The eagle has landed

I landed yesterday roughly around 6am at Incheon airport in Korea. Stepping outside the airport, the temperature reminded me of stepping outside a car for the first time when you arrive at a place like Big Bear. It was cold but without the snow. I arrived in Seoul at around 9am. Still a full day to look forward to. First order of business? Nap time. I was only able to sleep about 4 hours combined on the air plane. The passenger next to me was a very large female and unfortunately took up some of my already inadequate space. I had a very large backpack, and the seat that I had didn't have any room for me to store my backpack. So I had to just wrap my legs around my backpack while fighting for room with the passenger next to me doing the exact same thing.

When I got to Korea, I knew the first thing I needed to do when I got there was exchange the money. It turns out that the bank here is closed on the weekend. And I had already left the airport at time when I was made aware of this. I will exchange my money at a bank on Monday, so I will have to make due with the little bit of Won that I had brought with me. So if you happen to arrive in Korea on the weekend, make sure you change some spending money for the weekend at the airport. It will be at a premium but at least you won't be totally SOL when you need cash.

One shocker that I experienced was when I looked at iPhone prices. You can get an iPhone here for as low as $35 a month with the cheapest service (including the 8GB 3G phone, and you pay almost nothing out the door). The top of the line iphone only costs you $10 more a month for the 32gb 3GS. The likely plan people will choose however is about $15 more so you can use up to 500MB a month. That's still about $60 a month for the best iPhone out right now. Not too shabby.

I also ended up cancelling my netflix when I got here. It turns out streaming (Watch Instantly) is blocked. So I won't be able to make use of it. Kinda makes me wish I had brought my terabyte harddrive full of movies and TV shows I had collected over the last decade.

While perusing the streets of Seoul's most popular shopping district, I ran into a street vendor selling dragon beard candy. Since this candy had eluded me for years, I had to try it. The best part of this candy is seeing how its made. Its like watching noodles made by hand. A hockey puck sized amount of maltose pierced in the center then pulled and stretched until it becomes the thickness of hair while being covered in cornstarch or rice flour so it doesn't stick together. I guess more accurately resembles the hair from the beard of a dragon...if they grew beards...and dragons of this nature. That's why it must be called dragon beard candy. I also grabbed an assortment of sasusages on a skewer. And had some really good cha jang myun for dinner. It was a good first day in Korea. So much to look forward to. But I can't officially get started until I get my alien ID card at the immigration office which is going to take about a week. I need that to get a cell phone and open a bank account. Until then I will be learning how to get around and meeting up with some contacts.