WOW! I can't believe 4.5 months in Korea is over. I enjoyed my time in Korea, but I am happy to be home. I left Korea on December 17th, a day after my last final. Right after I left, it snowed and Korea started to crack down on restrictions. I heard that restaurants weren't letting people in if you weren't vaccinated within the last 6 months, which would have posed a problem for many of us, as the majority of the population was vaccinated around April. We could have gotten boosters there, but something about getting vaccinated in a foreign country scares me.
Starting on December 6th, the US requires a negative COVID test to be taken within one day of departure. One day means that it can be taken at any time on the day before you leave. I took my test the day before I left at the Yonsei University Severance Hospital. There is a specific email to email if you are flying to Hawaii, which is found on the Severance Hospital website. You can pick up your results later in the day, but I went to pick it up the day after. I took Hawaiian Airlines flight HA460, which is a direct flight from Incheon to Honolulu. Last month, Hawaiian sent us an email saying that the flight time was being pushed up to 9:25PM. It's recommended to get to the airport 3 hours before your flight, but this would have been a challenge. Traffic starts to build up around 5PM, and it usually takes an hour to get to the airport from Gwanak-gu without traffic and probably around an hour and a half with traffic. I decided to be safe rather than sorry, so I left Gwanak-gu around 4:15 and arrived at the airport around 5:15. I used the Kakao Taxi app to get a ride to the airport, and it was 60,000 won. My taxi driver showed up within 5 minutes. There was no way I was going to take the subway to the airport because I had so much luggage with me. When I got to the airport, I had to wait around a bit because the Hawaiian Airlines counter did not open until 5:40. Luckily, there were lots of those carts to hold luggage for free. At the check in counter, I dropped off my luggage and they also checked my COVID test results. They also gave a CDC attestation to fill out. I went through security and immigration, where they collected my ARC. Since the flight was pretty late, a lot of the restaurants were closed. I ended up eating Paris Baguette, but I got fed on the plane about an hour after departure. We also got fed about an hour before landing.
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During my final days of quarantine, I finally finished backing up all of my photos! I also officially registered for my classes. Luckily, I got all of the classes I wanted. I also got food delivered from Yogiyo, and I got bibimbap, a tray of sides, and an omelette with kimchee soup for only 13,500 won (delivery fee included). I've also been living off of salads ordered from Trazy and snacks that I brought from Hawaii. On day 13, I walked to the health center to get COVID test number 2. On my walk, I discovered that there is a park right next to my goshiwon, which I will definitely check out once I'm done with quarantine. I'm really glad that I brought a sponge and dish soap to wash all of the containers from food delivery, as they don't let us throw out our trash until the end of 14 days. Over the 14 days, I drank 20 2L bottles of water...
I haven't been doing much recently. I got to catch up with a few friends back at home, which was nice, and I've still been cleaning out and backing up my photos. Quarantine hasn't been as bad as I thought it was going to be, but looking at my old pictures from trips is really making me want to go outside and explore Korea. I'm not sure if it is a common problem during the hot summers in Korea, but I've been getting bit by mosquitos like crazy, even though I don't open my window.
I've been eating pretty well recently. My goshiwon host was super nice and bought me bibimbap for lunch today. Unlike the bibimbaps I've had in Hawaii, the gochujang sauce was already poured onto the rice, so it was super duper spicy for me. It still tasted good though! I also had a salad from trazy yesterday. Today was supposed to be course registration at 8:30 AM. I had a whole plan laid out in order to get the courses I wanted. However, when I tried logging in at 8:25 AM, their website wasn't working, and I started to worry. We later got an email stating that the website was overloaded, and course registration is being moved to the 17th (instead of the 13th). For today's registration, it was a first come first served basis for all students. Basically, thousands of students are trying to access the website at the same time, so I am not surprised that it crashed.
I placed a grocery order last night, which came in early this morning via trazy.com once again. I've made three deliveries with Trazy so far, and other than the price, I appreciate the quality and convenience of their service. Because the delivery fee is a flat rate, I try to order as much as possible without having to waste food. For this delivery, I ordered 2 salads, a small loaf of bread, and a carton of soy milk. I haven't been doing anything exciting these past few days. To keep myself busy, I've been cleaning out and backing up all my old photos, as well as doing a few things for my summer internship supervisor. I've been wanting to clean out and back up my photos, and now I finally have all the time in the world to do so. I also had an IBO EB meeting today, so it was nice to catch up with my fellow officers.
