Adventure begins in Seoul, Korea

Here I am in Seoul, Korea, amazed at the reality of being transferred many thousands of miles via machines weighing hundreds of tons at altitudes of thousands of feet. My father, born in 1888, had difficulty envisioning himself in an airplane let alone on a trip going halfway around the world. Yet five miles above the earth on a well-calculated trajectory in tons of well designed and cleverly engineered alloys, aluminum, plastic, and I don't know what else, I was diligently propelled at 550 miles per hour toward my destination. And in bright sunshine all the while.
It had been 0530 Pacific Daylight Time, June 18, 2005, when I woke in Richland, state of Washington, USA, to make last minute preparations for the flight. That was : breakfast, dish washing, disposal of garbage, retrieve Email, upload a document to http://www.nwr.mcnary.wa.us because the reptiles for July second Saturday event shouldn't have to wait an eminent announcement until I returned.
I received a wonderful welcome at the ww05 reception desk in the Seoul airport where I was hustled to a taxi driven by a native Korean, speaking no English but had explicit instructions as to my destination. However, the campus of Ewha University was daunting to the driver with uphill curves and wrong turns. He valiantly persevered by asking directions from several campus policemen who weren't certain where Hanwoori dormitory was either. Even in the foggy dark during those roundabout moments I could tell it was a beautiful campus.
I settled into my dorm room after that hour long, 50,000-Won ($49.61 USD) taxi ride at 2100 hours in the Korean time zone on June 19, 2005.
Time and my reality flies when I'm having fun!
Naomi Sherer