This will be a pretty short entry, because I am pretty wiped out. I'm going on about 24 hours with no real sleep. But our whole crew is now safely nestled into their hotel rooms a few minutes away from the Seoul airport. As soon as I get this done and sent off, I'll crash pretty hard.
Getting here was pretty easy, really. All of the gear was already packed, thanks to the efforts of everyone from the team that was in Seattle on Tuesday (which was everyone but me---thanks you guys!). So all we really had to do was get to the airport, wait in line with a LOT of baggage (2 bags large bags checked for each of 11 people, plus each person's carry-on baggage: see photo)
Part of the KBP field crew and their gear, checking in at the Asiana Airlines counter. Photo credit: Andy Ritchie
and then get on the airplane and wait for 10 hours as the pilots followed the great circle route up the coast of British Columbia, across Alaska and the Bering Strait (including the international date line) and then across the Sea of Okhotsk. I think we all dozed some. But "real" sleep is a bit hard to come by, even in the relatively comfy and roomy seats on Asiana Airlines. Heck, Molly Odell actually got some ****studying done for her big comprehensive archaeology exam in September! (see photo)
Molly O’Dell studies while everyone else sleeps on the flight from SeaTac to Seoul.
My biggest problem was that my personal video screen wouldn't work for watching any of the movies. But if that's my biggest problem, then I have it pretty good, I'd have to say!
Anyway, once we got checked into our hotel, we re-convened for some awesome Korean BBQ. Most of the menus are printed bilingually (Korean and English). So if we really feel like "boiled knee of caatle" (OK, so maybe the translations aren't always perfect!) we can point it out on the menu! Tonite we really just felt like having beef and mushroom soup, fried pork and kim-chee, and marinated ribs. It was really tasty, and not too overwhelmingly spicy!
Next on our itinerary is to catch a flight back to the northeast to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Sakhalin Island, Russia. Guess I'd better try to get some sleep, because tomorrow will be another long day!
---Dr. E
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