Arrival in Korea

Hi everyone ~ Figured I'd start blogging about my life in Korea for those interested.

So I left Skew's house around 6am PST, arrived at the airport at 7AM super tired as all hell, because I tried pulling an all-nighter to sleep throughout the flight to Korea. Then towards the end I got so tired but Skew wouldn't let me take a 1hr nap -_____-;.

Anyway so I arrived at PHX airport, only to be stopped by the supervisor of my airline and told that I can't enter Korea without a return ticket. So I asked if I could just buy a ticket there now, or have someone buy it for me online. She gave me a scare of a bit trying to tell me I couldn't get on the plane etc. After some phone call to someone (I assume higher up) I was told I'd be allowed on the plane, but that South Korea would probably not let me through.

So I go to wait for my plane, and it's only 7:30AM, my plane leaves at 10:30 AM (there was no later shuttle to pick me up -__-; yay for 3hrs without wifi or anything.) Finally my plane keeps getting delayed and delayed and delayed, all the way back to 11:45AM. I was then told I wouldn't be able to make my connecting flight from San Francisco to Seoul and that the next available flight would be in about 26hrs. Told the lady I can run from the plane to the next if it's an issue (there was a 10minute timing window), and she gave me the okay but told me I probably wouldn't make it.

So I sit there for 3hrs talking to some old lady about her travels around the world and other stuff, and some kid (probably 17 or so) constantly asking me about my laptop and why I was playing such an old/stupid game (Warcraft:II).

Finally I get on the plane to SFO, and a person at the very front of first class gives up their seat for me, so that I could run as soon as the plane landed (this old guy was a baller). Was then later informed he is like a regular on these flights, and he passed the 1million flight miles.. 35years ago (he was 92). As soon as the plane lands, I literally dash as fast as I can to the international walkway and through security, only to hear my name called over the speakers for "Final calling for Nicholas De Cesare, flight SQ15 to Seoul". So yeah, I barely made it by like 2minutes. Sick life.

The flight sucks, severely. I managed to fall asleep for 10minutes before take off, and woken up by the hostess or whatever, only to have full energy and be no longer tired. Yay life. So I try to struggle to sleep for like 2hrs, doesn't work. The plane doesn't even have wifi. Awesome. And then theres this really old korean lady trying to talk to me about stuff I couldn't understand.

Anyway after about 2.5hrs of just staring out the window and eating whatever little stuff they offered me, I finally realized the TV in front of my seat had a shit ton of movies on it, for free. So during the flight I watched: Thor, Inglorious Bastards, Insidious, Scream 4, and Hall Pass. The even watched some True Blood, which was also on the TV thingy.

Finally I start looking out the window during the last 1.5hrs, and see Japan beneath the plane, was really an amazing sight to see so many chains of islands with so much civilization going on, on them. Then about 30minutes later, we start to see the edge of South Korea. A wave of emotions start hitting my body, for so many years I dreamed of coming to this country, and then for the last 7months before July, I was entirely against it. But then I started seeing the small hills/mountains and all the gigantic buildings/beaches/etc, and thinking to myself "This is where they all live." (in reference to past Bonjwas, current legends, top progamers, etc.) I was really excited to land at this point.

Finally I did land, and it took no less than 5minutes to get off the plane. I followed some Canadian people around because the Mom spoke Korean, so it was an easy guide around the airport. I made it through customs no problem, same with immigration, they didn't even ask me anything, just looked at my stuff and let me pass (sigh of relief).

Finally I go over to the HanaBank window or w/e and convert some USD to KRW, and then walk through the gates to "Arrival"/etc where all the people are waiting. There I see the ProS house coach/owner and MVP_Yoshua(?) waiting with a sign. Luckily the coach speaks a bit of English, so we communicated a bit. I was surprised to see MVPGalaxy(now Gosugamers`galaxy) wasn't with them, since we're good friends online. Anyhow they asked if I was hungry, but really I was just tired. So we took a taxi back to the house, and went up to the 24th floor of the apartment. The sight out of all the windows was absolutely beautiful, I couldn't even describe it, seeing all the street lights/cars/etc and all the landscape in the background.

After taking off my shoes and walking through the door, I was in the "computer area" and it was just like the photos I've seen from other houses. Absolutely huge/wide with computers and cubicles lining the walls and a plain hardwood floor in the very middle w/ tables (for eating). All the Koreans turned/etc to look at me/etc as I set my stuff down. I went up to Galaxy who was in a game, rocked his chair and told him he was chobobabo, which sparked everyone to start laughing at him/etc. He just responded "Oh, haha, Hi Nick."

MVPLeader(now xSixPeGaSus), Galaxy, and Coach Nim (what everyone calls him) helped me set everything down and set up my cubical near Treef's cubical.

They immediately asked me to start playing people in the house and everyone gathered around me/whoever I was playing to see how the games went. I lost game one, but then won game two and three, against who was supposedly the best Terran in the house (don't know his ID exactly yet, just his name is Kim(?) ). Everyone looked really surprised and then laughter ensued after someone said something. Then Galaxy translated a bit, but mostly we communicated fine using hand/facial expressions. All of the koreans thought it was really cute/funny when I opened google translator to start communicating with them lol.

After that we ate, the Coach ordered some Korean Pizza, and two types of Chicken (one was covered in red sauce, general-tso chicken-esque)

I got laughed at as I tried to use the chopsticks, since I'm super bad with them lol. And everyone started asking questions/trying to talk to me in English the best they could. It felt great, I was then told I'd have a bed right away, and it's basically almost my own room, except Coach Nim and Galaxy also sleep in there, but on the floor. and it has a TV hooked up to the computer w/ AC, and the balcony view. It's so nice.

We watched Boxer vs Yellow together (about 6 of us) and I trolled galaxy constantly about Mech vs Zerg, since he can't beat Mech :D.

Afterwards panic ensued when I realized I had lost my passport, or it was taken. -_-; A few of us searched the house/my clothes/etc and nothing, so now we called the taxi place and asked to check the car etc. (Update on this later, but we're awaiting call back.)

So today I woke up at 6am, got right on the computer and went to ladder, when a few of the Koreans got up and stopped me, insisting I play with them. Just like last night, they had me go round-robin against a T/Z/P in order, and overall were just being really friendly. They too opened up google translator to try to talk to me about the games and say things they think I could've done better/try to explain certain timings in TvP.

Overall the experience is amazing so far, we all walked about a mile earlier to get drinks etc before eating lunch, and it was amazing how many people were on the streets in Korea. (Although it was a bit weird to keep getting looked at because I'm White).

So that's really all for now, have to call my embassy as soon as I'm done posting this regarding my passport lol.

I'll keep updating the blog overtime, and I'll start making videos as well, which will be posted on gosugamers.net

As I promised in my stream thread, I will start streaming games constantly as soon as everything is super settled (get my passport back, and get my own monitor).

That's it for now , and it's so refreshing playing on Korea, as opposed to NA or EU, the level of play is just so much better and I've already had the opportunity to play some pro-gamers. It's really fun to lose and not be able to get away with things I would if I were vs foreigners (blue flame drops get instantly reacted to, instead of me roasting 20scvs before they respond). Overall I'm just happy because I can already feel myself getting better just because the competition level was raised higher.

Thanks ^_^; if you wanna follow more updates then follow me on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/lastshadow9
Or go to my fanpage where I'll update w/ videos/VOD's/stream/etc. : http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ls/114187058679099
Last edit: 2011-08-06 12:37:31