Coping with a 10-hour Time Change: The Results

Before I left, I wrote about my plan for dealing with the big time change between Ontario and Seoul.

This is what happened. As per my plan, I was able to stay awake the night before I left. I watched some movies and ate some food. I wasn't really even that tired as the sun came up while I was waiting at the Toronto Airport (after my wonderful experience with Air Canada).

The problems with my plan began when my flight to Vancouver started. Though I was very tired, I was unable to sleep due to the uncomfortableness of the plane (my knees were literally pinned against the seat in front of me). I rested for the whole flight, but never really fell asleep. The same went for the longer flight to Seoul.

Needless to say, I was pretty tired when I arrived. We landed early evening (it was about 5:30pm) and after a dinner out (more on that in a later post) and a brief stop to show us where the school is, we got in around 9pm. We slept right away but woke up pretty early (3:30 or so).

Within a few days, I was fully adjusted to the time difference and I feel that my plan was successful in that regard. The problems arose the first full day we were in Seoul. We went into work for some orientation stuff and to meet some children and the staff. Having not gotten a lot of sleep in the two days prior (or however long it was - but it was much longer than 24 hours), I was more sleep deprived than I have ever been. I had dizzy spells throughout the day and often had to sit down.

Luckily, everyone understood how I was feeling and I wasn't asked to do much that day.

After getting a good night's sleep that night I felt much better.

In conclusion, my plan would have worked near perfectly had I been able to sleep on the plane. However, I should have anticipated that problem and tried to find some other way to get some sleep. If you are planning to do a time change such as this, make sure you can sleep on a plane.

I don't think the big time change is as difficult as it seems to be, though I went through much more trouble before I left than when I got here.

A Tale of Two Airlines

To get to Seoul, I took two flights and two different airlines: Air Canada and Korean Air. I cannot begin to explain how different the two experiences were for me.

The story starts in Toronto's Terminal One at the Air Canada check-in counter. For those of you who have never been to this place, it is a cavernous room that looks much like a futuristic spaceport. You have to check-in with a computer which was not as clear as I would have hoped. Then you have to get in line and drop your baggage off. This is where things got interesting. The lady at the counter weighed my stuff (it was heavy) and asked for all of my documents. She asked if I was working in Korea (yes) and then asked if I had documents for that (yes, and I showed her). Then she asked when I was coming back (I didn't know). She said I needed a return ticket in order to be let into the country, or I needed a contract to prove I had a job (even though I had a one-year work visa). She disappeared for about 5 minutes (to check with a manager perhaps, though it was never clearly stated) and when she came back she said I would definitely have to go buy a return ticket (about $800-900) before they could let me check in. I called my recruiter (it was about 6:30am) and she thought – as I did – that this was not quite right. I went to the ticket counter so she could talk to them on the phone (they refused to) and they continued to tell me I needed buy a ticket from them. Keep in mind, I wasn't actually flying to Korea with them. I was just flying to Vancouver. Eventually I convinced someone to let me fly to Vancouver and pick up my bags there instead of having my bags get put on the plane to Seoul. Thus, saving me almost $1000. I did have overweight bags and had to pay $100 extra for them (which is fair, considering they probably have to spend more on fuel for the extra weight).

Things didn't get much better after that with Air Canada. The plane was cramped and whenever the guy in front of me put his chair back he pinned my legs against my chair and I couldn't open up my tray (if you don't know me, I have short legs and this never happens to me). The guy beside me was pretty close to me as well. I was very tired, and I was trying to sleep the whole flight but it wasn't possible in that situation. There was no food service and we only got two drinks (no snacks!). We were also delayed for almost an hour waiting for passengers who were coming from another flight. The upside was that the flying time was about a half hour quicker than what we were told so I was not quite as late as I could have been getting into Vancouver.

Contrast that with Korean Air. When Alex and I originally checked in we did not have seats together, but the airline was nice enough to find us two seats together by the time we boarded the plane. I only had to pay $70 extra for my overweight baggage (for a flight that was more than twice as long). The seats were wider and had much more leg room. We got two large meals (both Korean food, which was nice, even though I didn't really know what I was eating).

We even got snacks with our drinks (honey roasted peanuts!). Overall, even though the second flight took almost 11 hours, it was by far the more enjoyable flight. If only I could have flown with them (or West Jet) from Toronto to Vancouver, I would have had a much better journey

But as my sister said: if the worst part comes at the beginning (Air Canada trying to steal my money) then the rest of the trip will be easy. And it was.

For those of you wondering, we didn't actually go over the Pacific Ocean to get to Korea. We went North over Alaska, the Bering Straight and then Russia (but we did not fly over North Korea for some reason). It was mostly ice and not much else, but it did make for some nice views of mountains.

