hej bea

And so I’m finally back in Seoul again! This time my flight trip went pretty fast actually. First it was from Kastrup to Qatar, and I ended up beside a woman heading for Nepal (I kind of sneak peeked, but she had this paper on the tray saying “on my way to Nepal!”). And it was pretty random, because this woman had in fact asked me about those automatic check-in stations – if I knew how to use them (I didn’t). And so she ends up right next to me.

To my big disappointment I did not get any vegetarian food onboard (my fault, probably forgot to submit this info when getting a new ticket). At least there wasn’t any meat in the lasagna I got. But the woman next to me (that was going to Nepal) was also vegetarian (obviously) got her vegetarian food. And so when the steward asked me if I wanted lasagna or vegetarian, I said vegetarian. So she looked, but then said there were no vegetarian options left. I insisted that I ordered vegetarian, but said that the only vegetarian food ordered was for the Nepal woman. So I got an awkward lasagna. It was good! But I sure did feel stupid.

A few hours later the attendants were back with tea and coffee, and I already knew what I was having (tea). They were getting closer, and sat prepared to say what I want. But then she asks the Nepal woman first, and of course she’s also having tea. And so, it was my turn. The Nepal woman is watching. I suddenly feel like a goddamn copy cat. The steward leans in with a tray of mugs but also different tiny packages that I don’t know what they contain, hence I only drink my tea as it is without anything to it. But since she actually indeed puts the effort into leaning in to reach us with her tray, I quickly take an unknown package, realising in the act that it was not a teabag but instead milk. The tea was already prepared. The Nepal woman did the same thing, and so I once again felt stupid for copying her – by accident. The entire situation felt weird so I quickly poured the milk in the tea with a lot of sugar (no it wasn’t good at all) and drank it very quickly before the Nepal woman even had the time to have a first sip of her cup. The situation all of a sudden felt much better. I was in control.

We landed in Doha about seven hours later, only to realise that I would not be able to wear my fat down jacket with courage. I managed to fold it down into my already full backpack, which I was pretty tired of carrying by now already. Only a few hours until next flight to my destination, so I decided to waste some time in the taxfree shops. However, this airport is a bit annoying to me because people stare a lot. I’m tall and pale and feel like a monkey at a zoo. This time I didn’t even show any skin (unlike last time when I only had a top and short shorts; walking past a hoarde of thawb wearing men I thought they were going to get torticollis)!

I went to my gate, standing with all the Koreans that were going back home. I couldn’t be a part of their society either. They were probably wondering if I was lost. At least they don’t stare so it’s obvious.

While on the plane I felt so lucky to have achieved a golden window seat. And as the minutes passed by and people were getting their seats, the two seats next to me were still empty. Was I going to get even more lucky, not having any neighbours this time? No. The answer was no, when suddenly a tiny little wrinkly old man stood by my row, looking at me. He greeted me and I immediately got the feeling that he was one of those happy types that tries to chat up everyone. So I tried to avoid even looking in his direction, to the side, because if I did I knew it would be too late. And I was right about that, because once I accidentally looked his way – he jumped at the chance of talking to me. Within seconds I found out that he was from Yemen, and a bunch of other stuff which I failed to comprehend because of his accent. I just did what I do best – nod and smile (and pretend to be listening). But I didn’t want to be rude, so I engaged in this so called conversation for a couple of minutes, giving him only short answers. I was praying that someone would come and interrupt us – this never happened though – but then I suddenly came up with the genius idea to pretend to be sleeping (it worked). I’m Swedish so I don’t indulge in small talk – if I do it’s extremely awkward and my soul leaves my body.

And so, I did eventually fall asleep, conveniently waking up before each meal only to fall asleep again after them. In total the flight felt like only two hours!

“Bea I’m so sorry I can’t pick you up at the airport today…”, said the message from my Korean friend. So I didn’t expect him to be standing and waiting for me – but he was. He just fooled me, like he loves to do for some reason. Now the bus trip to Seoul won’t be so boring, yay!