Well, I am typing this journal entry from a hotel room in downtown Seoul, Korea. About thirty-six hours ago, I was at home desperately trying to finish packing.....let me tell you how I got here.
On Tuesday, July 10 I spent about five hours staging gear, inventorying gear, arranging and organizing gear and finally stuffing gear into the bags. It was an agonizing process occasionally interrupted by feelings of being overwhelmed by the shear enormity of the task and by my sudden irrational thoughts of "But what if THIS bag doesn't make it to Russia!?" (Last year, my bag with all of my clothes and toiletries was ‘lost in transit'. I wanted to avoid such problems by at least splitting my things between all of my bags. I found it difficult to decide which things were most ‘essential' that they had to go into my carry-on bag, though.)
Unpacked Gear for Russia
Here is my gear arranged everywhere in the dining room - notice that my dogs, Boo and Mokie, think that they will be included with the gear and not be left behind....
By the time I went to bed on Tuesday night (about 11 pm), my bags were packed and looked more like this:
Packed Gear
I woke up early and have had a (pretty) long day. Here is what has happened:
4 AM PDT - woke up, couldn't go back to sleep, so got up, fed dogs and got ready for the day.
6 AM PDT - ate breakfast (oatmeal bran)
6:40 AM PDT - left for the Bellingham airport - my best friend Pam's husband, Mike, gave me and Mike Etnier, who also lives in Bellingham, a ride
7 AM PDT - we caught the Airporter Shuttle to Sea-Tac airport
10 AM PDT - we arrived at Sea-Tac and had second coffee and snack
10:30 AM PDT - our remaining traveling companions, Ben Fitzhugh, Colby Phillips, James Taylor (the archaeologist, not the singer), Shelby Anderson, Dani Plante and Nick Shankle, arrive at the airport (the rest of the crew, Jody Bourgeois, Bre MacInnes and Matt Walsh, left on June 19 and are already in Kurils waiting for us)
12:30 PM PDT - we get through checking our bags, paying for the extras and the heavy ones and receive our boarding passes
1:00 PM PDT - we get through security screening
1:10 PM PDT - we take the shuttle to the South Satellite, grab some lunch to take onboard and begin boarding our flight to Seoul, Korea
2 PM PDT - we take off from Seattle
3:30 PM July 11 PDT in Seattle (which is 7:30 AM, July 12, Korean time) - we have "dinner" on the plane
10 AM Korean Time - we pass the International Date Line and it is officially July 12
2 PM Korean Time - we eat a lunch on the plane
4 PM Korean Time - we arrive in Seoul Incheon International Airport
5 PM Korean Time - because our connecting flight to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk doesn't leave until 10 AM the next day, Asiana airlines puts us up in a hotel overnight and gives us two meals. We get on a bus to the Seoul Royal Hotel, which is an hour long bus ride from the airport. Before we leave a polite Asiana clerk puts identifying stickers on our sleeves with the hotel name.
Me with Hotel Sticker
Me with my Seoul Royal Hotel sticker on my sleeve - I guess so I don't get LOST!
6 PM Korean Time - we arrive at the hotel and check into our rooms
6:30 PM Korean Time - we eat dinner down in the hotel restaurant
7 PM Korean Time - several of us walk around town a bit around the hotel - it was a lovely evening, warm, but with a nice breeze to cool things off a bit.
Busy Seoul Steet
This is the street where the Seoul Royal Hotel is located. It was a noisy and busy night in Seoul!
9 PM Korean Time (hmm, 4 AM Seattle Time! I have now officially been up for 24 hours!) - I finish this journal and get to bed.
Tomorrow we get up at 6 am to shower (yeah!), eat breakfast and take the bus back to the airport to check in for our 10 am flight to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Then it's on to Russia!
(Cross your fingers that both of my bags make it this time.....)