Today was the day that we got to time travel to the future. South Korea is 13 hours ahead of Pittsburgh time and as a result, flying to Korea essentially caused us to skip half of a day. We left the University of Pittsburgh around 3 am Saturday to get on our first flight bounded for Atlanta at 6. After we landed in Atlanta, we had a short layover before we had to board our next flight to Korea. After 15 hours of flying from Atlanta to Korea, we landed in Korea on Sunday around 2 pm 13 hours ahead of Pittsburgh time which made it really seem like we jumped into the future.
When we landed, nobody could believe we were finally in Korea after all this waiting. On a personal level, I have never been outside the United States before, so landing in another country was truly hard to comprehend.
After we had landed, our group had to go through customs at the airport which was a little bit of a wait but one worthwhile. One interesting thing about Seoul’s airport was not just the size of it but also the location on where it was. The airport is located on a small island in the middle of the ocean to the west of the city which helps cut down on congestion inside the city limits itself.
Later as a group, we were allowed to explore the city a little before we had to go in for curfew at our hotel. One place we visited was the Myeondong shopping center. The shopping center was crowded and amazing to say the least. No where in the U.S. have I ever seen the amount of street vendors, food vendors, billboards, advertisements, shops, and restaurants with thousands of people walking the streets. Moreover, it was raining really hard, but that did not stop the locals from shopping whatsoever. Maybe that’s just part of the Korean culture.