My Last Day

My last day in the country felt like I had all the time in the world, leisurely, full of good food and good people. My mother, her friend Laurie (who we were staying with in Santa Barbara), and I met up with Laurie’s daughters, who are both a bit older than me. I ordered a Charlotte Raspberry trifle, a cup of tea, and a single scrambled egg for protein (because my mother insisted I have protein in my meal.) The trifle was absolutely melt in your mouth, strawberry mousse, angel cake, raspberry jam center. Ummmmm…

From there, we said goodbye to Alissa and Hayley, and went back to the house to pack my stuff into the car. I sucked it up and called AT&T to cancel my plan—and incidentally incur the $135 early termination fee—and was shocked to learn from the customer service department that, since I was actually moving to a foreign country and that was the reason I could not keep up my phone plan, they would reverse the penalty charge upon receiving proof of residency in the foreign country. Yeah, I’m definitely going to come back to them once I come home.

AT&T- 5 Stars

Travelocity—1 Star

Yeah, so, when I booked my flight, they’d checked the Travel Protection Plan automatically, and I didn’t realize in time. By the time I settled things on Monday, they informed me all they could do was provide me a $25 voucher for a future hotel. Great.
Oh, well, live and learn. We then said our goodbye to Laurie and headed for Los Angeles.

I picked up my passport and visa with virtually no hassle from the Korean Consulate, which left my mother and I hours to kill in L.A. She wanted to go to Venice Beach. It was dinnertime, so we found a lovely little Italian place which let us customize our order (the waiter said the portions were huge and we should split one). Decided on a linguine limone with shrimp, Portobello mushrooms, and asparagus. The sauce tasted like alfredo with lemon zest. Must try at home sometime. The waiter said the trick was to grate the lemon directly over the cream sauce, in order to capture all of the lemon oil released through the grating.

Because the airport is only a ten-minute drive from Venice Beach (with no traffic), we relaxed in the car and watched the sunset and typed out more of my mother’s travel blog on Zion.

Airport highlights: 1) Bought apple juice that tasted just like eating a fresh apple and cost $3.25, 2) Was able to drink said apple juice even though I forgot it was in my bag when I went through security, 3) Memory blanked when going through security for second time after drinking juice and could not remember being given back box of stuff they’d taken from me to inspect (dangerous items like my two silver Fisher Space pens). I freaked out, then found the pens and calmed down. 4) Arrived at Seoul, thirteen hours later, only to find out my transfer was at another airport a half hour away. Discovered this with an hour left before my flight. 5) Domestic airport security panicked over my mace, which I probably shouldn’t have packed, and I never use, but always carry. Figured since I shipped it under wouldn’t be a problem. They thought it was hair spray, but still called over about a dozen officials.

But at the end of it all, my co-teacher, dressed in a bright pink coat, picked me up and all was good.