetizing, reminded me of school sandwiches).
The long 14 hour flight was finally over. I should've brought a book to read since I couldn't sleep through the flight. I did listen to music for a bit but I still felt really bored. The movies were pretty good and they had the new Beauty and the Beast with Emma Watson but the food was terrible. It also didn't help that I had no appetite. I am not sure how I survived the flight to China but that was probably because I was really young. I should've asked for ramen, maybe next time.
Finally in Shanghai around 4AM (China time), I waited about 30 minutes (did not keep track but it felt long) at the transfer line (which no worker was there to direct us in). I had to go through security again where they took my water away (barely drank it, I still had like 80% of the water still left). Security was also much more complicated, I basically had to take out most of my electronics and batteries.
The airport was really pretty and I got some footage of the empty place since it was still so early in the morning. I finally got wifi at the PVG airport. I had about a 4 hour layover with boarding at 8:15 AM. I talked to my friend (she was at Guangzhou airport) whom I would be meeting up with at Incheon airport via WeChat call. At my gate, I met Christina again, (she was taking her flight to Tokyo)! We had a really good chat. She so sweet and friendly and SHE GOT ME COFFEE! It was such a nice and sweet gesture for her to buy someone she just met coffee.
At 8:15 AM, I boarded my flight to Korea via China Eastern. Although it was short 2 hour flight, they served us a meal (much better than the Shanghai one) of cubed beef and rice. There was actual fruit (cantaloupe) and some side dish that I don't recall. Before landing we had to fill out some forms for customs (health form and products we brought). I couldn't wait to get off the plane. Incheon airport is really pretty with lots of greenery and a living wall (plant wall). I lined up for immigration which was a really quick and easy process. I then went to baggage claim and found my luggage immediately.
Then, I waited about 2 hours for my friend that was flying in from Guangzhou. I was nervous about meeting her at the airport since it's such a big place. Luckily with wi-fi and planning to meet at baggage claim, we were able to find each other. We went to Woori bank in the airport to exchange some money (rates aren't so great but we needed it).
Lastly, we took the airport express train to Seoul station (costed around 8,900 KRW). We stayed in Seoul for one night, at 24 Guesthouse which we booked through Airbnb (lots of stairs so not suitable for lots of luggage, but host was really nice and accommodating and location was great) before taking the KTX to Daejeon, where our university was.
I was very worried for my flight overall but I am very proud and happy that everything went smoothly for my first flight alone.
I apologize for not taking any pictures of the food and some footage of my flight. I will make sure to do so on my flight back to NY.
Here is a quick montage of my flight and first day in Seoul.
All footage is filmed and edited by Kaity Chen.