Note: I should also mention that Air Canada told us that the ticket we would have to buy would be refundable. Personally I did not believe that it would be, but I would have made sure of it and gotten guarantees in writing from the workers. I just wanted to make sure I added that clarification to my account of the events of February 27^th.

Arrived in Seoul

It took two flights and more than 15 hours in the air, but I have finally arrived in Seoul. I have been here for less than 24 hours and I'm still trying to find my bearings and deal with what seems to be a huge sleep deficit from my "plan."

Currently I have no internet in my apartment, but I am able to do some things quickly at school here (yes, I am working less than 24 hours after I crossed halfway around the world) on the internet.

Hopefully I will get an internet connection at home and then I can post stuff from my laptop (and some pictures).

Lots of stories about my journey will also be coming as it was definitely an event-filled trip.

Final Thoughts Before Departure

In approximately 3 hours I leave my house for the Toronto Airport. I thought I would share my thoughts at this time.

For starters, in roughly the next 30 hours I will be present on two flights which both will be longer than any other flight I have ever been on (continuously). Being cooped up in a tiny metal tube for so long is likely to be one of the least exciting things I have done (though I was on a train for 74 hours once with only a few breaks and that was pretty neat). About 30 minutes into my second flight I will be farther from where I grew up than I have ever been before. Then I have 11 hours more to fly.

Big changes are not new to me. Every time my life changed (usually because of a new school - though you could argue this is a new school for me too) I have enjoyed the change and have become a different person. After these moments pass it is often hard to look back and understand why I was the way I was. I think that sometime very soon I will experience one of those moments. Life will never be the same.

Change is never easy, even if it is for the best - and this certainly is better than my current situation. Change is even harder when you're not completely sure of what to expect.

On some level I do have some expectations, but most of those are vague. One thing I do know is that the distance from home is likely to be the easier adjustment than my way of life. I am not worried though. What I consider normal circumstances has changed so much even in the last few years that I think I could adjust to almost anything. The speed of this adjustment, however, will likely be a shock to me.

I want to go into this with an open mind and a sense of adventure and exploration (that being said, I won't kid myself: I am not a traiblazer by teaching in Korea; I am following in the footsteps of thousands of others).

It is because of all the above reasons that I have been alternating between excited and scared out of my mind. There are so many unknowns and that is both thrilling and terrifying. I am certainly glad I am not doing this alone (well, I am getting to Vancouver all by myself, but that's easy - I've been there before).

For better or for worse I want to look back on my decision to teach in Korea as a wise decision. No matter how bad it could be or how great a time I have, I will not regret trying. I'd rather know this one slice of life than wonder what it's like.

So here's to big changes and doing what you want to do. Here's to living.

See you on the flip side...

Coping with a 10-Hour Time Change: The Plan

Since I decided to teach in Korea, I've known I would have to face a 10-hour time change (well, it would have been 7 had I left from Victoria, but I'm not there right now). With this change looming in a few days I thought I would share my strategy.

Since Korea is behind us (well to be completely accurate, they are ahead, but it's less of a change to make the change this way), all I have to do is gradually stay up later until I have adjusted. This seems easy enough except for a few reasons, the biggest being that if I were to get up at 8am Seoul time, that would be 6pm for me here. Since I have a lot to do during the days here, this was not an option. My flight also poses some challenges for me in that I leave early in the morning for Vancouver (see my flight plan in a previous post).

I have been staying up as late as I can the last few days and trying to sleep in as late as I can. I've been able to stay up until 3:30am so far and am going to try for 4:00 or 4:30 tonight. The plan for tomorrow night is not to go to sleep at all, until I get on my plane in Toronto at 8:30. Hopefully I will be konked out for the entire 5+ hours of that flight. That will leave me waking up around 3am Seoul time. If I nap on the second flight, I should be able to get into a normal pattern. So far the plan has gone well (except me waking up earlier than I would like and being pretty bored late at night).

We'll see if this works well. I probably have to do a lot in Seoul this weekend (like figure out how to get to work, where to buy food, etc.).

Stay tuned to see if my plan works or if I fall asleep at the gate in Toronto and miss my flight to Vancouver.

Flights Are Booked!

I have my flights!

According to the itinerary sent to me by my good friends at Canadian Connection, I will depart from Toronto Airport on Wednesday February 27th at 8:30am. I land in Vancouver at 10:40am (local time). I then have an almost 3 hour wait in Vancouver (I've had worse) for my 1:30pm flight to Seoul-Incheon Airport where I will arrive on Thursday at 6:00pm (local time, which is 8:00am in Ontario).

There is much to do in the next couple of days, and I'm sure you'll hear all about it.

Note: the flights are assuming I get my visa from Toronto by the time I leave. With the consulate website being down at the moment, I am a bit worried.