Traveling to the US from Korea with an Infant...

So, Cara and I just finished the trek from Incheon Int'l Airport ROK to Denvier Int'l Airport, and it was a lot harder than it should be.

First, we got a ride to the Local bus terminal and got to ride in comfort to Incheon airport, and got on the bus, and was pretty nice ride. Once we got to the airport, and tried to check in, everything got difficult. First, we wanted to verify that we had an infant seat that would allow us to put Lizzie in a bassinet. When we did that, the ticketing agents found out that we hadn't paid for our infant ticket yet (which we knew). Then, when we showed them our passports, they noticed that Lizzie's Passport didn't have a Visa stamp and became worried. We got kinda annoyed cause Korea states that if our child is going to be in the country for more than 30 days, we have to get him/her a SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) stamp. Lizzie was only in country (out of the womb at least) for 21 days, so there shouldn't have been a problem. But even after explaining all of this, we still had to go to customs. On top of that, the office that would let us purchase the ticket was closed for lunch, so we had to call them to see when they were opened.

When we get to the Customs office, the line is rather ridiculous, and I end up changing Lizzie's diaper, and Cara had to feed her. We finally get called up, and show the Customs agent official Lizzie's passport. He looks at it a little strange at first, and then exlaims "No Problem!" He writes some Hangeul on the a scratch piece of paper and then staples it to the passport. We head over to the Delta office and get the infant ticket and then have to change Lizzie again on the way out of the Delta office. As we're heading back to the ticketing counter, we walk past a lot of Korean Flight Attendants. As they see Cara and Lizzie, they start to making the adorable "awww" sound as only women can do. So, in an effort to prevent a scene, we let them look at the baby. They were very happy about it. We finally head back to our ticketing agent (who has been waiting this entire time for us...wow...) and get everything squared away and head to the international security area.

When we get there, they ask where I'm going, I say US, and they hand me a set of sandals to wear that are like 5 sizes too small, while my shoes go through security. The koreans behind me chuckle as they see the shoes are not coming close to fitting. I take all of my electronics out (video camera & laptop) and and wait for my laptop back to get cleared. Well the guy scanning sends my bag through like 5 or 6 times, and keeps taking things out of my bag in the process. I know I have no scissors, nor anything flammable, so I wonder what's going on. Finally, he pulls out what he's looking for. I had a set of hex tool bits for a ratchet screwdriver with a phillips head bit on it. The phillips head bit was pretty sharp, and thus considered it gone. I apologize to the agent for bringing the phillips head bit out, but soon find out that the reason he pulled that out, was because they were tools. Grr... I can't stab anyone with those, nor can I use them on anything. I think someone misread the guidelines. But what do I know.

So we're finally through customs, and we hurry over to our gate cause we want to pre-board. When we arrive at the gate, I see the economy line is verrrrry long. So I walk to the gate agents to try and explain we have a baby, but they wave me to the Business Class line with out hesitation. Sweeeet. As we're walking down the Personnel Bridge (sorry, Jetway is a copyrighted company), we look for the gate check people. We don't see them, so we keep walking... and walking...and enter the plane. The ladies end up taking of stuff and storing it in the over head compartments. I never knew 747s had that much over head storage space.

Oh, I forgot to mention earlier that Cara and I couldn't get seated together cause there was only one bulkhead seat left. So we figured we'd try our luck with the bartering system. As I'm sitting, Cara tells me to come back to the front of the plane and we'll try and negotiate the seat switch. So as I get back to our seat, Cara asks the Korean Air Flight attendant to ask the lady sitting in the seat next to Cara, if she will switch with Me (Will). So the Flight attendant starts speaking english to the lady. That kind of startles me, since you'd figure she'd speak in Korean. I look at the flight attendants nametag, and... Oh! She's Japanese! That's not gonna work. Then a gentleman behind starts to translate the whole thing for us. Then the lady speaks. But it's not English, Japanese or Korean... wait... is that..? Yes! That's Chinese! Holy Cow! So, basically, she figures out what we're asking, and agrees. We find out later that the seat she was in wasn't the right one... but then later find out that everything was fine.

Partway through the flight, we have the bassinets installed in the seats in front of us. They are super nice cause it lets us put Lizzie to sleep without have to hold her the whole time. The downside is that they are engineered for people shorter than 6'4" (me) and thus, I had no leg room in part cause of the bulk head seat, but also cause of the bassinet. Dude... That was a long flight.


After that, everything became smoother. We got to LAX, went to customs, and changed Lizzies diaper. Then went through customs, sent to the back of the line for filling our paperwork in purple, went to the next customs agent, and interrupted his coffee break (he was a little disappointed, we could tell, but to his credit, he put his coffee away and got to work). Turns out that Lizzie was the youngest person he'd ever seen go through customs. We get our luggage, clear customs, recheck our luggage, and head to the terminal. Security this time is a breeze, and get to our gate, wait, and then board the aircraft. I get an exit row seat, and immediately pass out (I hadn't had any sleep since we took off from Seoul), and Cara ends up getting a seat with no one next to her. We land at Denver, get our luggage, and then get to the rental car place. We get upgraded for free and get to drive a Chevy Equinox .. its a nicer SUV than we were supposed to get (Kia Sportage...[I came to America to see something besides Hyundai & Kia...]).