I received a quarantine kit from my district health office, which included masks, hand sanitizer, disinfecting spray, and thermometers. It also came with gigantic orange trash bags. I won't be able to take out my trash until the end of 14 days... Prior to them dropping stuff off at my room, someone from the district health office contacted me to ask a few questions. In addition, I've been doing 2 daily check ins via Korea's Quarantine app. I ate my first Jeju tangerine, and it was pretty good (definitely not worth the price though). It was much sweeter than the cuties that I would buy from Costco back at home. Because they're not taking trash out until the end of 14 days, I'm freezing the skin and other food waste so it doesn't stink up my room. I've been eating the food I ordered the other day, as well as the snacks I brought from back home. For the past few days, I have been living off of snacks and musubis my sister made for me at home, but today I finally decided to order food. I wanted to use one of the Korean delivery apps like Coupang, Yogiyo, or Shuttle, but I had problems with all of them. Coupang said my credit card number was invalid, Yogiyo was all in Korean (and I can't read), and Shuttle doesn't do delivery to my area.
I ended up using a website called trazy.com. I'm not really sure how Trazy operates, but I ordered a pizza from Papa Johns. My pizza was delivered within 30 minutes, but they gave me the wrong pizza! And, the worst part of it was that I paid a whopping $30 for it. Overall, the pizza was just like the one back at home, and it came with the amazing garlic butter... and in Korea, it comes with pickles! In addition, I ordered fruits to be delivered the next morning. I ordered two fruit bowls, a pound of bananas, and a pound of Jeju tangerines, and it was around $30. The best part about Trazy is being able to pay with my Costco Visa and their website being in English. Luckily, the day that I arrived counted as the first day of quarantine. I didn't get to my goshiwon until 11:30PM and spent an hour unpacking my stuff. I have to do 2 symptom check ins everyday via the app I downloaded at the airport.
On the second day of my quarantine, I got to go outside! Since my flight came in rather late the night before, the testing centers were already closed, and I was required to get tested the next day. Since the Gwanak Health Center is really close to where I am staying (<.5 miles), I decided to walk there right when it opened (9AM on weekends). When I got there, there was a super long line wrapping around the building, and I ended up waiting for an hour. I brought my passport and phone with me. While waiting in line, there was a QR code to scan with a form to fill out with quarantine contact information (phone number and address). The COVID test was extremely painful! I am not allowed to leave my room until day 13 to take my second COVID test, so it was nice to get some fresh air today. Honolulu Airport
I booked the direct flight from Honolulu to Incheon on Hawaiian. Typically, Hawaiian allows you to do an online check in 24 hours before your flight, but I kept getting an error message when trying to do so. I got to the airport early, and I tried to check in on the kiosk, which didn't work as well. One of the workers ended up getting me checked in. She looked at my passport, visa, and COVID test result, and after reviewing those documents, she was able to print my boarding pass and baggage tags. After getting my boarding pass and dropping off my bags, I headed over to the TSA line, which took a really long time. Plane Ride The plane ride from Honolulu to Seoul was about 10 hours long. I got fed three times throughout the flight, and all of the food was pretty good. The flight attendants also came around a couple of times for drink service. The plane had free entertainment (movies, music, and games), as well as a USB charger! This was super helpful because you need your phone at the Incheon Airport. On the plane, the flight attendants give you four forms to fill out before landing. You will be needing these forms when you arrive at Incheon. It is helpful to have your passport number, address of quarantine, and quarantine contact information during quarantine easily accessible on a sheet of paper. I put those four documents, COVID test result, and passport into a folder for easy access at the airport. Incheon Airport After 10 long hours, we finally arrived at the Incheon Airport around 7PM! When we first got there, there was an insanely long line of people waiting. The first line that you wait in is for the workers to check your negative COVID PCR test result. Once that is checked, they put a sticker on your passport. While waiting in the next line, they instruct you to download the self-quarantine app to monitor symptoms during your 14 day quarantine (there is wifi at the airport to download the app). Then, one of the workers will give you instructions on what to do with the self-quarantine app and procedures throughout your quarantine. The final line that you wait in is for immigration. After immigration, I went to grab my checked baggage. Lastly, I was guided to the taxi booth. I had some trouble communicating with the worker who was trying to arrange a taxi. She told me that goshiwons are illegal for quarantine, but the host of the place told me it is okay for me to stay there. I told her she can call the host, but the worker ended up letting me ride a taxi. The taxi ride to the Gwanak area was a flat rate of 80,000 won, and my driver accepted card (Visa) as a form of payment. After 3.5 hours of filling out forms and waiting in lines at the airport, I was finally on my way to quarantine at my goshiwon! The workers at the Incheon Airport didn't speak English very well, and I didn't exactly know what forms to give them. It is pretty safe to always hand them your passport and the forms you filled out on the plane. There is a currency exchange at the airport, but by the time I got through all the lines, it was closed. I'm not sure if there were any bathrooms while waiting in line, so I used the bathroom right before the plane landed. |
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