A Snapshot of Seoul

This is a photo of me at the King’s Palace in Seoul, freezing in the snow. I chose to start at the end, with a picture of me standing at my last stop in Asia before returning to the Los Angeles. Seoul is a perfect place to both commence and conclude something about my travels over the last couple months. I’ll start at the Seoul-Incheon airport, where my plane landed at around 6:00am…

In lieu of my ten-hour layover in Korea, I decided to pass through immigration and do a city tour. In the past month and half, I’d been in Thailand, Bali, Java and Cambodia, which all exhibited typical Southeast Asian weather: humid and hot as hell. My attire reflected this. The Korean tour guide looked at my t-shirt and flip-flops and said “you know that there’s snow on the ground in Seoul, right?”

Snow?! Crap! I was in immediate problem-solving mode. Could I borrow someone’s jacket? Yes. I also had some socks to dig out and wear with my sandals (so tacky, but it was worth it). I then fashioned my Asiana Airlines blanket into an improvised scarf. As I was twisting my blanket around my neck, I began to realize what a quintessential travel moment this was; An unexpected challenge, my scramble for a solution and some sort of makeshift Band-Aid that would carry me through until I moved on.

In fact, my tiny bout in Seoul felt like a perfect summary of my year (actually, 13.5 months) abroad. That familiar feeling flooded through me as we rolled through a new metropolis: a mix of awe and sleep-deprived confusion, plus bourgeoning anticipation for what’s next. Like every new place, Seoul was distinct yet familiar; a new language I couldn’t read or understand, but a recognizable feeling of being completely out of the loop. Most importantly, there were more awesome and strange surprises, such as the “Ettiquette Bell” in the bathroom stalls. The bell plays the sound of a toilet flushing, perhaps so you can cover up a particularly loud bathroom session? I’m not sure. In Asia, I’m never sure. For that reason, my day in Seoul was almost like every day traveling: new problems, more surprises and yet another set of unfamiliar swirls written on street signs.


After about 24 hours of transit and travel, I arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday morning and was somehow oddly energetic. After gulping down a slightly overpriced cappuccino in a café filled with Santa Monica hipsters, I stayed awake until exactly 11pm, thus somehow managed to conquer what should have been the worst jetlag of my life. I’d passed through seven independent nations in the past two months, yet managed to slide right back into my LA routine like a comfortable chair.

Perhaps this reflects the hardened endurance of a traveler. Or simply the effects of removing myself from the lethargy-inducing humidity of Southeast Asia. Either way, my ability to adjust has increased exponentially. This doesn’t mean I’m more robust or in better shape, I’d like to think I’m just adept at giving myself a break. Case and point, I arrived home a week ago, and am only beginning to update my blog now. I needed time to see friends, to eat delicious food, to ride my bike, to see some music, to go out to dinner with my father… two days after my return I looked over my resume, three days in I started applying for jobs, four days in I began doing laundry, and now I’m beginning to update my blog. I’ve gotten extremely sensitive to knowing when it’s time to slow down, when it’s time to have fun and when it’s time to demand more of myself. I'm going to skip my time with my father in Thailand for now (since I went many places I'd already been) and write about Indonesia and Cambodia while they are still fresh in my mind.

I will begin in Bali...