We get on the road, and immediately notice that there is no traffic, parking spots are larger, and there's a whole lot of variety when it comes to the cars on the road. But I digress. Cara pulls out the directions for our hotel, and it states: Get off at Colorado Blvd at exit 226, take a left, and the hotel is on the right. Well, as she says that, we pass Exit 283. Either that's not right, or... that's not good... As it turns out, they meant exit 276. Whew. So we get off the highway, and turn left... and start looking on our right. And keep looking on our right... and keep looking. We figured we've been led down a bad path, so we stop and get a map, and ask for directions. Turns out we were on the right path, but no one mentioned how far south from the Highway the hotel was. So we keep driving... and driving... and driving.. and Yay! There it is! So we park, check-in, and start to relax. Ahhh.....

3 Weeks

According to the Korean ladies, today is the first day Lizzie should be allowed to leave the house. I heard about this several times each time we went out previously, the first being when we brought her to church at 4 days old. A Korean lady I know came up and said, "she can be out?", told me that in Korea babies don't leave the house until 3 weeks, and then justified it to herself because the weather was nice. Since then, many Koreans have told me she is too young to be out, and look at me dissaprovingly. Though, in Starbucks when she was 9 days old, a Korean asked me how old she was, and then whispered, "when my daughter was 9 days old, we went to a movie!"

I don't think I've ever seen a "little" Korean baby. I see many larger ones, who seem to be around 6mo old and up, but never a small one. I wonder what they do while they're hiding?

The interesting thing is, when I carry her in the Maya wrap, I don't get any comments! Maybe they think she's older, or that it's ok because she's bundled close. Not sure.



One thing I do know, I couldn't have stayed in the house for 3 weeks. Not counting the doctor's appointment we had to go to, the paperwork processing we had to do to get that appointment, and the forms I had to turn in for leave, all of which required me to leave the house, I wouldn't have been able to stay without going stir-crazy! My trips to Starbucks in between errands were lovely, and walks around the neighborhood are a good way to get out and get some exercise.

But, in honor of Lizzie being allowed to leave the house, we'll go to the US :-)

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Some things about Lizzie:

-she gets really really excited when it's time to eat
-she likes to try to 'inch' around, especially when she's laying on mommy or daddy, and gets mad when she can't (usually because she's run into something)
-she sleeps best wrapped up and in her bed
-she doesn't like her car seat very much, and won't sleep in it unless we're on a long road trip, but when we stop she wakes up
-she enjoys snuggling
-she likes to look around and watch shadows and faces, and sometimes we're not sure what she's watching
-her eyes get real big when she's close to something she wants to see, and she sometimes leans sideways to keep watching something
-she likes to be lifted high
-she doesn't want to be laying down if she's awake, she'd much rather be held vertically
-she hates diaper changes
-when she poops, it's really loud
-after she poops loud, she makes a cute, high-pitched "eh" sound
-she doesn't like wet diapers at all, even if they are just a tiny bit damp, but she will sit in a poopy one for quite awhile
-she likes to lay over a shoulder (in the 'burp' position)
-her fingers are super long and she likes to grab (she likes to hold mommy's finger when she eats)
-she sucks on her hands, and is learning about her thumb. she gets it about 1/3 of the time now
-she gets mad if she can't have access to her hands (i.e. don't wrap them up inside her blanket)
-she makes a super-cute pouty face right before she's about to cry
-her 'reflex' smile is adorable, mommy and daddy can't wait for the real ones
-she acts surprised when daddy blows air puffs at her
-she looks super cute in a fruffle

USA or Bust...

Except, that the only thing keeping me from the US is our plane crashing into the ocean or something. But tomorrow we go back to the US. We leave from 인천국제공항--that is Incheon Int'l Airport, get to LA the same time we left Korea (traveling across the int'l date line screws with my head sometimes...) From there we get to go to Denver, and then DC and then into North Dakota. So I finally have the opportunity to drive on large open roads and such. And don't worry, gas won't phase us, we're paying $4.19/gal here on base. However, its like $1.80/liter [$6.80/gal] on the Korean economy, so, I'm still not complaining...much. Well, it will be good to be back in the US. I wonder how much has changed since the last time I was there? (Sept '07 for a friends wedding). We shall see. But, please pray for Cara and I to have a safe trip!

Picasa!

I tried out Google's photo organizing program yesterday, called Picasa, and I must say it is the coolest one I have seen - and totally free. There is a program to download which makes it super easy to see and organize all the photos already on my computer, and I can select the ones I want to make a web album, then on the website it's really quick to organize and caption them. I made 4 albums during Lizzie's nap yesterday! Check them out, http://picasaweb.google.com/wills.carebear. There is a collection of Lizzie photos, our spring trip to the Garden of Morning Calm, and our vacations to Thailand and Vietnam.