South Side

Our travel day was rather uneventful.  Once again, however, the united mileage rewards club paid off.  MR and I were able to jump into the Premier security check line with our status which fed directly to the metal detector screening. Hey-o!  I was able to skip my airport pat down that I usually get when I decline the body scan.  

Like any other human arriving at the airport at 5 am, I decided I needed a caffeine boost to jump start my brain and keep me alert until my transpacific flight.  But like I said, every other human had the same idea so the line from Peets Coffee virtually began when you exited security.  Despite having over an hour before my flight, I debated whether the line was even worth standing in but like a lemming I quickly fell in place.  I stood in the nonmoving line watching the shoe shine man polish up some boots and silently cursed myself for not wearing my black shoes that were in severe need of a polish.  As I scoped out my surroundings, I realized the United Club behind me was finally open.  Yes, MR and I had actually got into the airport prior to the Club even opening.  Sadly, MR’s status does not allow for him to enter the Club so I declined using my status to get in.  I have been on several a business trips where my companions opted to use their status and I was left lapping the Narita airport out of sheer boredom.  During those many laps, I swore I would never be that person.  My character was finally put to the test this trip. 

Anyways back to the coffee line, it didn’t move and that’s when I realized the Club has tea and not just any tea but tea for free.  I mean granted work was paying for the drink but still, I enjoy free things.  I check my purse, yep got my boarding pass.  So I nonchalantly exited the coffee line did a quick 180 and headed to the Club.  I rang the bell, got buzzed in, scanned my pass, and was admitted to the prestigious Club.  I bee lined for the coffee/tea station made myself a take away and then left to go back to join MR and my luggage.  

I walked out smiling to myself for my ingenuity.  As I passed the shoe shine guy, he looked with a smile and me and said “hey, I saw what you did, sneaky”.  I threw my head back with a big laugh and smiled back coyly “why I was just being creative” and I sauntered back to my seat and proudly displaying my United Club cup.

Which alone just makes me chuckle, I bet I look like some wealthy fancy pants kid (yes I like to pretend I can still pass as a youth) that just walks into clubs and gets whatever they wants.  Reality is, I would never have the access if it wasn’t for work.  It has nothing to do with my own finances or ways of persuasion just sheer work perk.  But this again supports my theory that United has the best program (see “Club Member” post)

So after an hour flight to SFO and a 12 hour flight across the Pacific, we have arrived safely in Seoul.  The most exciting part of the trip was flying on a two story plane and the pop chips and kit kats they served to us during the flight.  Well, that and the Kristen Wiig Bridesmaid-esq moment when I tried to access the first class section on the second floor of the flight in an Ambien haze which may or may not have resulted in me being zip tied to my chair by the air marshal for the rest of my flight.

Upon clearing immigration (barely) we were greeted with this –

Yeah, kind of a big deal in Korea. 

 We arrived at the hotel which is pretty awesome.  MR and I both fought the urge to curl into a ball and sleep and headed out for dinner at 630.  Like any good tourist, we asked the concierge where the best Korea BBQ close by was and then the manager personally escorted us to the restaurant.  So nice and their English was impeccable, such a blessing. He was a speed walker though and so was our chauffer from the hotel, which has made me stereotype Koreans as fast walkers, this may or may not be accurate, but I haven’t had a chance to research the Olympic results for speed walking to see where Korea fell so for now I am going to say it is accurate. 

Dinner was ridiculously good.  Under the careful advice of the hostess, we maneuvered the Korean menu and ordered a nonshellfish bbq set.  The salad was amazing it was just lettuce, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, topped with succulent beef.  I am pretty sure the dressing was just the beef juice poured on top.  So good. Then they BBQ’d us 3 different types of beef which was consumed with our carb of choice MR – rice, me – noodles with hot sauce. To polish the night off we had plum tea.  Which tasted like delicious fruity juice.  I think MR and I barely said more than 5 sentences to each other.  Other than constantly repeating I am so tired and I can’t wait to pass out.  We some how managed to get 8 pm and get lost on the way back to the hotel.  Only temporarily.  But I was in bed by 830, which was the sweetest bliss in the whole world.

I feel asleep to CSI something.  I woke up at 11 pm with a crazy dream about someone breaking into my hotel room that was a rapist to leave me a note to let me know he liked my robot costume.  Upon clearing the sleep from my eyes, I realized the dream directly corresponded with the CSI on TV with the exception of the note about the robot costume.  To prevent future nightmares, I set the TV on mute and dozed back off until about 4.  However, I stubbornly refused to get up and slipped in and out of sleep until 630 when I headed to the gym.

The gym at this hotel is A-mazing.  It’s what I think curves must look like on the inside except x10 and all the patrons are men.  I mean being a white giant already makes me stand out here.  Being the only female in the gym the size of two football fields made me really stand out and question if there were segregated gym areas for male and females but no one shooed me way so I picked a treadmill.  Upon further analyzation in the mirror, I realized virtually everyone in the room was in a uniform of a white shirt and black shorts with their gym towel draped over their neck or on their head.  At this moment I was glad I had selected a running outfit that maximized every color in the rainbow.  I was feeling horribly self conscious for several minutes until another white giant but a male of course, walked in wearing running shorts that made Brazilian bikini bottoms look modest.   

Upon leaving the gym, I realized I had completely missed the most amazing exercise machine I had ever laid eyes on this –

Yes, a fat jiggling machine.  BOTH were in use which is simply awesome.  I have every intent of getting on one before this trip is over.  I though they didn’t even exist anymore.  

After that, work began and the fun ended.