I didn’t wake up that morning because I never went to bed the night before. The first of my three-legged journey was to begin promptly at 6:00am, which meant that I needed to be at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport around 4:00am. Couple that with an insane to-do list, and some last-minute packing, and there was no way I could squeeze in any shut-eye.
At some time around 3:45am, we had packed up the truck and were on our way to the airport. When we pulled up to the Departures curb, we were immediately greeted by a friendly skycap, who I had to disappoint by informing him that I had to go inside to check in for an international flight. He called over some other guy, who, upon seeing the massive amount of luggage with which I had arrived, said, “I sho’ hope you flyin’ first class!”
Well, of course I was! LOL
He loaded up my luggage and brought it inside. There was a bunch of people standing around waiting at the Delta ticket counter. Why, you ask? Because Delta wasn’t open yet! Thankfully, I was the first person to arrive in the Priority line, but I was still annoyed that there was no one to check people in at 4:00am for flights leaving as early as 6:00am. Don’t they advise you to be at the airport at least 2 hours ahead of time? What’s the point of that if they’re not even going to be there to check you in?
Well, someone finally showed up, and we began the check-in process….and this is how that went:
Agent: “Where are you headed today?”
Me: “Seoul, South Korea.”
Agent: “Let me have your passport, please.”
(I hand it to her, and she carries on with some typing and swiping.)
Agent: “Do you have a return flight?”
Me: “No, I do not.”
(She does some more typing and reading.)
Agent: “Are you in the military?”
Me: “No, I am not.”
(More typing and reading.)
Agent: “I’m sorry, ma’am. United States citizens cannot travel to South Korea unless you have a return flight.”
(Insert whatever level of dread and doom you deem sufficient to make your insides feel like you’re going to have a heart attack and die….)
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. How in the world could anyone have forgotten to tell me that I needed to have booked a return flight at SOME point in the future in order to even make it to South Korea? You wouldn’t believe how many thoughts ran through my mind at that time. I was like OMG, all this work and effort and time and money and heart and emotions and everything I put into this adventure is about to go down the tubes all because I don’t have a stinkin’ RETURN ticket?!?!?!?!?!...I’m going to have to crawl back to the Apple store and beg and grovel to try to get my job back…I can’t believe this is happening to me….is this some sort of joke….why, why, WHYYYYYYYYYYYY?
And then: the light bulb—I have the magic answer!
Me: “But I have a work visa.”
(And then I hold my breath…)
And then after some more typing and reading and typing and reading….finally she says, “Ok, you’re good. Here are your boarding passes, and your bags are checked all the way through to Seoul.”
>>>Insert the largest sigh of relief EVER!<<<
Whew….Thank God!
After hanging out with my parents for a bit and saying our goodbyes, I go through security with no issue. I was slightly apprehensive that someone would say something about the FOUR bags that I was trying to get through security: My backpack, my purse, the shopping bag with my rainboots, AND my 22” rolling suitcase full of shoes. Luckily no one saw….or, if they did see, they didn’t say anything. Either way, I make it through security unscathed.
Truth be told, I remember absolutely NOTHING of the first two legs of my trip…remember how I told you I didn’t go to bed that night? Yeah, well it caught up with me as soon as I sat down in my seat. I went to sleep on the ground in New Orleans and woke up on the ground in Memphis. I went back to sleep on the ground in Memphis and woke up on the ground in Detroit. (Never under-estimate the power of a great neck pillow!)
Once I got off the plane in Detroit, I had quite a hike to get to the terminal where my flight to Seoul would be departing from. By the time I found the gate, they had already started boarding! I was disappointed that I didn’t have enough time to visit the Duty-Free store before I got on the plane, but oh well….buying cheap liquor wasn’t worth risking missing my flight to Seoul, so on the plane I went.
Once I boarded the plane and hooked that left instead of a right, I was in heaven. Just as I expected the plane I was on had the fancy new lie-flat seats in B-class, so I was a happy camper. There were only 9 of us out of 28 seats in that first section, so needless to say, the flight was very peaceful. Upon getting settled in my seat, and after toasting the guy across the aisle with my customary mimosa, I said a prayer and we took off.
All of the meals and drinks were great, and the selection of in-flight entertainment was pretty extensive. I saw a few movies, one of which was The Lincoln Lawyer, which was VERY good. (You should see it.) I only took a short nap, and I stayed awake for the bulk of the 13-14 hour flight, which went by pretty quickly. Before I knew it, I was looking out the window and staring down at South Korea!
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