I have a tendency to just naturally become nocturnal anytime I don’t have a commitment the next day. Since I’d stopped working for a little while before I was scheduled to fly out, I ended up staying up later and later by default. I thought this would be a good thing, since Korean time is 12-13 hours ahead of Eastern time (depending on daylight savings), but I didn’t take into consideration the fact that I would have to get up semi-early to catch my flight on Wednesday.
Another wrench in my nocturnal brilliance was the fact that packing kept me up until 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday night, and I never got my sleep out because I woke up at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday.
Things went remarkably smoothly, however. My sister made it out to say goodbye and she and my parents saw me off at the airport. Security was a bear but not as bad as I had thought it’d be, and no one stopped me anywhere.
The flight to LA was enjoyable and smooth, and I caught most of the movie Unstoppable. I really enjoyed what I saw and hope that sometime I can catch it from the outset. I was also happily surprised to be seated in Economy Plus. My seats had not been pre-assigned but as far as I had known I was only paying for Economy, so it was an unexpected benefit for me.
During the flight, the girl next to me had said, “You’ll know we’re in LA because of all the lights.” I had noticed that we were flying over many sprawling patches of lights and thought, “Well, every city has a lot of lights.” But no, she was very right. Lights were everywhere, and I saw palm trees, and I could tell even from the plane that traffic must be terribly congested. It was a lot of fun flying in and seeing LA from the plane.
LAX is huge, and even though I had a map I became lost almost immediately, because I thought for sure I had made it out of the terminal. I asked someone who worked there for directions and was shocked to see that I was nowhere near the end of the terminal. She told me that because the airport is an old one, none of it’s connected, so I’d have to go outside. I could have taken the bus to the international terminal, but she told me I’d be waiting fifteen minutes for the bus and walking would get me there at the same time anyway. So I walked. With the weather being so cold in Maryland, though, it was amazing to be out for a bit in a pleasantly sultry place. The evening air was cool but the breeze was warm and it was an enjoyable trek.
I got there too early to check in so I had a meatloaf dinner at one of the restaurants in the terminal. I had an awful headache and all I wanted was to fall asleep, but I had to stay awake until my flight. Things got a little better with some Advil, and eventually I went to wait until they started boarding.
