Halfway Around The World
If you were to fly completely around the world, you would cover a distance of about 15,500 miles. So at nearly 7,000 miles apart, the eastern coast of the United States and Seoul, South Korea, are about as far apart as you can get on this planet.
But somehow, just a few days after leaving Washington D.C. (more on that in a later post), I’ve found myself here, in a downtown hotel in Seoul. I’ll be in the city for the next week, as my dad participates in a conference about environmental health.
As you can imagine, it took quite a while to get here. The flight, which left from Chicago, lasted about 15 hours.
It went by faster than I thought it would. The crew was fantastic - frequently bringing by snacks and running to get us wine if we asked (and we did). The food was legitimately very good. And the in-flight entertainment system included about 100 movies and a dozen video games.
I didn’t watch any movies or play any games. I didn’t even sleep very much. Instead, most of our time was spent eating and chatting with the pleasant Korean man sitting next to us. I also read a book (Fahrenheit 451 - yes, I know I’m in 7th grade).
I also did a little bit of thinking. But the key word there is “little” (and “bit,” I guess).
I don’t know about you, but I always think I’m going to spend most of my flight time pondering the world and life. If I have a problem I need to tackle and a flight coming up, I save the thinking for the airplane. Same with long car rides and to some extent, showers.
It never really happens, and I’m not sure why. There are things to do in each of those situations, but they’re more or less automatic at this point. I guess simply living takes up a good chunk of brain power. I think the lesson is to treasure the time you have to think when you do have it.
In this strange city for the next week, I plan to just do that.
Editor’s Note: I promise to update this blog with more regularity as I report on my time in Korea.
