"Words have no wings, but they can travel a thousand miles" (Korean Proverb)

Welcome to Flying Words, Jon and Aileen's blog of our adventures in South Korea! We will be in South Korea for a year, starting in mid-July, teaching English in a private school. We just graduated from college this past May, and are looking forward to having some adventures before continuing our education. 
We started this blog to keep all our family and friends updated and to share our photos and stories. We hope this is entertaining for you! We will miss you all, and are very thankful to have the internet to keep us in touch. 


Friday, May 28, 2010

aaaand I'm back! On a completely different adventure

Another year, another trip. But this time, it's to somewhere I figured I wouldn't get to for awhile: Europe. European vacations always seemed so, well, expensive. And to be honest a little boring. Just not the bang-for-the-buck I'm looking for at this point in my not-so-well-financed, spending-all-my-money-on-education life. When I'm older, I said. When I have a job.

But then I started law school, and got really interested in international criminal law. War crimes prosecutions. Transitional justice. So, when my school offered a month-long study abroad trip to The Hague, The Netherlands, which is the epicenter of international law, I couldn't resist. So I'm not exactly on a European vacation. I'll have classes, and a lot of reading. But I'll still explore. Who needs sleep?

So now I'm in Heathrow Airport in London, on standby because my flight from DC last night had to wait on the runway for 3 hours in a thunderstorm...it was kinda cool! But I was seriously glad we weren't in the air. But I missed my connection to Brussels (that was supposed to be a connection to Amsterdam but British Airways people are on strike so that flight got cancelled), so now I'm on standby for another. Then I can take a train from Brussels to The Hague.

But let me tell you, if you have a choice when flying out of DC, don't fly out of Dulles unless you can afford to not take public transportation. First, you have to go across the whole Metro system including switching at Metro Center which SUCKS at rush hour when I had to do it when you have a suitcase, backpack and garment bag like I did. Also, on the Metro this stupid guy in a suit and carrying a tiny briefcase got on and pointed at the seat next to me, which my backpack and garment bag were on, essentially signalling that he was demanding to sit there. Legitimately, I was taking up 2 seats. But I think there were other seats open and even if there weren't, he can stand up for a few stops! I took my sweet time arranging my stuff and then stood up w/ my backpack on, leaving the other stuff on the seat. Jerk. Then the bus to the airport was about 75% full of commuters going to a park-and-ride lot near the airport (which another bus went to...I overheard them talking)...So the commuters with NO luggage took up all the seat while there were 4-5 of us standing with suitcases and backpacks etc.

Well, I'd better go see if I can get on this flight...wish me luck!!


*UPDATE: I got a seat! Yay! Off to Belgium for a hot minute, then The Hague!